Saltwater City

Rebekah Murray

2023-12

My friend is in the fish keeping hobby and brought me here. It was really clean and it seems like the fish and corals are all really taken care of. My friend got some snails and it was a lot of fun chatting with the people working and learning more about the coral types. Very clean and organized store, with plenty of space if you use a mobility aid too.

Mickey Rowe

2024-03

Truly the best saltwater fish and coral store in Seattle. Always clean, always helpful, always well stocked. While the other popular saltwater fish stores in Seattle do not actually quarantine their fish, Saltwater City does. Hands down the sign of a really quality fish store. The store is also always clean. Another really brilliant sign. Their recommendations are always super spot on, brilliant, kind, and humble, like a really good friend who also happens to know so much about reef tanks. They never act rushed or make you feel like they are in a rush, even when the store is busy and they are helping multiple customers at a time. And when they don't have the answer to your questions they have a store culture of quickly and kindly letting you know that they don't know very much about that question, but also humbling letting you know where might know more about that topic. Lot's of saltwater reef stores I walk into have a culture that feels a little like a superiority contest or d**k measuring contest. Not this store. They truly treat you like an equal and a teammate even if you are a beginner. Saltwater City and their staff are definitely some of the best, kindest, and most helpful teammates you could have in this hobby in Seattle. Sierra and Tyler are always incredibly helpful and always go above and beyond. The PNW is lucky to have this store.

Rachelle Chun

2024-01

This place is awesome! The staff has been super helpful in helping us get started with our first tank and also giving us good tips on handling various problems that have come up with our corals. Overall, a friendly and knowledgeable environment with an awesome selection of livestock!

James

2024-01

This place is great. I'm always traveling around the Puget Sound area visiting these kind of shops, and this one is one of my favorites.They QT most of their fish for 2 weeks, which is a huge plus.Their prices are the best on coral I've found in the region, $10, $20, 30$ frags all for great value, as well as several higher end pieces and some colonies. Employees/owner were friendly and helpful.This is my new go to shop hands down.

Toan Ng

2024-02

I love the folks here. They are helpful, knowledgeable, and have great customer service. They don't have a large selection but they do have some exotic colonies that most other places don't have. The 9.99 frag tanks is a great place for many beginners to start.

K Day

2024-03

Great prices and I appreciate the care of taking time to package my frag with extra water to help with the long drive home.

jessica shon

2023-08

Best place to buy coral, livestock and other needs for your tank! Every time we stop by, Abie helps us out without making us feeling rushed. He also makes sure we get everything we need to help with our tank whenever a problem occurs. We also see a variety of coral and fish we don’t see too often at other stores. I recommend checking this place out if you get a chance, if you’re lucky you’ll get to see a box fish!

Charlie Young

2020-05

Remedies available and lots of healthy coral on display. Plugs are on the higher end and colonies reasonable. Tank construction is custom and very well done. High light and medium to low flow.

Mike Schmahl

2023-05

I absolutely love Saltwater City! Super friendly staff, good deals and always willing to help! The owner, Trev, is one hell of a guy and will do everything he can to take care of his customers! I wouldn’t hesitate for a split second to go to check this place out for the first time!I bought a Red Sea tank from SC and when I got to unpacking it, I found 3 cracks on the bottom of the tank. I posted about it on a FB group and Trev reached out to me very quickly so he could get all my info to have his Red Sea rep get a new tank shipped out to me!He also takes wonderful care of Veterans! I’ve got absolutely nothing but praise for him and his establishment!Seriously, GO CHECK THEM OUT!!!!

Brandon s

2023-05

My go to shop, only shop in the area where you can see their QT process. Never had a fish die on me from them. All my fish except for a flame angel are from here. Flame is from cuttle fish in PDX highly recommend checking them out as well.Coral selection is solid, a little pricey but still pretty comparable to other brick and mortars.

Ernie Engineer

2022-05

I’ve bought livestock and equipment and frozen food from Saltwater City. They’ve been very knowledgeable and helpful.I was plagued with red turf algae and a young woman who works there recommend turbo snails and it was cleaned up in record time! Thanks.Owner replaced two clown fish that died after only 3 days, no questions asked. The replacements are doing great after more than a year.Prices are competitive with online sales on the items that I checked. 👍👍A great “Local Fish Store”.

Charles Damewood

2019-05

Amazing experience, as always. Only problem is I constantly go in just for water testing or maybe 1 fish and end up leaving with way more stuff! Great prices and selection of fish, corals, and equipment. Very friendly and personable staff who know their trade. Always willing to answer questions and give advice when asked. By far my favorite saltwater one stop shop!

mokana713

2021-05

Offers a decent variety of coral frags, saltwater aquarium supplies, fish, live rocks, and invertebrates for the size of the shop. Pleasantly surprised by how clean their livestock tanks looked. Ended up buying some branch type live rock and some very nice chunky live rock. There was a really nice tank they had for sale and I would love to come back for the flame clam or the bigger brittle sea serpent stars. Drove over 2 hours to visit several fish stores and I wasn't disappointed with Saltwater City- probably one of the better stores I visited today.

Shanon Cox

2023-10

So helpful! Getting our tank up and running.

Jed Green

2018-05

Nice big shop. Lots of dry goods, additives, and high end reef tank goodies. The fish tanks look like they are working hard to get them cleaned up. It was my first time there but it was a good experience. The girl working there was super friendly and helpful without being annoying or awkward. I’m looking forward to swinging by there again next time I head south.

Karthik Murali

2019-05

When I started my nano reef, I went straight to this place and had a very nice chat with Alex. She was very helpful in guiding me correctly as to how can I ensure to stay in my budget and what are the important thing to check-mark before I can get started completely. They have a great collection of corals, livestock and other reef goodies. Highly recommend - and of course, great people who work there and making this a favorite fish store for many of us!

Steven Means

2021-05

These guys are always helpful they give good time proven advice and have never over sold me on fish or dry goods. They recently over hauled their tanks and reorganized their store to include decently sized/ priced coral frags.I am really appreciative in the small display tanks they have setup with the different products(protein skimmers, pumps, lights) they carry so you can see them in use before you buy them.They also quarantine and warranty their fish which has saved me a lot of time and money over the years.

L V

2022-05

I bought a blue tang from this place. According to the not so friendly staff, it was quarantined. Their prices are higher than their competition but I though it was OK since I was buying a quarantined fish. Given that this was the first time I bought a fish from this place, I decided to put it on my QT tank instead of my DT. Well, less than a week and guess what... Ich! Please do yourself a favor and buy your fish elsewhere. Not only the staff is unfriendly and couldn't care less about your business, but it's a pretty deceiving business tactic to sell fish as "quarantined" when they clearly are not.

Jesse MacArthur

2020-05

Saltwater City is my favorite shop! Owner Trev is the nicest guy and he'll take amazing care of your tank while you're out of town. His employees Chris, Jacob and Tara are super knowledgeable and very friendly. I've always wanted a reef tank and thanks to them, they've helped me make that a reality. They've got a great selection of fish, inverts and corals at great prices.Having visited all the saltwater shops in the area, I can easily say this is the best shop on the Eastside! Do yourself a favor and check them out. You won't regret it :)

Saul

2017-05

A great service and attention, thanks for calibrating my refractometer, they have an excellent range of corals, fish and accessories.

Jen Thompson

2021-05

I really enjoyed going to this store but my recent visit was absolutely ridiculous. The lady that works there is so rude and does not care to help customers. I asked her a couple questions and she just rolled her eyes at me and was completely annoyed that I had questions. I usually go when Jacob is there because he has no problems helping me. Coral prices have definitely gone up. Don’t think I’ll be returning anytime soon.

Nick Champagne

2020-05

First of all, I would ensure that your employees are trained well enough that they know the prices of your inventory. Second, I wouldn’t talk down to clients because a coral is expensive and you are judging the clients who are shopping at your store. Responding “do you know how much that is” or “I don’t know if you know, but that is one thousand dollars” isn’t how you talk to clients. I was there to support my local business in these hard times and specifically there to spend money to support my local business to give them a break. However, when I am greeted with that kind of service, I wouldn’t buy anything off the discount rack.If you can get pass the pretentious feeling of the staff, they do have good selection.

Roman Yarynych

2023-10

Fantastic store very knowledgeable staff eager to help. Thank you guys for supporting this fabulous hobby

andre waluigi

2019-05

as someone new to reef keeping, these guys have been extremely accommodating and helpful. they have an excellent selection of livestock and coral. the only bad thing about this store is that I can't seem to leave without buying a bunch of stuff.

Heather Houtz

2022-05

The staff was eager to help and get us set up with exactly what we need. Good selection of livestock, rock and dry goods. We bought a coral frag for our nano and it's doing well.

shawn dixon

2014-05

After reading the reviews was kind of hesitant to check them out, but decided to stop by. Big colonies with big prices and noticed, like the reviews, the tanks could have used a lot more maintenance. (A lot of algae) Althogh I gave 4 stars because Leslie; who was very helpful and knowledgeable. He listened to what I was looking for with the prices I needed. Will go back because of that.

Mr. Finch

2019-05

Very nice store! Nice cozy store tucked away in strip mall was full of different kinds of critters. Some of which I never seen at other stores. The staff was very friendly and didnt mind at all my bombardment of questions and my childish glee. I was so excited I had to be weirding him out a lil bit! If I didnt live in Tacoma I would definitely come here more often. ALL livestock purchased that day were disease free and are doing awesome in my 160. Highly recommended if you are in the area. Thanks.

Nate N

2021-05

With no reservations I can say that this is the most well informed staff and their store accessible to even saltwater beginners like me. They freely answer all questions and care about the customer experience when buying and owning fish. Will be returning!

Kizztophe Asuncion

2020-05

Expensive, Expensive, and even more expensive.Need I mention one more time of their absurd prices? In comparison to all the saltwater stores around the area, actually all of seattle, they have the highest prices for all of their livestock and equipment. My first visit was awful, like I mentioned before price, their tanks were very dirty, filled with pests. Corals were "okay" at the least. Was told by a customer that one of their customers for maintenance has broken down and donated his tank and livestock to them. yet they're selling them by ridiculous amounts.Second visit, was told that theres new management and upgrades.Came back, the only tanks that were cleaners were ones on the left side which had fish only. Coral tanks were still fairly dirty, and the ones on the right side were filthy. Prices aren't AS expensive but still expensive and still the most expensive around the whole Washington state. Wouldn't be surprised if it's all of United States.Staff seemed somewhat knowledgable, asked a staff that seems like she had no idea which livestock is which.Overall, it would be a good visit if you're around the area but be aware.New post 2019:Have been going to the store a few times when i'm around Bellevue. It's been 2 years since and they've done a lot of remodeling and changes in the store. Prices are still high compared to other stores in the area but they've adjusted and added a bargain tank. They have a good selection of fish. Good display tanks. A good amount of dry goods; equipment, lights, frozen food, dry food, live rock, inverts, fish.

Jordin Pierce

2022-05

Will not be buying fish from them anymore. I wouldn’t necessarily say this is on the store but there is a real issue with wherever they source their fish from. In 3 years of this hobby I have never killed a fish in qt but 2 of the same species of fish I bought from this store died. I had them special order for me. The first one died the first day I put it in qt—not even any meds or anything yet. Had ich out of the store and was already swimming weird in the bag. I came to an agreement for them to sell me another one at wholesale cost since the first one didn’t make it past a day. The second one made it about 2 weeks in qt on a half dose of meds being that it was a sensitive fish. This one also had ich straight out of the store that I could see in the bag. The ich stayed throughout qt and eventually the fish succumbed to it. Wasted 130+ dollars total on this mess. I’ve had far more sensitive fish survive the same qt tank and process just a month earlier. Not impressed.Side note: they kept the fish in their invert tank as they said they didn’t want to expose it to meds in their larger tanks since it’s a sensitive fish. I understood that but at the same time putting it in the invert tanks could also very likely be the cause of the ich, since there is no way of getting rid of it in the invert tanks. My suggestion would be to have a separate system entirely for more sensitive fish. I also just found it weird that when I came to pick the second fish up, I asked for it by name and saw the tank it was in, but the girl working still needed me to point at the fish to know which one it was. There was only 2 fish in the tank; mine (a wrasse), and a tailspot blenny. I just found it odd that someone would be working there and not know the difference.