I bought my son a fish tank for his birthday. Pet Smart gave me mis leading information which led to an ammonia spike. It killed fish and really fogged up the tank. I tried cleaning it and it only got worse. SOOO, I was googling and found Chris, The Aquarium dude! Chris is very professional, prompt and knows his stuff. Pricing is reasonable and he was able to hook us up with some really cool fresh water fish. I have never yelped before but I appreciated Chris's help and customer service so much that I felt it was necessary to let everyone know. Chris is the man and my sons fish tank will continue to be the gift that keeps on giving because its worth having The Aquarium Dude come out every month and make sure the tank is running perfectly. read more

I am glad I am not the only one who thought I was cheated. Back in 2010 I had a UV sterilizer I purchased however it was difficult for me to remove the UV light once a year for maintenance. I had discovered this person through his website and he seemed professional. Unfortunately I was wrong. He comes in and tries to pull the UV light and damaged the Light inside the UV sterilizer. He made some excuse saying I bought a poor brand for a UV sterilizer. Really. Some nerve. I have had that UV sterilizer service from another aquarium maintenance person but he was expensive and was not available. He knew how to do it. Unlike this fake Aquarium Dude guy who has the nerve to say that. As the other views said he was unprofessional in the wrong profession he claims to have an expertise on. STAY AWAY FROM HIS SERVICE. He is a con artist and will rip you off!!! read more

I gave Chris a chance for over one year to service my tank on a regular basis. I even precleaned my tank and put all of the decorations for my 55 gallon saltwater tank through the dishwasher and lined them up for him before his arrival. I always left the same list of the expectations of his service and also a photo of how I like my aquarium to look when it was complete. He was responsible to clean the rocks in my tank, vacuum, do a water (and sometimes carbon) change and wipe everything down. Unfortunately, Chris was terribly unprofessional, messy and disrespectful on so many levels. When he would come to my house, he would never remove his shoes despite my multiple requests for him to do so. He would never bring a tarp to cover the floor despite my multiple request for him to do so. How do you run an aquarium service and not bring a tarp to cover the floor? Every other service I had used had always done so. He would lay his equipment and my salt water glass on my expensive coffee table and dining table without laying down a towel first. I repeatedly explained how this is not appropriate. I asked him to be mindful of someone's home but he never was. EVERY time he would come to my home, he would use my bathroom which of course I allow. However, it was seriously disgusting. He would leave the toilet seat up every single time he came even after I called him over to put it down because I was grossed out. He would urinate all over my toilet base and floor which seriously made me sick. Then, when he was "servicing" my tank, he would try to watch movies while he was supposed to be cleaning my tank and I am paying him by the hour. Ugh! I told him again, it was not professional and I'm not comfortable with him watching movies while he is supposed to be focusing on my tank. He would run a test with various chemicals which was the highlight of his visit, yet he never vacuumed my tank nor did he ever move the rocks in the tank to clean them. Furthermore, even after I would point these things out to him, he did not improve. As a result, I lost several fish one each month for several months in a row. Then he would try to tell me that fish get sick and maybe it had a heart condition... I cannot believe he even thought I would believe that. I asked him "Really Chris? Everything single month? I don't think so..." Initially, I felt a sorry for Chris because he seems to be socially off and very awkward - possibly aspergers? Because I am a psychotherapist, I am sensitive to people with special needs and thus I repeatedly tried to give him a chance. Unfortunately, his service and behavior continued to worsen over the year. On his final visit to me he started screaming and ran out the door without finishing his service. I had to call him back to finish and I did pay him but I do not think that he deserved it. He never even apologized. He also stole one of my towels that I had on the floor for him since he never brought a tarp. I found it in his suitcase months later after I had asked him where my towel went? He also took my scissors home with him. And then, without common sense or my permission, he used my kitchen cooking scissors on material that he was cutting for the fish tank. I had texted a list of requests in the beginning and also had a list written down of my expectations of his service which was always the same list when he arrived and yet he would constantly forgot to do things -! Even though the list was right in front of his face! For example, he would leave my light on in the tank repeatedly when it was supposed to be shut off and worse, he flooded my entire living room twice because he did not set up the filter properly. When I called him regarding this emergency he said he would not come out. I had to pay an Aquarium store owner near my house to come out and take care of the problem which is when they identified that he had improperly set up the filter so that it was leaking. The gentleman from the aquarium store also cleaned out the entire base of my tank and explained that the person servicing it (chris) was doing a terrible job. It was one thing after another! Between the lost fish, floods, the urine all over my bathroom and neglecting to cover floors and furniture surfaces before putting items with salt water on them and not vacuuming or moving my rocks ever and trying to watch movies in the midst of his service, I could no longer have him clean my tank. read more

We are new to our tank which we purchased on Craig's List. It has been quite a few months since we set it up and it was time to do something. Aquarium Dude was quick to respond and followed up before our appointment. We weren't sure if we even had the tank setup correctly and Chris fixed and helped us with everything we needed. His service estimates were right on and he had everything taken care of in the time he had told us it would take. We had no problems with anything Aquarium Dude did for us and we thought the servicer was a great value for the price. We look to use them again for ongoing maintenance of our tank. read more

I have a 150 gallon tank that's been an eyesore for quite a few years. It's tall, and I'm not so I hit the Googles to find someone to rehab it for me. 4 hours with $40 labor/hour sounded good to me. I now have a clean tank ready for fish! Just make sure you find out how much the equipment costs beforehand. The whole deal ran me a bit over $400, but that was worth it for me because my tank was gross! I'd recommend him. read more

I laughed when I read the negative reviews here about Chris. He's been cleaning our tank for 3 years and services a few friends of ours as well. He always does a good job and cleans up when he's done. read more

I often wondered how angry you have to be to write a Yelp report critical of someone's business. Now I know. Chris is singly the most disorganized, least knowledgable aquarium maintenance person I have met. I've met lots of them! He is sloppy, has no clue about the health of the tank or individual fish species and will trash your home. I made the error of hiring him to relocate my tanks. He hamhandedly broke things, dumped things in the sink and toilet, was reckless in relocating the tanks and killed fish. He neglected to follow simple instructions given to him repeatedly which I truly believe was because he is not the brightest bulb in the box. He is not malicious. He is simply a moron. After I threw him out of my home, I found that he neglected to plug in heaters, he broke an expensive filtration cannister and some of my expensive equipment was simply missing. There's more but he's not worth the effort. If you want to trash your hobby, then Chris is your guy. read more

Chris is one of the friendliest people I've met, and his work was efficient, cost effective, and superb. I highly recommend him for any of your fish tank cleaning needs read more

My Fish died today,exactly a week from this guy coming out!! Tried a few treatments, but it was to far along. Being i couldn't see the fish for a couple days due to the bacterial bloom. The white spot turned reddish and ate up small portion of his flesh. Im Frickin speechless!! DO NOT USE THIS GUY!!! read more

We've been using Aquarium Dude (Chris) for over 3 years now, he comes in once a month to take care of our 55 Gallon Fresh Water Fish Tank. Every time he shows up it gets better and better! He always explains what he has to do to the tank before he starts and knows exactly what he is doing. He throws us good suggestions every time on what we can do to make the tank better. Definitely use Aquarium Dude for for Aquarium needs! Great customer service and great prices for the work he does. read more

DO NOT let Chris service your aquarium. I had been out of commission for awhile and I was unable to perform basic aquarium maintenance. After several quotes later, I decided to go with Chris since he had the right price, did not charge for travel, and did not charge for extra filter media. Granted Chris did show up on time and had a somewhat professional appearance, he screwed up my tank. For starters, the shredded algae pad on a stick he used severely scratched my glass all over. Chris also used Windex around the trim of my tank and on the hang on the back filters, thus trickling into the water. Household chemicals are never to be used in or around aquariums. Chris also worked at a slow pace in the beginning, thus killing a half hour of time. He refused to clean the housing of my filters claiming it's not necessary, although they had not been cleaned in a prolonged time period. Chris rushed the remainder of the job, thus leaving a lot of debris in the gravel bed. He also added several chemicals to the tank that were not necessary. After Chris left, the tank looked as if it had not been serviced in awhile. Chris claimed it would be clear within a couple hours. The next day, it looked the same, if not worse. To add to the trouble, his negligence caused a death of a panda corydoras and a high quality betta fish. I immediately contacted Chris via email and he had prompt responses even though it was his day off. He promised to replace the panda corydoras via his wholesaler. The tank still remained cloudy. Chris called that he was outside my residence with the fish and not at the scheduled time, therefore I was not home and he left it in the mailbox. I was then informed that his wholesaler did not have panda corydoras, so he got a julii and peppered corydoras instead. When I got the fish, the bag was from Petsmart. This was unacceptable, so I called Chris back and he got defensive when I brought to his attention that the tank was still filthy and cloudy and the fish was not the proper replacement. Chris kept suggesting Top Fin water clarifier because he believed it was a bacterial bloom. I have been keeping aquariums for over 7 years and I have never had this occur, not to mention that water clarifier will not take care of the issue. Chris got so defensive that he said "Well, I don't know what to tell you" and essentially hung up. I have not heard from Chris since this issue and the tank remained cloudy until I was able to properly service it. I advise you to avoid Chris and his "services/wholesaler!" read more

Chris has been providing service for our 155 gallon salt water tank for several years now. Our daughter in law was bored with the tank and was going to actually throw everything away. Although I knew NOTHING about salt water tanks, I decided to have it set up in my home. For years I had another fish service but I continued to get bristle in my tank. It wasn't until Chris came to service our tank that we were finally rid of those nasty worms. Chris has a vast knowledge of maintenance and trouble shooting. He knew INSTANTLY how to solve our problem. Chris is extremely friendly and has ALWAYS provided excellent service. He makes suggestions and educates us as we continue to learn about being the owners of salt water fish. Recently Chris completed an overhaul on my son's established fresh water tank. I was virtually speechless with how amazing the tank looked when he finished. I have only wonderful things to say about Chris and would certainly recommend his services. read more