We have a BizRate website review pop-up on our website. Customers use this to review their experience with our company. At the end of the year, BizRate honors the companies that have attained a very high level of excellence. We achieved this BizRate Circle of Excellence level in 2025 (keep scrolling to the bottom of the page). MarineDepot (RIP) used to win this award every year. Only 49 of the 3,500 companies BizRate reviewed earned this award in 2025. Check out our Google Reviews as well.

We understand the attraction of websites that sell a wide variety of products. Getting shaving cream, diapers, a best-selling novel, garden shears, a shovel, and staples all from one website certainly has its appeal. One-stop shopping can be great. But when you buy specialty products, it’s often best to buy from a specialty company. We may not understand everything, but we have aquarium expertise that general retailers don't. Try calling Amazon and asking the CSR how to operate your protein skimmer or CO2 kit.

When you contact MarineAndReef.com, you'll speak with someone who understands aquarium products. Aquarium experts carefully create MarineAndReef.com descriptions. We continuously update and clarify the descriptions as we receive feedback. We have dozens of articles with links to products to help you determine which products are right for you. If you need further help, feel free to Email us or call us (480.491.5283).

Your order will be packed by someone who only packs aquarium products. Our packers are experts at packing glass aquariums, light bulbs, liquids, and other fragile products. We use specialty boxes, foam corners, and packing tricks that general retailers don't use.

How products are packed matters, given what happens to packages once they are handed off to FedEx, UPS, and USPS. Packages zip along conveyor belts at forty miles an hour, and sometimes they can get knocked off the conveyors and drop 50 feet. Most delivery drivers are careful, but there are always exceptions ( please check out the video links below). "Fragile" stickers are mostly ignored (there is zero evidence that shipping companies treat packages with "Fragile" stickers any differently ).

Although packages sometimes arrive damaged, we have considerably less breakage than general retailers. Shipping fragile products is central to MarineAndReef.com’s business. We wouldn’t survive if we didn’t know quite a bit about packing glass and liquids.

• ▶ Deliveries Gone Wild VIDEO
• ▶ 7 Crazy Reasons Why Packages Get Destroyed VIDEO
• ▶ Inside One of UPS's Busiest Days VIDEO

We know our customers have different budgets and levels of commitment to the aquarium hobby. Some people want a small aquarium on their kitchen counter. Others want a 300-gallon, full-blown aquarium as the centerpiece of their living room. Some want to spend a few minutes a week maintaining their aquarium. For some, their aquarium is their main hobby and an obsession. Some people want to spend 1/10th of 1% of their income on the hobby. Some people want to take out a second mortgage on their house to finance the hobby. We have products for all levels of commitment and budgets.

We don’t claim to have more aquarium replacement parts than Amazon. But aquarium parts are very, very hard to find on Amazon, and the descriptions and pictures are often inaccurate. There are no links to the products the replacements are for (e.g., a link from an impeller to the pump the impeller is for). Many aquarium product manufacturers recognize us as the best source of replacement parts, and many manufacturers (and stores) send their parts customers to MarineAndReef.com.

No website can claim to have the lowest price on everything. But, if you include discount coupons and Rewards Points.

What? Is that a good reason to buy from MarineAndReef.com? That makes no sense. Why brag about NOT having free shipping on all orders? It’s simple. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS FREE SHIPPING. Shipping costs need to be recovered, and every seller needs to incorporate shipping costs into the product price. You ARE paying for shipping.

Giving free shipping on small orders is very, very, very inefficient. Shipping one small, inexpensive item doesn't make economic sense. Often, shipping two, three, four, or five products costs the same as shipping one, or just a bit more. Websites that offer free shipping on all orders are essentially having customers who place larger orders subsidize customers who place small orders. We don't do that.

With a flat shipping fee of $5.99 (free over $49), we ask customers to look around our website to see if they need more than one item. In most instances, aquarists do need more than one item. This is the efficient way to shop, and it saves MarineAndReef.com money. We pass those savings on to our customers through lower prices.