J&L now carry freshwater fish!!! I'm super excited! Still my go to for aquarium supplies, and freshwater substrate read more

See all

John there has been very helpful on equipment and advice . J&L wants to make sure you are successful on livestock and their staff are very helpful. read more

I ordered an item that arrived damaged, through no fault of their own. They responded in a timely manner and went above and beyond to help me with a solution. Thank you for the great customer service! read more

I have always had great service from J & L aquatics, but this time they outdid themselves when I received my order and I messaged them with a picture that they had sent the wrong size XLM they promptly sent me another bottle of the correct size of XLM no additional charge and it arrived within a few days! read more

I was there last Sunday before 5 to pick-up few corals and fish to my new cycled tank. I was constantly questioned about my knowledge of them closing the store at 5pm on Sundays by everyone in the store. I kindly said that I want to pick up 4-5 corals and a few fish. After I had one of my corals packed another person came to me sticking 3 fingers in my face saying 3 MINUTES!! we are closing. People in the aquarium area gathered around us repeating - everybody out - this was sooo frustrating. They escorted everyone to the front door and started running around. The person in glasses calling himself the Manager told me at the counter that he doesn't understand why I am angry .... went there few days after on a weekday, the store was empty just the employees, walked around the corals and fish for 10-15min looking for help. Few employees from livestock section recognized me and just looked away smirking. I just wanted you to take my money and advice me on corals.... I felt so awkward. The aquarium section staff is so intimidating, always busy always pointing out my mistakes when asking a question and lack of my knowledge instead of advice what to buy. THIS WAS MY 2nd approach to buy corals there. This shop is for people who are at least10 years in the hobby. I have a 90-gallon tank with 2 corals in it. Thanks, guys, I have spent hundreds of $$$ in your store to get to this point, only to look for a new store now with corals and saltwater fish. read more

Starting up my first SW tank and lots of selections of things to do that. Only thing I didn't buy on their two day sale was the Tunze skimmer cause I wanted to do more research before I buy it. Went back today but they won't even give me back the same price. It's just $20 off but now I found a store online with the sale price. Too bad a new customer now have to shop somewhere else. Update: Been buying all my supplies and fishes at Fish Addicts down in Langley. Family own with over 800 fish tanks with livestock's. Both salt and fresh water. Customer service is A plus compare to J&L. read more

Ok guys.... Originally, I posted a review for my Husband and my 2-year old son. I have to admit- I have now become a fan myself.... I brought up going here today, and we left with a few things :) Check it out- it's pretty awesome! (May have to get a bigger tank soon. lol) read more

See all

Best Saltwater store in BC period. They are busy so be patient, having a good relationship with this company has been handy over the past 12-15 years. read more

Wooooow! If you have salt water aquarium needs this is the place to go.. they have awesome service and an amazing selection of fish, supplies and more! If you are into fish looking or cheaping out on going to the aquarium this is also a great place to go. If you do decide to purchase some creatures their prices are pretty decent in my opinion. More than anything though they have really healthy fish and healthy fish are happy fish, yay! If you are looking to start a tank or a seasoned fish breeder, this is definitely a place you want to check out! read more

Good prices when compared to other local mom & pop stores. OK aquarium supplies selection. Friendly staff - for the most part. The target audience is the Saltwater enthusiast, which I'm not. I like freshwater fish and that's why I rated them 3 stars. I'm sure the Saltwater folks would be very happy here. Lastly, they have an online store which is OK or functional, but nothing spectacular. That said, there are minimal aquatic online shopping stores in Canada, so it's an option. I use this site to compare prices with other stores. Using this site, I also compare Canadian pricing to American pricing to see if it's worth going to the states to buy. read more

PROS Really, really cheap fish keeping supplies, especially water treatment chemicals, test kits, food and medicine Accessible by bus, 1 minute walk from Production Way University Skytrain Station Really extensive and easy to navigate online store CONS Exclusively saltwater species, no freshwater species :( Staff don't seem to know too much and aren't very friendly read more

We have been to J&L a half dozen times as well as calling in many times in the past 4 months to ask questions etc. We have always found the staff to be very helpful and knowledgeable. Since we are new to Saltwater aquariums, they spent the time asking many questions to make sure that we made good choices when purchasing livestock or equipment. They knew we were buying some equipment used elsewhere, yet never made us feel like we were wasting their time. Hence why they will be seeing us many more times. The prices are comparable or better than most local LFS. Yes, you can buy online from the USA, but I prefer to give my money to a Canadian business that employs Canadians, it creates a healthy economy for small businesses. hence why I have already spent close to $2000.00 there already read more

This place is so fun to go to. I could spend 30 minutes just looking around at all the living odd things! The staff are pretty chill, which I appreciate. Just a ask me if you need help/have questions. Pricing was super reasonable for everything we got (just supplies, nothing living) read more

I am extremely disappointed. When I first walked in here, it seemed like a pleasant place. But their customer service / staff is awful. I bought a heater from here less than a week ago, and it already broke. I called asking if I could come in for a refund or an exchange, and they said it was my fault it broke and refused to help me in any sort of way. I'm not shopping here again. P.S. I even made a Yelp account just to post this. read more

This is more of a review from when I used to frequent back in '05-'06. At that time I can say the place was meticulously clean, great quality fish, knowledgeable staff, and reasonable prices for livestock. Website usually up to date on most recent shipments as well! read more

Have shopped here on a couple of different occasions. The staff has always been very helpful and approachable. I don't like that the prices on livestock are not visible...they'd be 5 stars if they made this small simple change. It would probably increase their Revenues as well!! read more

I ordered a eheim pump and received it 2 days before the estimated arrival time.. This is a great company to buy from, staff were very helpful and professhional.. And their prices are very good.. I would highly recomend them.. Alex S. read more

Excellent choices in aquariums and fish etc! Great customer service! Will definitely return !

JL has great customer service...just let them know you need help. Great selection of supplies and equipment at prices usually less than others. Just wish they had freshwater fish and plants as I'm now a convert! I had to tear down my 77g saltwater tank when I moved...fair policy of store credit for all livestock I couldn't keep! read more

Usually a good selection off fish and coral .Marine only if your looking for fresh water your out of luck . Staff seem knowledgeable,some are more friendly than others I didn't give them 5 stars because I sometimes find it hard to get help.They'll be 3 people with they're arms in tanks doing maintenance and none will stop to help you .You have to bug them and it;s happened to me a few times. I like the way they package they're livestock,double bagged with news paper between the bags to reduce stress on the fish.I also like that they are open later so you can avoid the rush hr. read more

I'd previously purchased AquaRay items from this seller online. Almost 2 years later, thankfully within the warranty, my MultiControl 8 unit became defective. Port 7 wasn't working, & after switching cables & testing/re-testing, I knew it was a defective port. Not a huge deal, because it controlled 1/2 of my "moonlights". I called J&L, & their rep said they no longer carry the item & wasn't sure if they could handle the warranty. I became worried & reached out to another online seller of AquaRay here in the US. They were willing to handle the warranty exchange for a 10% fee of the upgraded model. Afterward, I'd heard back from Jeff, who was extremely helpful & arranged to have the unit swapped directly with the distributor here in the US to save on customs. I'd initially been advised that they no longer have the old unit, & I'd be receiving the upgrade, but was then told they'd found one in the back. Long, LONG story.....J&L had every right to send me the old unit, but Jeff went above & beyond, proving their exemplary customer service commitment, & allowed me the upgraded model without waiting until the "old model" sold out. I've read a couple of the poor reviews on here, & it's obvious that they can be taken with a grain of salt. When a Yelp!er takes the time to write a succinct review, you can pretty much guarantee its true. Go check these guys out! You won't be disappointed! So, thank you Jeff & J&L Aquatics, for your outstanding customer service!! Not only will I continue to shop your site online, if I ever find myself in Burnaby, I'll stop in to see what goodies you have in stock!!!! read more

Their customer service sucks. The staff just don't care about their customers. They won't respond accurately and ignore newbie customers. Seems like they know it all, but they are all a bunch of people who wanted to make sale and doesn't care about the effects of their actions. read more

J&L is practically the only place to go in Vancouver if you need reasonably prices marine livestock and equipment. I have been going to J&L for almost a decade. One thing I have noticed is that service is starting to slip. I have been in several times over the last few months and they are usually understaffed, and not really that happy to help. They are getting much much more busy though, so I am willing to cut them some slack. Most of their old staff has moved on, and they have been replaced by a new batch that are just learning and don't know very much. Again, cut them some slack because everybody starts new at a job. Unfortunately, that J&L environment that I remember was one of the main reasons I would go to the store every week. Now, you can walk in there and spend $1000 and you pretty much get service like you are buying a bag of chips. This has led me to buy things online that I would've normally went to J&L for. I am not saying their service is bad, just not up to par when people are spending as much as they do. They are also slipping on the stock end. I don't know if it is a distributor issue but the finally began selling Aqua Illuminations products and for a while had a good amount of stock, now it seems they are just trying to sell off their stock and as of now only have one model in stock, the most expensive one. US retailers just have a much better stock and other retailers in Canada are starting to catch up. J&L really needs to consider carrying staples like Bubble Magus, ATI T8 and more of a selection of LEDs and at a more competitive price. Most of their high end equipment like Ecotech, AI and Vortech are typically $20-50 more than other retailers in Canada. So basically, if you want to offer top notch service and charge $30 dollars more for a light I will gladly shop there but if you want to charge more and offer "meh" service then I will buy online from a cheaper place. I really miss the old J&L, where going there was a pleasurable adventure. Hopefully it will come back one day. read more

This place is awful due to the staffs!!!! When I first walked in this place , I thought this store was self service or something cuz there were one staff sitting at front didn't say anything even she knew we walked in! I thought it was nice cuz they got all kinds of equipments and fish. however, after we walked in the back, we saw two staffs standing by the counter, chatting and ignoring customers. We try to ask a few questions, but this white chubby guy replied very coldly. After we decided to grab a few corals that maybe was worth alot to him, he was keep saying:" 100 bucks! 100 bucks! 100 bucks..."( in a discriminated way) I was like keep thinking was he looking down at me? Cuz a few $100 corals is cheap to me, I know this might be a lot for this guy, but I think he was just looking down at Asian people. Then, we paid.when I start to walk out, I wanted have a glance of the tank they have at front. This same white guy was talking to some customers, and I think he knew me was standing behind him watching the tank, so he took a step back and moved left so that totally blocked view! My girlfriend and me were sure he did it on purpose! I could tell that guy hate either rich people or just Asian people! Here is another story. When I realize I had too many worms in my tank do I decided to buy something that can eat them. So I asked the staff in the store, he recommend me to get an arrow crab and told me they are REEF SAFE. I kept the crab for over 2 weeks, but not only he's not eating and ignoring worms, I realize he's starting to eat my anemone bubble(poor bubble)! So I went to another shop to trade in this crab, and I was so pissed off until they told me that arrow crab does not eat worms and he's not reef safe!!!!! I was like what!? Didn't the guy from j&l say it's okay to keep?! So, I can now really say that staffs from j&l is unknowledgeable and so retarded that they don't even know how to treat customers right!!! I am so not ever going back to that store again! read more

I have been to this store for a few times. Fair to say that the price for their fish supplies and food are very competitive. I did a lot of research and believe me their price is good. They do have variety of fishes you can choose from. The reason I gave them 2 stars is because I felt I got somewhat screwed by one of the staff there. I have experience with Freshwater fish and have no knowledge with saltwalter aquarium. I recently purchased an Fluval edge and thinking it would be nice if I can have a clown fish in it. I went in and explained what I have -12 Gallon Fluval Edge tank. and was seeking recommendation on how many and what kind of fish I should get. I listened to the guy(Asian guy) and he says 4 is ok. ( I bought a clown, 2 damsel, a goby) I have purchased the cleaning crab and snail package prior to this trip). 3 days later 3 fish died. only the tiny goby fish left. My tank can't handle the bio-load of 4 fishes. and this is what he recommended!!! The very next time I went back there and told the guy my fish died bc of overcrowding. He simply goes "oh, you shouldn't add them all together!" WTF. You knew what I have and now saying I should not add them all together? very irresponsible! I should've known better! Do your research before going there, they may not be helpful. Good luck. read more

Ordered online and let them know a competitors price was cheaper since they have low price guarantee. they matched the price and 2 day shipping I am impressed. I haven't been to the store yet but will be as soon as I can:) read more

J&L is a great place to shop for all your marine needs especially on boxing day :D. If I have a sales related question or need help with my tank I email them and get great service. In reply to David J.'s review... I'm asian and after reading your atrociously written review I'm starting to hate you too; pretentiousness coupled with neediness is not a good trait... At least not in this country. read more

Like other postings here I agree the overall staff attitude has allot of room for improvement. I have at times been ignored completely as they sit there on the computer behind the front counter. It's easy to drop a hundred bucks or more and I often feel that the vibe is the same from a loonie store minimum wage employeee. I go there because the filter media, food and buffers are typically a way better price than what most othere competitors charge. Like any products sold retail though make sure you do your homework as not everything will be the better price. read more

It's nice to have a place that is devoted to marîne fishes. Unfortunately, they don't take care of the fishes well. Most of their fishes have ich. So if you buy a fish from them, you definitely need to quarantine your fish before putting it your main tank. read more

Perry F.....I have used " J&L" for many years now. First with marine tanks and now for my FW Tanks. I wasn't prepared to write a review until I stumbled upon some negative reviews on this site. Living on Vancouver Island I don't get over to Burnaby often so %95 of of business in on-line, and I have never had an issue with my orders. Their prices are excellent, top quality products, and if you get your order in before 11am it's on my front porch the next day. They have a policy of free shipping over $100 so I generally keep a shopping list until I can take advantage of this . Heavy items such as salt, live-rock, substrate, etc. shipping will be added to your order however . I have kept aquariums for over twenty years and this is the best aquatic supplier I have ever found and thought I owed the guys over at "J&L" a review for their years of excellent service and more than competitive pricing ! Sorry David for your bad experience but I shop on-line and can't comment on this person you had an issue with. If he was that ignorant I am sure they would have "canned " him by now. I like to support my local fish shops but for big ticket items you just can't beat this supplier. read more