Reviews of Beyond the Reef (Fish Shop)

Ryan's Video Projects

Great selection of healthy and colorful freshwater and saltwater fish.

ryan otto

Really great aquarium store. Prices are among the best in the area. Selection for supplies, fish, clean crew, and corals is fantastic. Freshwater selection is good too! Store is well organized and clean. Everyone here is really knowledgeable and helpful.

Fish Bro

Some of the prices are Beyond Belief, overall store has a beautiful nice selection good fish and corals . BUT I guess not the place I would buy all my supply and fish because of the price. Something I don't like of this store, just because I'm comparing it to others is the warranty policy on their fish, the whole 24 hours and only if the fish is dead policy is ridiculous. Once in a while stop here to look at the beautiful tanks, and maybe sometimes I purchase something that will catch my eye and I must have it.

Anthony Gates

Wasn't in that location.

Jennifer Lyle

This store is great! The people there are really knowledgeable and helpful. The livestock is really healthy and competively priced. They were very helpful getting me set up with my first reef tank, and my first fish. They're the best.

Kurt Baldwin

So I have lived all over the United States and worked as well as been a customer at the best stores in the United States. I have to say. Beyond the Reef has the best selection and best display of frags to colonies as well as some real “once in a lifetime” pieces! Their prices are absolutely the best. See for your self. The store connected to pet land around the corner for them sells for example a fire fish (regular type) for up to 45 dollars while BtR always keeps them at the proper price and lowest I’ve seen all over the states. About 20 bucks. Another example is their high end corals and even the show pieces most people can’t even dream of affording are priced so well that it’s almost to good to be true! I have worked there and know the in and outs of this store and many others. This store is the best in our state and keep up with the ever changing demands. The only other store that comes close to this is in San Jose California called Neptune Aquatics. I’ve worked there too. They are pretty on par with each other. Also. The staff at beyond is picked carefully by people that are qualified. They don’t just pick randoms as they like people to be as passionate about the hobby as any other extreme reef enthusiast! CHRIS, Tyler, and If Dorothy is available all have great knowledge on the animals and are honest and always give the customer the benefit of the doubt! They won’t finagle you into a specimen that’s not made for captivity like some stores. There’s a reason you don’t see modish idols, or any other extremely different specimens that aren’t cut out for captivity. Lastly, they are the only store I’ve even seen that sells TRUE AND HARDY CAPTIVE BRED SEAHORSES. Don’t be scared to try their variety of seahorses which are h. Erectus. As long as you have them in a docile tank and feed them frozen mysis they are actually as easy to keep as a captive bred clownfish. No joke. They don’t import wild caught or “pen raised” seahorses which always need live food and or diseases are always going to be on those 9 times out of 10. I know this cause I started the seahorses there when I used to work there and bred them myself. I don’t anymore cause I move frequently but they now use my supplier who breeds them just as I did. If you don’t believe me, go visit and see for your self and even ask to see them feed. They are really amazing creatures that actually live 5 to 8 years. Not 1 or two like people used to say. I know this first hand. Anyways Chris and tyler really know their stuff and during the week is best if you need information as on the weekends it’s harder to learn as much cause the store can get so busy. Any day of the week is fine but the weekends can be a bit crazy if your looking for loads of info when they have 20 customers. Just a tip! Either way they will still help you but sometimes you may have to wait 5 minutes when someone is picking our 20 animals. It is worth the wait. Like I said. Tyler and Chris are amazing. And if your lucky to get Dorothy who normally does office work at this point normally. She’s amazing as well! All the team lives for this stuff. It’s not just a job and I have no reason to try and boost this store other then I won’t go ANYWHERE ELSE! And I live in the loop of Chicago! Great job guys. Glad to see the standards are high still and the store is ever evolving even better then before! Seriously. Check out the stock and prices and compare them to other places. You will not find better quality. These guys know who to get their animals from and have good relationships with them which is why all there specimens are so above the regular but at a regular or cheaper then regular price! Kurt!

Paul Wehmanen

Noticed that the frag tanks had aptasia and bubble algae. Hopefully they are working towards a solution. Will still stop by the next time I am in the area though.

Vic Soto

Excellent place, great service. Lot to see.

Tom Marcet

Good selection and service

Tanya Szatkowski

Having been to almost all Aquarium stores in the northwest burbs, I have been most pleased with Beyond the Reef. Their staff is very knowledgeable and they are great to work with. Thier stock is good quality, we have purchased many things from them and have been happy with ALL of them. Of the numerous purchases we've made, there have been a couple of fish that didn't survive. My first thought was, great, I just threw my money out the window, because there's NO WAY a fish store is going to either replace my fish or give me a refund/store credit. Well, what I thought was going to be a nightmare was far from that. I brought my water sample in and informed the staff of my fish dying and they replaced my lost fish without any problems. I would highly recomend Beyond the Reef to anyone, if you're going to invest in an expensive hobby, you want to work with people you trust, and I trust Beyond the Reef!!

Daniel Ibarra

If they ever close down(which I doubt), I’ll cry no cap. I go to beyond the reef at least once a week, even if I don’t buy anything, i just go in and look. The employees even say welcome back when I walk through the door LOL BTR- super affordable, super clean, super helpful. I love you BTR

L Henderson

Pretty cool and trustworthy, could be cheaper

Ryan Filip

Very nice store, employees seem very knowledgeable and helpful. all of the fish tanks I have seen look clean fish look happy and healthy and well taken care of. A few of the tanks with corals had some bubble algae and aptasia in them

Margret Sloma

The people at Beyond The Reef are very knowledgable and friendly. Even though it is a small store, they have a good selection and their prices are competitive with even the large chain pet stores. I have purchased natural decor (spider wood and rocks), 2 guppies and 2 German Blue Ram cichlids for my freshwater tropical tank. The decor is exactly what I was looking for and the fish I purchased were (and still are) very healthy! I would highly recommend this store!

mpower jerry

nice and clean place good TDS water .. friendly people .. very good price coral and fish .. thank you

Anthony Scianna

Great selection of fish and coral and knowledgeable staff

Rob DeLegge

Atmosphere is fantastic. Well stocked with supplies and tons of lifeforms for both saltwater and freshwater (including a great selection of coral+anemones). They also sell a variety of dry/live rock. Staff is very knowledgable and provides excellent customer service. Prices are also very fair. Would definitely/highly recommend this place for your freshwater+saltwater aquarium needs!

citrano1

Best shop for coral in the area

Sarah Linden

Beautiful store, good selection of salt water fish and corals

Tom Klausing

cool place to check out some awesome tanks. they sell a variety of dry and live rock and have a good selection of livestock. biggest thing is their wide coral selection

Dewey Guzman

It had a large amount of coral and saltwater fish, they even suggested what coral were best for beginners. would deffenatly go there again!

andreo girardi

Exceptional

Edward Rohlfes

Great store lots of knowledge and will spend time talking to you

Jolt Hammer

Great place for saltwater fish and supplies.

Mustafa Hussaini

Great staff here. I recommend coming during the week, they get very busy on the weekends.

Ryan Otto

Everyone here is very helpful. Store is well organized and clean. Stock is always full and they have a great variety of coral, saltwater, and freshwater. Pricing is great too! Accessory selection had everything you need. They also stock different salt depending on what you need to do.

brennan lottes

Great service and the tanks always have tons of variety and healthy fish and coral

Walt Park

Super pricey.

Rick Song

This store has great livestock. Right when you enter the store you know that they care about their fish and corals. That being said their livestock is ALL saltwater. The fish are healthy and have amazing colors. The corals are THE most beautiful corals I have ever seen. To the right of the entrance on the front window is a HUGE. BEAUTIFUL. FULL ON REEF TANK. The tank has the most beautiful anemones, corals, and fish. Underneath is a dream sump. Then in front of those tanks are three rows aquariums stacked inside smaller wooden rooms. There are mini ocellaris clownfish for $10.99! and firefish for $18.99. Then on the left wall and tank next to the entrance is a coral frag tank and on the right wall are corals and frags for sale. The cheapest ones are $19 dollars. Then on the far back wall are some jelly fish, shrimp, hermit crabs (buy 3 get 2 free), mandarin fish and a green mantis shrimp. Then on the left wall is a large tang with large triggers and jelly fish. 10/10 would return to this store

Maryann Urban

They have every kind of salt water fish and corals now they carry fresh water plants and fish

ramiro gonzalez

I can honestly say that I have not had one bad experience with this store. Everyone that I speak with is knowledgeable and courteous. I recently purchased a keyhole angel fish. My scopas tang would not stop bullying the angel. For fear of stress and dying I called beyond the reef and explained what is happening. I brought the angelfish back and received store credit. The crew in the store was great. Because I let them know right away what was taking place I was able to get the angel fish back to a safe environment.

Kristine Garcia

All the employees are super informative. Learned so much. Friendly store with everything you could ask for

Karen Schuttler

Love the female employees....boys some are pretty good others we stay away from.....the owner....have heard some pretty inappropriate gossiping about other fish stores from him. If it weren't for the younger employees we wouldn't go here.

Richard Beech

Pretty good place to get some tropical fish

Caitlyn Hammond

Amazing store with a great staff.

Davion H

Very clean and friendly staff

Rosemary W

I go here at least twice a month. I love the staff and love the options an stock that they have. I only get my water, fish and corals from here!!!

Roxann Camparone

Clean tanks. Good selection of fish

S A

I am a freshwater/planted tank person, and only came to this store in the past for a few items. But I recently came here and noticed the store is starting to go more freshwater/planted. I’d say it’s almost 1/2 the store now. They do still carry salt water stuff, but it’s nice that they added this too. After seeing a few of their planted nano tanks, it got me interested in this area more. After a couple more visits and speaking with the friendly (not pushy salesman)staff, I purchased a few items to get me going. After a couple of weeks, and a couple more visits to the store, I had a nice little nano planted tank going. Again, they have staff that knows freshwater/plants. And if by chance you happen to run into a salt water only staff member, they will direct you to someone who knows, rather than guess or try to sell you something that you may not need. I’ve been in the hobby for over 15 years now and this store is a breath of fresh air from the other stores in the area. This store is small, but they make up for it in quality people, attention, and products. Worth spending my money here vs online. Use to go a few doors down to the other fish place, but they don’t know what’s going on there anymore and the quality in staff/products has gone down imho.

Anthony B

Their corals and fish are very good. However customer service or service in general is very poor. I've walked in there and walked around with intentions of buying both coral and fish. I and maybe one other person were in the building, and I was never asked if I needed help. This happened multiple occasions.

Carlos Alfredo Sandoval

Very knowledgeable staff and a huge selection of corals!!!

Guyang Mao

Nice stock and inverts selection, decent prices

Rene Valtierra

Tank were very messy, many of the fresh and salt water fish were sick, overpriced(considering quality) and the staff give false/mislead info. I always feel rushed out of here. There display tank is nice though, and as a whole the store was very clean.

Eric Wozny

I love this place. You can definitely tell the staff cares about their store.

Amanda Sweat

Great store!

Adam Szatkowski

I have used this store almost exclusively over the last year to establish a 500+ gallon reef home aquarium. I have visited and used almost every other reef aquarium store in the chicago area and Beyond the Reef are the best balance of customer service, price and quality. I would highly recommend them for any reef situation. So far, there has never been a bad experience.

Joanne Carroll

Knowledge staff

Duhamel. Guzman

As always their corals are amazing. It is not a big Store but they could get anything you need, just ask. Stop by even just to see what they have. Also subscribe to their Belly card for rewards.

Ninos Diroo

Amazing store! I go here almost every weekend! The employees are very very very knowledgeable and kind! The fish and plants are very healthy, as well as the corals! The tanks are very well kept! They have amazing prices as well! If I could give this a 10 star I would!

John Lasocki

.Friendly and informative sales people

Anthony Krawczyk

Great place! This place is well kept and healthy livestock! The staff is super helpful and friendly with a ton of knowledge behind them. I just visited them today from Wisconsin on our WRS club bus trip! They have great looking corals all over the place and a lot of well sized plump fish! I look forward to seeing them again! Thank you! AKA Coralfuture

Peter Vander Aa

Nice shop. Prices are a little high but not as bad as some others. Large selection of frozen foods.

Regina Jarvis

This place doesn't smell!

Cole Weede

The best local fish store I have ever been to and it is run by great people.

Marek Dobek

Very helpfully team , they have a lot experience.

CoLeLuMaNaTi Gaming

Amazing

Joe Mohr

Love this store, wide variety of both freshwater and saltwater supplies and highly knowledgable staff.

Bishop Martinez

Great selection for a small store. Customer service is outstanding they're extremely helpful.

cj rod

The employee (owner?) was so nice to my kids and so informative. He helped us choose a couple little fish for my son's aquarium and let the kids interact with some of the sea creatures. My kids really enjoyed going

Bill Terpstra

Nice selection, healthy fish!

John B

The staff were incredibly helpful and I enjoyed the wide range of products offered!

Naty Sakdisri

I have been going to this store for a couple of years now. Friendly service and awesome corals. Even though I have moved hundreds of miles away, I still stop in to get some corals whenever I can. They have always offered to pack up my corals for the long haul back.

Ryan Guy

The selection of Coral was incredible. The selection of Fish available for sale was under impressive. The customer service was horrible. The associates would disappear for 5-10 minutes then just magically reappear. If you like Coral go check this place out but if you want Fish. Go somewhere else.

Gatf4

I stopped in on Sunday right before closing and Tyler was very helpful, knowledgeable and friendly. He stayed more than a half hr past closing helping me and answering all my questions. I was very impressed with the stock levels they had and the Colonies I picked up from them.

Jean Kad

Love this store. Great selection. Been coming here for years.

Jimmy W

A+ for Lauren and crew! Changed my Review from a few years ago to complement them on not only outstanding customer service but the place looks great!!!