How Often Do You Order?

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Just placed my most recent Coop order, and thought it would be fun to do the math and find out how often I order. On average, I order every 1.17 months. Looking back on my old orders, I used to order ~2 weeks. Which makes sense as I was setting up all my tanks, and I was ordering tons of plants and sponge filters.
 

These days I order about once per month, but also have stints where I go about 6 months between orders. Again, makes sense. These days I need things like: Easy Green, water conditioner, brine shrimp eggs, foods, and merch (if the new drop suits my tastes). It was a fun trip down memory lane to see how often I ordered, what I ordered, and why I ordered that  

 

Now it’s your turn; how often do you order, and what draws you to order? Might also be fun to look at average order total, although I’m not sure I really wanna know that one 😅

Edited October 6, 2022 by AllFishNoBrakes
Typo

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I was ordering at least twice a month at first, then I decided to make myself wait til one month passes before placing the next order. That way I can space purchases out to help the budget.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea What draws you to place an order these days? Is it you’re running low on something you need? Is it the budget allows? Want to try a new product that launched? Want to try a new food? Merch? Etc. I’m curious what draws others to place an order that have been around a while. 

[lefty o]

i probably average out at 6 months per order. all based upon need balanced with budget.

[Scapexghost]

If ordered from the coop 4 times, first time probably over a year ago, most recently monday. Usually its stuff my lfs doesnt carry, like tweesers or the stingray

[AnimalNerd98]

I typically order about every 6 months. Largely, this was because I was a college student and my part-time job barely paid for my rent and other essentials. I usually only ordered with birthday or gift money 😝 Now that I’m working, the frequency of orders might change 😉

What usually causes me to order is if there is anything new or exclusive from the Co-Op that I want to try. My LFS now carries their sponge filters, meds, Xtreme foods, and even Ziss Brine Shrimp hatchery so my next purchases will probably be the CO2 regulator and maybe the Co-Op light whenever it comes out. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 10/5/2022 at 10:05 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea What draws you to place an order these days? Is it you’re running low on something you need? Is it the budget allows? Want to try a new product that launched? Want to try a new food? Merch? Etc. I’m curious what draws others to place an order that have been around a while. 

Running low on something, usually meds or salt. Supplies to start new tanks - heater, sponge filter, etc. Backup nano  pumps for power outages. But mostly trying new plants. The quality of their plants is better than local.

Edited October 6, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Andy's Fish Den]

I go in spurts where I will order once or twice a month for a few months and then not order anything for several months. Most of the time it is when I am low or out of something like root tabs, fertilizer. Now, a LFS that I love to go to is carrying the co-op products so it give me an even bigger incentive to drive the hour and half over to there, which I am going to do either this weekend or next, because I am out of root tabs and I need another sponge filter.  I also saw on their Instagram page that they got some really cool fish in that I want to check out. 

[Gannon]

Too often for being a college student tbh haha. I also always forget something that I needed for a project and then ordering more stuff together because why not. 

All in all probably once every 2 months on average but it happens in big bursts. 

Edited October 6, 2022 by Gannon

[JettsPapa]

I used to order every couple of months, but recently I've built up quite a bit of store credit at the local stores from bringing in plants, guppies, and shrimp, so I'm getting everything from them instead.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@JettsPapa I feel ya. I tend to use my store credit for the things the Coop doesn’t have. New fish I’m after, hard scape, etc. 

[HenryC]

When I started, I think I was ordering once every 2 weeks or so. Now I order about each month some Xtreme Big fella for my cichlids. I wen't thru that phase of "lets try ALL THE FOODS!" before settling up with xtreme. Now I'm all good with just big fella and N.I.C.E. 1.5mm, I do not have small fish anymore so I do not order krill flakes anymore.

Edited October 6, 2022 by HenryC

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I spaced out my orders mainly because I try to get to the $70 or $80 each time to avoid shipping costs. 
 

This past order I ordered less and just ate the shipping cost.

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 10/6/2022 at 1:35 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I spaced out my orders mainly because I try to get to the $70 or $80 each time to avoid shipping costs. 
 

This past order I ordered less and just ate the shipping cost.

Yeah, me too.  Less money spent on shipping = more money spent on everything else!  Also, the minimum order limit ($15, I think?) used to annoy me, because I was so used to Amazon and how frictionless their ordering/delivery process is, but a) there's probably a good point in consolidation of orders to reduce carbon emissions and b) even if that's not a good point, I'd probably be consolidating to get the free shipping anyway, tightwad that I am.

[Bev C]

  I usually buy what I can from my LFS  even if it is a little higher to support them  but i live 2 hours away  ,, I  started  ordering mostly online  of the stuff i can boy get at local store I had fish for 13 years without real  plants and usually order amazon  

I started ordering Aquarium Coop when i got into real plants ,,  now a days i order from ACO first  before the other online shops

At first i ordered mostly plants from ACO   and ordered often  

 But  now  having all my plants i usually order from  ACO  the Easy Green , Root Tabs,   and Easy Green Iron and Seachem Prime and Fish food mostly    love their sponge filters , heaters and power head 

I tried ACO sponge filters and no clog air stone love them they are best i have used ,,,I switched all my sponges over ,,  and fell in love with ACO  power heads and heaters ,, getting ready to order another heater before winter .. looking forward to their ACO light when it comes out 

Since i have all my plants now I do not order as often as I did but I try to order when i have enough items  to get the free shipping but if I run out of something and need it fast   i will pay for shipping though

usually  I run through allot root tabs and Seachem’s  prime  more then anything 

 

 

Edited October 6, 2022 by Bev C

[JettsPapa]

On 10/6/2022 at 10:36 AM, JettsPapa said:

I used to order every couple of months, but recently I've built up quite a bit of store credit at the local stores from bringing in plants, guppies, and shrimp, so I'm getting everything from them instead.

By the way, I haven't been in a few months, but a while ago one of the stores in Houston where I have store credit made a post on their Facebook page that they're now carrying ACO merchandise (my daughter-in-law told me; I still don't have a Facebook account).  I plan to check it out next time I go.

[cavdad45]

it's been a while. Waiting for house build to finish before doing my next order.  Then it will be a lot of plants

[Nyssa]

I just placed an order this morning because my usb air pump decided to unalive itself, but when things aren't breaking I can see ordering every 6 months or so.

In the beginning of my tanks I was ordering more frequently for plants and such, but now that everything's established and thriving it's more for maintenance items.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

I just placed my most recent order, and remembered I started this thread back in October 2022, apparently. 
 

My ordering habits have definitely changed since the first post. That was fun to look back on. At this point, I basically have everything I want and need, and only really have to order consumables. Complete as it’s cheaper than Prime but basically the same thing and it’s way more expensive at the LFS, Easy Green, and foods. For context, the most recent previous order was November 2023, I got a gift card for Christmas, and then just used it today. Probably at least another 3 months before I order again, unless some product launches and I just have to play with it. All compared to the 2-4 weeks I was doing when I first started this thread. Was coming in hard when I was first setting up all my tanks, then it calmed down to every 4-6 weeks, and now we’re about 12 weeks between orders. 
 

Looks like my 2 year member coin got added to my order, too! I know @Coryalways says it takes two orders for the coins to ship. One for your account to get flagged that you’ve passed the threshold, and then on the second order the coin actually ships. I got my 1 year coin on the first order when I hit the threshold, too. Probably the “under promise, over deliver” model which I appreciate. Super rad that my coin is coming considering I probably won’t have to order again for a few more months. Shout out to Cory at the team for not making me wait until my next order considering I passed the 2 year mark in December! Stoked to have a new coin to carry around on the daily!

Edited February 21 by AllFishNoBrakes

[reefhugger]

Definitely more often if a new project is underway, then as supplies run out,   As I looked over past orders I started laughing as I remembered a video @Cory did on mistakes new aquarium owners make....especially "you're going to buy too much fish food".  So true.  I just had to try everything.  I should have listened.