Experience with zoafrag.com

[synaptikus]

Hello everyone,

first of all let me shortly introduce myself. My name is Matthias, I am a reef aquarist from Germany. I have 15 years of experience in the hobby and keep 600 gallons of saltwater with all kind of stuff (SPS, LPS, Softies, Zoas etc.).

The reason why I write here is the following: We –that is a group of 20 reef hobbyists from Germany- decided to order about 70 zoanthid fragments from John of zoafrag.com for around 1500$ in total.

Like written above, I have 600gallons of saltwater and I have received many packages with SPS, LPS, zoas and so one, but my experience with zoafrag.com is truly unique:

-The 70 frags arrived in a package of 5 lb
(to compare: we also ordered about 50 frags at coralfanatics.com, the package had about 30lb, and almost everything survived)

-many of the zoas had a white film on their surface when they arrived and smelled bad

-the frags where not glued to frag stones but just broken off the mother colony. Many of the polyps were so small you could hardly see them without a lens, this means many polyps had about the size of a pinhead when expanded.

-like I expected it, in my case out of the 13 frags I orderd 7 dissolved and 5 partly dissolved during the first couple of days

-The polyps which survived are these kind of pinhead-polyps (see pictures), sometimes with completely different colours than they should have

-one out of the 13 frags has the promised quality (nice colouration, 10 Polyps, normal polyp size, so at least one positive thing)

-other members of the group who also ordered at zoafrag.com had even higher loss rates

Of course, all of us were really disappointed and tried to contact John of zoafrags.com. Here is what happened afterwards:

-email to John and asking for a solution
-John claims to be on holiday for 10 days (but no announcement like this can be found on his website)
-after 10 days email to John and asking for a solution
-no reaction
-next email the other day
-no reaction
-3rd email,
-again no reaction from John
-email where I said I am gonna post my experience with him on the internet
-John answers 30 Minutes later(!) and say that “I am having legal advice” and that “all your emails will be stored”
-again several emails asking for a solution
-again no reaction from John




Finally I have to add that it seems that we are not the only ones who had a bad experience with zoafrag.com, just google for “zoafrag” and “experience”.

Don´t get me wrong, I am not saying this guy will always behave like this, but in our special case he did. 1500$ blown in the wind…



Best regards
Matthias

[DrMark]

A long distance welcome to MAAST. I am sorry you had the trouble you did. There are members here that have similar stories as yours.
A hard lesson to learn.
mark

[ErikH]

Welcome to MAAST. I hate John as well. His reply to me was " I am not Wal-Mart, I am a saltwater fish guy." Sorry for your bad experience, but thanks for sharing.

[synaptikus]

Hey guys,

thanks for reading my long long post:bigsmile:. I think, I have learnt my lesson as well...

Matthias

[Submariner]

Sorry to here about your experience Matthias. Welcome to MAAST we hope it won't be the last time we hear from you. We here love to see pictures, so if you can please post some tank pictures from your group!

As far as zoafrag.com is concerned I will never do business with them. I think your post is exactly the kind of warning that helps protect the rest of us from guys like John.

Vince

[glennr1978]

I don't think I've ever heard of anyone having a good experience with zoafrags. The pics they post make their stuff look to good to be true, which it obviously is!

[BioCube14]

yup order a coral and get another that looks nothing like what yo u ordered

[apedroza]

WELCOME TO MAAST!!!!! Sorry for your troubles. I order from zoafrag and although nothing died, I did notice the coloration was no where near as vivid in person as it was on his website. Probably taken under heavy actinics.

[ismvel]

Agreed. welcome to MAAST.....and ZoaFrag is a great place...TO LOOK AT PRETTY CORALS, but also had a bad experience and didn't receive much of anything I ordered, which all ended up dying....

yeah that place is not on my return business list for sure.

[cpreefguy]

Sorry for your experience, but lets see some pictures of your tank! :D

[LoneStar]

Willkommen zu Maast!

Thank you for sharing your experience....

We all would like to hear about your system and see some photos as well :)

[zcatzmeow]

Wow, really sorry to hear about your experience.

I can report that I've had both a bad and good experience with zoafrag.com. A couple months ago I placed a large order, large enough to meet free shipping requirements. After acclimating in my tank, my zoas developed the white-ish covering as well and many came detached from the frags they were glued to. About half of my order died off within days. (bad)

I contacted John, explained my situation and disappointment but did not ask for a refund of any kind. Much to my surprise he responded quickly and told me that he would replace the ones that had died off. It took some time, but I did receive replacements and most survived after acclimation. (good)

[greatwhite@AlamoAquatics]

that sucks i dont think theres a nicer way to put it , but what can we do , its happened to me a few times but i keep on e mailing till i get a response and i always do . good luck maybe hell realize thats no way to do buisness. by the way lets see that tank!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[synaptikus]

Hello again everybody,

thanks for so many replies, I am really surprised that so many members had a bad experience with John.

Some of you asked for tank pictures, so here you go.. (not the best quality, I know...).

[sly fox]

sorry to hear that

lovely tank :)

[cpreefguy]

Hello again everybody,

thanks for so many replies, I am really surprised that so many members had a bad experience with John.

Some of you asked for tank pictures, so here you go.. (not the best quality, I know...).

Do you use the Fauna Marin Ultralith System?

[second_decimal]

wow das tut mir wirklich leid matthias. wenn du etwas brauchst das du nicht finden kannst in deutschland, sag mir einfach bescheid. ich werde dich mit den richtigen leuten verbinden :-) auf welchen boards tribst du dich in deutschland rum? ich besuche manchmal riffaquaristikforum.de aber ist schon ne weile her das ich da war. geiles becken was du da hast. wenn du nicht zuweit weg von franfurt bist kann ich ja mal zu besuch kommen :-) sag mir bescheid. tschau

[synaptikus]

@cpreefguy
yes, I use the FaunaMarin Ultralith-System. I know Claude of FaunaMarin personally as he lives close to me. How do you know?
BTW: Claude has much better pictures of my tank,I think he will post them on his reefcentral board or on ultralith.com soon.

@second_decimal
Bin ja total überrascht, dass hier auch ein Deutscher schreibt. Mein Problem ist wirklich, dass ich die ganzen Standardkorallen schon habe und selten etwas neues finde. Über gute Adressen bin ich natürlich immer dankbar. Frankfurt ist ne gute Stunde weg von mir, falls du mal in Frankfurt bist können wir uns auch gerne mal dort treffen, fände ich echt spannend.

Matthias

[second_decimal]

schreib mich an unter goroeder@yahoo.com und ich schicke dir meine information. i werde dieses wochenende in franfurt (wiesbaden) sein und dann nochmal in ungefähr zwei wochen. bin leider nur das wochenende da aber villeicht beim zweiten mal könnte ich dich besuchen / treffen. sag mir was du haben willst. ich weiss nicht wie das ist um korallen in deutschland einzuführen aber mann kann ja mal checken.

[cpreefguy]

I recognized your tank from some pictures that Claude had posted:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=12756784#post12756784

Great looking tank!

[LoneStar]

Beautiful tank Matthias!

I am actually considering the Fauna Marin balling method on my new tank I'm setting up.

[cpreefguy]

Beautiful tank Matthias!

I am actually considering the Fauna Marin balling method on my new tank I'm setting up.
Me too seems interesting...
Plus, Cherrycorals is doing a $660 Profilux controller/dosing station package!

[ACE]

I think great is a little understated....:)...those pics are AWESOME!!!! What is the "ultralith" I am going to cherry corals to look into it. Sorry about your experience with your purchase. But cpreefguy is right about your tank.







I recognized your tank from some pictures that Claude had posted:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=12756784#post12756784

Great looking tank!

[LoneStar]

I think great is a little understated....:)...those pics are AWESOME!!!! What is the "ultralith" I am going to cherry corals to look into it. Sorry about your experience with your purchase. But cpreefguy is right about your tank.

You can also browse through the Cherry Corals forum page on RC. You'll find info there on it. Also on the GHL/Profilux page on RC as well...

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=549

[ACE]

Sorry to hijack...:angel: but thanks Mike


You can also browse through the Cherry Corals forum page on RC. You'll find info there on it. Also on the GHL/Profilux page on RC as well...

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=549

[sly fox]

all this talk of frankfurt I feel like im back in europe, been a while since I had to use my German. <grin>

[synaptikus]

Hi Ace,

the FaunaMarin Ultralith-System is a ultra low nutrients zeolith system. It is similar to the zeovit-System of Korallenzucht by Thomas Pohl. I tried both systems but I really prefer the ultralith system as it is - in my opinion- much easier and cheaper than the Zeovit-System with excellent results.

If you have further questions I would recommend to use the link above to the FaunaMarin board at reefcentral, I am sure Claude (the owner of FaunaMarin) will answer all your questions.

Matthias

[ACE]

Hi Ace,

the FaunaMarin Ultralith-System is a ultra low nutrients zeolith system. It is similar to the zeovit-System of Korallenzucht by Thomas Pohl. I tried both systems but I really prefer the ultralith system as it is - in my opinion- much easier and cheaper than the Zeovit-System with excellent results.

If you have further questions I would recommend to use the link above to the FaunaMarin board at reefcentral, I am sure Claude (the owner of FaunaMarin) will answer all your questions.

Matthias


Thanks Matthias! Nice to get advice all the way from Germany. I looked at this link yesterday as well; now just putting a strategy together to get the wife to allow another big purchase for this hobby. I think I will use Lonestar's diamond method. :)

Again, sorry about your Zoafrag experience, they are off of my list.