GARF Order?

[rutz81]

Not sure if I have to put this in a vendor forum or what not, so, move it if need be:

I just placed an order from GARF. They have specials now on Monti's. Has anyone recently ordered SPS from GARF, and how have they been?good color, size,etc?

Thanks,
Dave

[rutz81]

No one's ever ordered form GARF?? Is their Purple Bonsai the only thing to ever come from them??

Anyone?

[twon8]

I can't find my way past their home page. How did you place an order?

[Cody Ray]

Ditto, their site confuses me!

[twon8]

I looked for ten minutes and still can't find these Monti specials.

[rutz81]

To tell you the truth, I was equally as confused. After about 15-20 minutes of reading, I came across that you have to call to find out what is available. After calling the 800 number and sending an e-mail inquiring what was available, I recieved a reply. Kind of a "different" setup in terms of what he's selling. I was kind of unclear, but, it seems like they change specials weekly and you have to call and find out what they are offering. The deal I got was, 5 frags for $100(+ 2 or 3 bonus frags) The only comment I recieved about what they looked like was, "Awesome colors, look like fireworks, best color available in monti's" Seeing that there are not too many reviews of them available, I figure it's a crapshot, but sonsidering the beauty of the GARF Purple Bonsai, hopefully they are simialr in quality. I'll have to wait till Wednesday to see.

[raddogz]

I have ordered coral frags in general from them. They were small in my opinion.

I thought they didn't have the GARF purple bonsai for sale but for trade only.

[rutz81]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7762170#post7762170 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by raddogz
I have ordered coral frags in general from them. They were small in my opinion.

I thought they didn't have the GARF purple bonsai for sale but for trade only.

They didn't have the purple bonsai for sale, they said there was a long waiting list for it.

[JOSHUAB]

i have ordered from them and it was DEFINITELY NOT WORTH IT!!!! The order was not ever what I ordered, I called them to see what they were going to do and they said nothing so basically I got a bunch of goods that I never even ordered, what a waste!!!

[sfsuphysics]

They sell stuff other than their "grunge" and $1 snails which shouldn't be in a reef tank (margarita)??

[rutz81]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7764058#post7764058 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JOSHUAB
i have ordered from them and it was DEFINITELY NOT WORTH IT!!!! The order was not ever what I ordered, I called them to see what they were going to do and they said nothing so basically I got a bunch of goods that I never even ordered, what a waste!!!

What do you mean you didn't get what you ordered??

Doesn't sound like my blind order will be too promising, but, I'll take some pics when it comes in. With any luck I'll be pleasantly surprised.

[rickyfins]

Bump, how did this turn out?

thanks,

Rick

[gigi4539]

Garf Is hit and miss, you do not get to choose. I have had some great stuff and bad stuff. I do wish you could order off the web site.

[rutz81]

Here's a very brief update, sorry about not posting pics, I was just very upset with the order overall. Out of all the frags, two are left. One Orange encrusting monti RTN'ed. One (brown ?) monti RTN'ed. Gave one cream monti to a fellow reefer and it turned out to have monti eating nudi's. The survivors: one purple polyp, green base monti, seems to be going to make it(pretty nice when/if it colors up-has the purple polyps and green edges). The other surving frags are: a green monti digi, and a pinkish stylopora. The price wasn't as high as many other online vendors, but, even with the lower price I feel it was not worth it....

[twon8]

sorry to hear that, that sucks about monti eating nudi's, you probably should keep an eye out for more. apparently garf has gone way downhill. i have never had a monti rtn on me, was the shipping poor?

[rutz81]

Shipping actually wasn't that bad. Luckoily, I haven't seen any other monti eating nudi's...
I was more upset with the description of the monti frags I'd be recieving, they were described as "fireworks" in terms of color. I don't know about you guys, but, a brown, dieing fireworks show would really ruin my 4th of July.

[rickyfins]

lol, sorry to laugh but yes that would ruin my 4th of July. Were they willing to correct the situation at all?

thanks,

Rick

[rutz81]

Honestly, I didn't even bother to contact them...Probably should of, but, hopefully I didn't get monti eating nudi's in my tank. If they were to re-send any replacement corals, I'd be afraid to put them in my tank anyway. I figure I just chalk it up as a learing experience not to order from them; or even site unseen in general. I hope everyone else reads this and doesn't have to pay over $120 for this lesson.

Dave

[cstires]

I too did not have a great experience with them. I ordered a Acro package and none of them arrived alive. I too was told they had really nice pieces and very colorful. Well I opened up the package and was ready to scream... They were all bleached white, no color at all, some had broken off their rocks, and they through in two tiny mushrooms and two non photosynthetic gargonians. The only thing left from the order is the mushrooms. Needless to say, I will NEVER order from them again.

I also ordered some garf grunge, and I was not the least bit impressed with it. It's nothing more than gravel and shell mixture. Didn't see any life what so ever...

[RichConley]

If you're looking for cheap frags, I highly reccommend the 20 for $200 deal from Reefermadness.us

[bkv1997]

I have ordered from garf in the past twice and they are small frags. I got 10 SPS frags for $100 yes they were all 1" and brown when i recieved them. Initially I was very upset, but after time the color came through very nicely in my tank.

I have also done the reefermadness with the local club 40 frag pack and everyone that took SPS home had about a 50% survival rate.

I personally have had my best luck with a LFS in Atlanta, GA Cappucino Bay. www.cappuccinobayaquarium.com just thought I would mention it incase anyone ever visits.

[baileythed0g]

Is it just me or does anyone else find the Garf website to be a tad bit...overzealous?

Seriously, It makes me feel kinda creepy... like the first time I unknowingly walked into an Amway convention.

Anyway, for what it's worth, I got the "bag of frags" from Garf as well. Roughly 14 frags for around $10 each. I had a 20% survival rate after they had arrived. They all arrived very brown.

I was just starting out then and did not have any other frags yet. I later purchased a Jackson tri color from Premium aquatics and it looked extremely healthy when I had initially purchased it.

After putting it in the tank it started to exhibit poor polyp extension and the beautiful purple tips browned out within a week. My lighting was good and water chemistry tested out ok as well.

I later discovered the reason for the decline was that I had red bugs. In the end, only the Jackson and 1 of the GARF corals survived.

Although I can't be 100% certain, I have a strong feeling that the bugs rode in on the Garf corals.

I won't even begin to claim that I'm the perfect reefkeeper, I know I'm not. But in the end I wasn't happy with their product and I don't think I'll buy stonies from them again.

I did like the snail and mexican hermit "reef janitor" crew though. They did a terrific cleanup job in my 90 and now I sport corralline algae everywhere and no nuisance algas.

[GARFVolunteer]

I have alway been happy with the frags I have bought/traded for from GARF. But then again I pick them up from the post office the same day they are boxed.

Thanks,

Scott

[ulua56]

AMAZING............ the only coral that is on its 3 generation in my tank is from GARF, and I'm talking about 10 inches growth in 4 years. My frags from R. M. , L. A. and P.E. are always 50/50, you rock Leroy and Sally