Aqua Life Aquarium — Local services in Rocklin

Not deserving of a star Went in over 3 weeks ago first fluval system and attempt at a biological balanced system. Complete Novice. Walked in and started speaking with a guy and right off the bat wanted to sell me a overpriced fish i never heard of. Second, my wife wanted Mollies and he was critical of them, and was actually making fun of them. Ummmm why are you making fun of fish that you are trying to sell? Moving on....Leading up to Head honcho who overheard my private conversation with the other kid and asked if I had established my cycle yet. If you could see the ?????? marks floating around my head they were there. I said no. He laughed at me... LAUGHED AT ME.

So here we are, embarrassed, wife ready to let her Indiana farm girl attitude to kick in, but didn't, and them he tells the kid to grab an old filter sponge from one of their "established " aquariums and sell it to me for 20$ and put it in my tank and blah blah blah

Like an idiot i bought it with a bottle of API quick start. I drove from sutter creek to his place for this bs.....

Moving on....I went to PETCO in Sutter Creek Martell and spoke with their general manager and he "guided me" on what to do with my tank a 55 gallon with 15 fish already in it, Bio not cycled.

He was extremely happy I DID NOT PUT THEIR OLD SPONGE IN MY TANK AND INFILTRATE MY SYSTEM WITH THEIR UNKNOWN CRAP.

Here we are 8-5-2025, no matter what head honcho replies, I don't care, I have lost zero fish. ammonia LOWERING, nitrates have spiked and nitrates have spiked and are now decreasing, performing a non chlorinated 15% water change today and also tested my water today and guess what people 0 AMMONIA!!!

HMMMMMM :)

Some times, its good to support the little guy.....and not laugh at them, that way they will spend more money in your store.

There are so many things I want to say but I will remain polite and...

Horrible service actually. Ive never posted a review anywhere, but i have been compelled to change that by there horrible service. First no one helped us for nearly 25 minutes. Not even an inquiry into whether we wanted help or not. There were two workers that seemed to be running around in the fish area. One was frantically running around the other was on slo-mo. I understand when people are busy, thats why me, my wife and daughter just stood waiting our turn. The customer in front of us seemed like he was stocking an entire tank full of fish. Which is perfectly cool with me, i get it. At least tell a waiting customer that youll be right with them or acknowledge them at all. We only wanted to buy one fish, one. The other worker/helper actually began helping someone who had come after we did. Which was irritating but i could live with it. This worker also while helping the customer actually popped the bag the fish was in over a trashcan and lost the fish, in the trash. They both were able to recover the fish. More people began to arrive and i thought maybe i would at least inform the frantic worker when he gets a moment we would like to get....except he cut me off to tell me he'd deal with me in a second. At this point it was going on nearly 45 minutes without even a hello from anybody. Not the two fish getters nor the 3 other people that were working up front. So as my family and i stood waiting to buy one fish and they began to help yet another customer who arrived after us i had had enough and left. Still with not a single acknowledgment or goodbye. Bad bad service. Maybe it was bad day for them. But they made it a bad day for a customer from out of town. Like a 45 minute drive outta town, to go specifically...

The staff were all very kind and welcoming, place is very clean, fish are great and all healthy months later (except one who died the first day) But the lack of knowledge that the staff or at least one specific person had was concerning. I am relatively new to fish keeping and had originally came to the store to buy a fish that I had done a lot of research on and was confident in my ability to care for, but when I came to the store and saw none I asked a staff when the next shipment was and was told when, but before I left I was convinced to buy a different fish a tiger barb to be exact. I really liked how they looked and asked a few questions about them like could they go in a ten gallon tank? How many do I need? And so on. Not only was I told that they could fit in a ten gallon (they can not) I was also told they do great in small groups and that four was perfect. I was also misinformed on their size and what they would grow up to look like. I was told they were full grown and would acquire stripes as they grew. News flash they grew a lot and never got stripes. I have since gotten the proper tank size and the proper amount of fish (from a different store cuz when ever I came back they had none) and everything has been running smoothly since then. What I’m trying to say is do your research go get the fish you want and If they don’t have them don’t be convinced to buy a different one that you don’t know their care requirements of. Stick to your plan and all is well.

Pic of my big boy. As you can see...