This place was awesome! The fish were cool to look at and the prices were worth it! Looking at the different fishes felt like I was in an exotic aquarium. What a greet first experience. read more

Bought some plants there recently. My previously perfect tank is now infested with Ramhorn snails, which obviously were in the plants. I have removed nearly 200 and they keep multiplying. Worst catastrophe in my decades of fish keeping. read more

I see a lot of reviews posted. I suggest you judge for yourself. I have had nothing but positive experiences with this company, staff, and owners. The store is spotless. The fish are healthy. The tanks are 100% beautiful all the time. Im a complex customer to say the least. They listen to me, help me, and give great professional advice and guidance. The pricing for the service, fish, and products are very fair. Thank you Sea Escapes. read more

My friend recommended them to me. To those complaining about the high prices, how do you think a small business makes it? DUH. Anyways they tested my water for me & turns out I had a bad testing kit. I was so stressed out over my Axolotl and looks like she's ok after all. I purchased a new testing kit from them. Also they helped me out with my chiller & air pump connections. They have so many pretty fish, the koi were amazing but I completely missed the feeding section, also my friend said they have turtles, but that area was closed off. I have a turtle so glad they can be a back up for turtle stuff because they carry some items that you don't see at other pet stores for turtles. Will be back. read more

See all

I have always wanted a saltwater tank. This year I decided to focus some of my attention towards this hobby. After visiting a bunch of marine stores in the area the hubs and I stopped here. The first person we encountered was knowledgeable, not pushy, and gave us examples of what a good starter tank needed. We ended up purchasing our tank from the aquarium show in Schaumburg. After dealing with some of the vendors at the show I decided I wanted to give the rest of our business to Sea Escapes. I went back there this past Thursday and they were able to help with our pump, skimmer, water, and live rock. They won our return business. read more

Sea Escapes - The water invading our house. - Aquarium Services Near Me - South Elgin, Illinois

DO NOT use Sea Escapes in south Elgin for pond cleaning and do not support this business. They cleaned our ponds today and were negligent in their actions, which resulted in tons of our fish dying. We've lost 25+ and still counting. My children are so upset and trying to save them. They left them in dirty water while "cleaning", after stating they would remove them. And shocked them with cold hose water. They shouldn't have even run a full pressure garden hose to refill, and they ran 2, which killed the fish with too much cold water. The cleaning job was subpar at best. I called and Don said they wouldn't refund us for the cleaning that is poor, and just "bring him bodies" as proof. Please save yourself the headache and avoid them at all costs. read more

See all

They sold my tank and fish and never paid me for them. I've called and tried to get my money and they won't call me back. I even went there and was told me the person in charge wasn't going to be there for a couple of days. This went on for weeks. Just so you know the type of people you're dealing with. It was a 125 gallon with a stand. After everything was sold, they said "the fish weren't in that good of shape anyways"...but they gladly took the money for them. Usually have a decent experience there even though sometimes the staff seem annoyed when you ask them for anything. Just my honest experience. Also, they are pretty expensive. read more

Sea Escapes - It's not like the tank was in bad condition or anything. This was taken a few days before I took it down. - Aquarium Services Near Me - South Elgin, Illinois

See all

The owner doesn't respect his customer enough to wear a mask! Will not go back! Fish are overpriced compared to other locations

Wow, holy cow! This is an incredible place to get fish! Come here for what you need! I can tell the owner really cares about the fish he sells! I love the Rams he sold us! read more

We drove from Woodstock after I heard about this place from a Petsmart employee strangely enough. I've been keeping my eye out for some particular freshwater fish, but we really did drive there just to see the store. This particular aquarium store is probably the nicest looking one I've been in (no offense to the 20+ year old mom and pop store that's closer to my home that I frequent), and their tanks are nicely presented - not overrun with algae and very few floaters. We were asked if we needed any help and checked on again, but we were just looking. If I was more serious about buying fish during our visit, I probably would have gotten into a conversation with an employee or owner, but we really did just go in, took a look at the fish and merchandise, and left for the night. If we're ever back that way, I'll pop in again. read more

Love this fish store. All fish are in excellent health. Owner and workers are amazing at answering questions and helping people learn. They have been very patient. read more

Love this place! They always have a great selection of fish and coral. Very knowledgeable staff.

This is 5 star establishment no doubt about it ,, unfortuantly with economy and with overgrowth of petsmart-petcos that this place is unable to live up to its full potentiol, More people need to help the little man and stop supporting large chains when it comes to buying fish ..yes there are a little more but you are receiving so much knowledge that goes along with fishkeeping and its worth it ! read more

Been to all the Chicagoland area saltwater tank stores, they tell it like it is and the are very honest. Great selection of healthy corals and fish. read more

Always helpful service. Great quality fish and friendly staff. I highly recommend this store for anyone looking for quality fish and supplies read more

This is absolutely my favorite fish store. They can always answer whatever questions I can come up with and they never pressure me to buy. Very friendly and very beautiful place. read more

First, i just want to adress something i see on EVERY aquarium shops Yelp reviews. "It's overpriced, go to Petco or Petsmart for cheaper prices". People need to realize that public pet shops don't specialize in saltwater aquariums and get the LEFTOVERS from places like Living Sea, Beyond the Reef, Sea escapes etc...their fish are marked "cheap" because they ARE cheap. "You get what you pay for". They don't take care of their tanks at pet shops as well, which means there will be a good chance disease's and bacteria all over the fish there. I've personally experienced this myself. Now, if you want to buy some clownfish or damsels from petco, that's fine. But say no to anything else. Only extremely hardy fish are capable of surviving and staying immune to the diseases from petco. Good, now that we got that out of the way, here's my opinion about sea escapes. They don't seem to have the best quality saltwater fish there, i've seen better, but what they do have is amazing coral selections. when ever i'm shopping for coral, sea escapes is the place i go to. But when it's fish, it's usually Beyond the Reef. Don't get me wrong, I've seen some good fish at sea escapes before, but i feel like they're never consistent when it comes to keeping quality fish. Im not sure who their supplier is for fish, but i think they should use someone else. You never know how the quality of their saltwater fish are going to look when you walk in there. Could be good or bad, there's no in between with them from what i've noticed. Maybe it depends on the day. My final thought, Great place to buy coral, decent place to buy supplies such as calcium, salt, tools, equipment etc...Mediocre place for Saltwater fish. hope that helps. read more

Good enough if it is local. Better selection and prices elsewhere. Seems to be a better atmosphere for customers nowadays without the presence of the aggressive and condescending woman who used to work there. read more

Although the place is very nice it is a complete rip off! Do not buy any products from this place! Everything is a third of the price on Amazon or even Petsmart or Petco! read more

Love this place! We buy all our fish here because we trust them. Very helpful and knowledgeable when we have questions.

The main thing I love about this place is that it's family owned, and it's a real authentic business! The guys who own it ( Bob and Don ) are incredibly caring and friendly. All the employees are there to give knowledgeable and impartial advice, as well as answer any questions or give tips. I go to look around and I love that no one is jumping down my throat to sell me a product! The layout of the store is designed very creatively, the atmosphere is laid back but very professional, and all the products are fairly priced. Plus they have cool shirts!! Keep up the GREAT business practices! read more

I had been using Sea Escape's cleaning service for over a year now and up until 2 months ago, there have been no problems. It seems when money is involved, you get all the answers you need but as soon as there is a problem and it's potentially their fault....how quickly that tune changes. In Sept., their employee which I'll leave his name out for now, had come to my house to do his scheduled cleaning. I had asked for a décor to be swapped out. He told me no problem. In my tank I have 2 very rare red bristlenose plecos (algae eating fish). Well had I not had this gut feeling, I would be down to 1 pleco. He never checked the décor and the fish was suctioned to the inside and left in a bucket. He was left in there nearly 10 minutes, but luckily there was a tiny bit of water left from the decoration and I was able to get him in the tank unharmed. He survived that month. Then 2.5 weeks ago, same person came out to clean my tank...well this time as he was cleaning, he had laid my decoration on the head of this same fish and pushed it down into the gravel. HE DIED! The other was right on top, got wedged inside and HE DIED TOO! I emailed one of the owners telling him the problem, which normally I get a response within 24 hrs. It's been nearly 2.5 weeks from my email and I still have not heard back. I thought with the holidays he may have taken time off, but waiting this long, over 2 weeks....he's avoiding me and this problem! I will NEVER in a million years use them again. So UNPROFESSIONAL and just a money hungry business. Every month I pay roughly $100 of my hard earned money and to be treated like garbage and to treat my fish like garbage too, this is where I draw the line. I will now be using a new company in Algonquin, which is much further from my house but at least they have someone who's not a college or high school kid and is very knowledgeable/ passionate about what they do. Plus it helps that they're cheaper and I have not seen 1 bad review either on google. Fish safety was my #1 priority and obviously Sea Escapes doesn't give a damn so NOW neither do I!!! I'd rather give my money to someone who cares! read more

This store is now my fish store. Super friendly staff and very knowledgeable. Excellent customer service and good stock. The store is clean and well maintained. Good hours so that they are open when I'm not at work. Also willing to go the extra mile to get and keep a customer. read more

Don is one of the owners and he is super knowledgable on anything fish related. You walk in to the store and all the employees are eager to help, and if you are a regular they even know you by name. I recently moved and Don sent two of his workers to take down my tank and even install it. They even waited after it was set up to make sure the water got to temp and non of the fish died. I even got a call a few days later to see if all my fish survived the move. If you get a fish from them that turns out to be a bit feisty, they will take it back and give you a different fish. They will even take fish if you are not wanting a tank anymore. They have salt water and fresh water fish, turtles, jelly fish, and live salt/fresh water plants. I have even phoned and explained an issue i was having over the phone and they were able to tell me what to do without looking at the issue. Everyone who works here really know a lot about aquarium life. And for those of you like me who live on well water or don't want to mess with balancing ph levels and all that, they will sell you 5 gallon jugs of salt or fresh water already at the proper chemical levels. read more

Literally, walked into the store without a greeting nor did anyone ask if I needed help. Walked around for over 30 mins, the guy that worked there didn't even acknowledge that I was there. He walked passed me a few times and went straight to the back to eat. Although, there was a great selection of salt water pets there. I'll give this store one star just because, the salt water pets were decent. read more