You can access the Cellar Marine website here
https://www.cellarmarinestore.co.uk
I will recommend this retailer, but with caution. Please read about my experience below.
Why I chose Cellar Marine
I have been on the look out for a while for a good value clean up crew pack. My LFS sells 3 CUC members for £11.00 which, personally, I feel is a little steep! So I resorted to looking online.
I trawled Ebay and a few other sites looking at my options and eventually come upon Cellar Marine, based in Stoke on Trent, who ship out Clean up Crew packs and other saltwater items around the UK.
They currently have five different Clean Up Crew packs available online, all between £10.00 and £50.00 plus you have to pay £12.50 postage and packing. Even with the postage and packing I was still getting more CUC members per £1.00 than I would in my LFS, I think they offer good value in that sense.
The Website
The Cellar Marine website is easy to navigate and the checkout process was very simple. The pictures of the products make it easy to see what you are getting, clearly a lot of thought has gone into the development of it.
They have a good variety of fish, snails, inverts & reef related items available at what seems to be a fair price-point. I had added a few other little bits to my cart before checking out, but the price of postage went up even higher and seemed to de-value the deal to me so I removed the additional items and just stuck with the CUC pack.
Packaging & Delivery
My items from Cellar Marine arrived well packaged and within the agreed time slot. The CUC arrived with a heat pack that was still warm, and all the individual species were double bagged to further reduce any chance of casualties.
The £30.00 CUC Pack
I opted for the £30.00 Clean up Crew pack which was supposed to consist of the following:
- 6x Nass Snails
- 5x Rounded Turbo Snails
- 5x Cerith Snails
- 2x Scarlet Red Legged Hermits
- 1x Concho Snail
Unfortunately, I was missing a snail in my pack. Only four out of the five Rounded Turbo Snails arrived. I am not going to dwell on that too much, the company dealt with my complaint within 12 hours by issuing me a refund for the missing snail, with seemingly no complaints about having to do so. Still, it’s a bit disappointing.
The CUC that were sent are all of a good size, there is nothing really tiny in there and I have had no fatalities. All seem happy, healthy and active. I particularly like the Strawberry Conch that came with the pack.
Overall Review
Overall, I was a little disappointed that the full pack didn’t arrive but I was impressed with the way my complaint was dealt with. The transaction was very easy and I was impressed by the variety of livestock they had available on their website.
I will probably use them again for more Clean Up Crew and possibly some corals, I am a bit dubious about buying fish online from anyone so I probably won’t be buying any fish.
If I use them again, I will review them again.