Always tough sledding for Aquarist's here in the desert. But some searching will lead you some good hole in the wall shops.
The Ocean Floor has the potential to dominate the Phoenix market but falls short in execution. Often times you will see dead and dying fish as well as obviously diseased and injured fish here. Tanks are typically dirty and the staff seems not all that interested in helping the customers.
Prices are HIGH. Yes, its the desert and fish prices are always high at the LFS. But the OF takes it 25-35% higher than normal.
Its a large store with tons of potential. But unfortunately the ownership does not seem to wish to invest time and energy in the business. We have made a couple purchases there that have been positive but usually we are just stopping in to look and remark about the crazy prices and depart.
The last visit we made was especially disturbing as the "show tank" with a few huge Gourami's, a monster Peacock Bass and RTC was nasty dirty and fish were visibly stressed and diseased or sick.
Its disgraceful to treat any animals in that manner.
A decent fish store would have had taken a couple hours and cleaned up this 400 gallon mess.
But as stated above, I simply think they don't care.
My advice: If you buy something, quarantine it for two weeks or risk killing your tank with whatever nasty fungus you just purchased.
The only reason to give them 2 stars is that they do have a big store and a large selection of pumps, filters, tanks and lights.