Aqua Lab Aquaria

I ordered a glass diffuser bell from this place online but received the wrong item. I found out about it late because I had no time to open the package. I was able to contact them and told them ill stop by the store to do an exchange, which was almost an hour away. They told me to bring the orginal packaging which I did. So when i brought back the item with its original packaging, I expected to get a new glass diffuser bell in a box, but instead they gave me a dusty old glass diffuser bell with no packaging. I dont know if it was used but it was dusty and had glass or sand in the tubing where the diffuser is connected. But i decided to take it because there was only one associate working at that time and there were other customers and it was almost a 1 hour drive. But before leaving, i wanted something to secure it like a box or bubble wrap because it had a fragile glass tip and they were just handing it to me without any type of packaging. I had to beg the associate to give me something to secure it. Honestly not mad at the associate, he just did what he was told. Im mad at management who didnt tell me im getting a display item before i drove there. Believe or not I was actually thinking of buying 30 gallon UNS tank from this place but now, base on this experience, Im not coming back to this place.

When I got plants from aqua lab, there was planaria on them, all the shrimps and snails in my tank died within a couple weeks and that was the last thing I introduced into my tank so I know that’s why. There was also string algae that ended up taking over another tank I added to. The guy working there with a beard and curly hair felt really condescending even though the products were bad quality.. I don’t trust him at all, he made a passing comment downplaying the holocaust which didn’t sit right with me at all, it was incredibly insulting considering my grandfather is Jewish and i’m non practicing but I still find it incredibly offensive and disrespectful..

I recently bought a house in San Jose that came with a pond. Unfortunately the previous owner had passed away and left no instructions, so I had absolutely no idea where to start. I’ve never had a pond before and knew nothing about how to maintain one. I called Aqua Lab and Kent was incredibly helpful from the start. He took the time to walk me through everything and explain how the system works without ever making me feel dumb for asking very basic questions. We decided to do a one-time deep cleaning to restore the pond. Before the scheduled cleaning, Kent stopped by to check out the system and figure out what actually needed to be done. He ended up fixing a broken part, doing a full deep clean of the pond and the filter/skimmer, and adding beneficial water additives. Since I live about 3 hours away, he kept me updated throughout the process with photos and messages, which I really appreciated. He even left me some pond tools to use and offered to come back another time, at no extra charge, when I’m at the house so he can walk me through the system in person and show me how to do the regular monthly maintenance myself (or help with that if I decide I’d rather have him handle it). His pricing was very fair and actually came in lower than other local shops I contacted. Overall just a really great experience. I’ve attached before and after photos of the pond. Highly recommend Aqua Lab and working with Kent. What a great guy!

Love this place. Great priced and helpful staff.

I just bought 8 cardinal tetras for $48. 2 died when I just got home. 2 more died when I started to acclimate them in 15 minutes. After an hour of acclimating, I put them in my tank (planted, fully cycled for several months) and the rest died. This is the worst experience I got buying cardinal tetras. I bought from other LFSs and even PetCo and PetSmart before but never had a whole batch died like this. If you charge $6 for a tetra, it should be better than this. At least the tiger shrimps I bought seem to be fine. Update: the tiger shrimp died too. Just bought neon tetra from another LFS today and they seem fine so it was the fish quality, not the tank