Oceans by Design

I have been shopping at aquarium and fish stores for 30 years and although I don’t have a tank right now I plan to get back in the hobby. If fact, this store was soooooooo cool I almost whipped out my cc and did an impulse buy! :)
Dunno exactly when, that is WHEN not if, I will be making this place my go to saltwater tank man.

Visited the store for the first time just to get an idea on tank built. Mike is very friendly guy with honest quote with no sales pressure. Pretty open layout store front with decent selection of corals. There were many saltwater fish but didn’t pay much attention since I was not shopping for one. Nice to see their work in progress for custom build at the back and he didn’t mind my presence at the back. Ended up buying a rimless peninsula tank. Would definitely go back for more buys.

We love coming here. This is a lot closer to our home and we have been coming here twice a week for water and livestock. Even after we get our RODI unit, I am sure we will still be stopping by at least once a week.
One reason I love this place is because is not crowded like other fish stores. OBD is big and spacious. So when there are multiple customers, you are not bumping in to everyone trying to see the fish.
They also build tanks in house, so you can see the progress. Is not contracted to some other big names. So personal touches are more visible when you get the final results.
They also have corals and fish food. Things needed for piping your sump. Is a one stop shop for all your salt water needs. Even if you don’t have a salt water tank, is fun to just come here with kids and look at the tanks.
Oh and Jeff is a ROCKSTAR!!! Say hi to him and tell him that I sent you :)

Wow! I was pleasantly surprised by this place. It came highly recommended by local reefers. The owner, Mike, and I talked for a good hour. He was so nice and courteous to me and it is apparent he loves his job. He even showed me around the back to look at their grow out frag tanks.
Their selection was awesome and the prices on the corals were the best I have seen in the retail coral business. Sps frags started at $ 15 and most colonies were $ 50. I bought two larger frags for $ 30 and $ 20 and Mike threw in a free frag (a Cali tort!)
They have a lot of frogspawns, hammers, torches in a variety of colors. There got a lot of real estate devoted to sps, and boy, are they colorful. Not a brown coral in sight. Their zoanthids and mushroom selection seemed great, but I only really glanced at it.
The fish were in appropriately sized tanks, not crammed together, but the selection could have been better. I imagine they would be more apt to custom order fish for you than keep them on hand for the impulse buy.
They had a small selection of reef equipment, including loc line and fittings for plumbing. When I asked about a product they did not have in stock, Mike looked it up and offered to order it for me. He gave me his honest opinion and even looked up reviews for me. It was above and beyond what I expected and certainly much more customer service than I’m accustomed to getting at most LFS.
I would recommend this place to anyone who appreciates quality and customer service.

Oceans by Design is a great store! The owner Mike has helped me so much on my current build. Not only does he have a great selection of dry goods and equipment; he also has custom made parts just for the needs of my system. I recommend all my friends and future reefers to Mike. They also have a nice livestock selection at great prices!

The owner Mike built a custom 225g tank for me, and personally delivered it form Seattle to Spokane! He shipped me good quality healthy fish a couple months later. Great to deal with, responsive, and delivered the tank as promised, on time– before Christmas so I was able to set it up during my holiday vacation.

On Saturday I bought my second fish from Oceans B Design. Everybody was very helpful and my fish is now swimming very happily in my tank.
I have decided that Oceans By Design will be my go to shop for all of my supplies and fish.

When my husband and I finally made the 2 hour drive south to visit this store, we were sorely disappointed. The store was very dirty and the livestock was very unhealthy. There was a copperband butterfly with a terrible case of ich in the livestock tank and the floor was littered with trash.
When chatting with Matt Reed and Jessica about our plans to stop by a couples of local reefers homes before heading back north, there were some very snotty comments made about these people. The majority of the reefing community is pretty close knit, so I was shocked by the tactless comments about people that are highly regarded. The customer service is subpar at best, so I will avoid this business at all costs in the future.

Love this place and how honest they are. They actually refused to sell me a fish until it goes through their quarantine process. This is huge in this business. No other store I visited quarantine their fish. Mike, the owner was super helpful and knowledgeable. Sometimes they are busy, but I really don’t mind being patient since their fish quality is super compared to the other store.
once

I really really wanted to like this place. I met the owner at the Home and Garden show in Seattle at the beginning of the year and he seemed really nice. I contacted him about creating a custom tank after the show and waited two weeks. No reply. Not even a thank you for emailing me I will get back to your shortly. Nope…
Ok well thought I would give him another change as he sells coral and fish and I bought a tank from someone else and have it up and running. I saw on the actual website that he should be open today and drove for more than an hour to the store around 3pm (and the website says they are open from 12pm-​6pm) but I was wrong. The shop was locked up and lights were off. No note on the door even as to why they were closed. What a waste of time.
It’s beyond frustrating trying to deal with a business that does not want to make money. Needless to say don’t waste your time with these guys.

I have to make an update to my previous review. After the new owners took over — Mike and some other guy — this place has tanked (no pun intended). It’s literally turned 180 into a pile of shit. Mike is a complete asshole who clearly believes everything he touches is gold. I don’t think he knows anything about building sumps and maintaining a tank. The woman that now sits at the front desk is as personable as a box of shotgun shells. She doesn’t even acknowledge you when you walk in! What the hell happened to Rebecca? Oh and forget about customer service, the only thing these jerks want is your money and they don’t care how they trick you into buying anything from there.
You’ve been warned, do business ANYWHERE else. This place isn’t what it used to be.

I’ve spent the last 4 months looking for a custom cube tank in the Vancouver, BC area with no success! Costs range from $ 660 to $ 900 for a 60 gal cube.
While in Seattle, I decided to drop by Oceans by Design to check out the store. Eric showed me his custom built tanks. I was very impressed with this design specifically his forward thinking around his tank designs. Within the afternoon, I bought a 45gal reef ready cube.
Why did I buy the tank from OBD? A commercially available cube from Marineland is $ 200 cheaper — 6 mm glass vs the 10 mm starfire glass used by OBD. Clear silicone vs the choice of clear or black silicone. Corner overflow vs choice of corner or center at OBD. 1 overflow drain versus 2. Quality of finished silicone — commercial is finger smeared vs OBD’s clean sharp lines!
Eric also spent the time showing me his shop were he builds his cube tanks. Very clean! I was very impressed with the custom jigs he’s built over the years as a custom tank builder to ensure they’re perfectly square.
Eric also spent time showing me some of his other products as well as commercially available products which has impressed him. He introduced me to the Kessil product line for my 45g cube. That will be my next purchase from OBD.
Both Eric and Rebecca are very very customer oriented! They will spend the time needed to ensure all their customers leave HAPPY. Heck, without customers the BEST companies can’t make money.
I was also there when they had their customer appreciation day. I arrived at 10:15a to pickup my cube tank so I start driving back to Vancouver. the place the packed. Eric bounced around talking to the various customers. Even the customers were talking to each other. There must’ve been 50+ people there.
Since my return to Vancouver, I’ve already shown my cube tank to a few friends. They’re all impressed with the build quality — clean silicone lines and thickness of glass!
I just can’t wait to get my stand built so I can get my tank started.
Highly recommend OBD to others as you will not be disappointed! I’ll continue to support OBD by driving the 200 miles to Seattle to buy what I can’t get in Vancouver!

Bought some stuff for my tank that I am building here.
These folks are great and super helpful. And are more than willing to spend time with you and explain things to you.
I will be back to buy more and more stuff from them. Prices are fair keeping in mind they have a store and not a web page to maintain. I really don’t mind spending a extra buck or two locally when the customer service rocks.
Thanks for all your help. I can’t wait to finish my tank build…

Stopped by to peak in the windows to get an idea of what the store will be like. I was let in to the store and was able to look around it is shaping up very nicely. They don’t have much to sell yet, but will soon. I hope they will open fully stocked by christmas!