Downright the best rates in India.
I wish I had found AquaticKart earlier. You can buy the Fluval CP-2 wavemaker here for 20-percent less than the price I paid for a God-damned Fluval CP-1 from another Bombay-based shop. But thankfully, I bought the Aquaclear 50 from here for just Rs 2500, which is a full Rs 2000 cheaper than what the aforementioned Bombay-based shop quoted me.
What's the catch, then? Well, quite surprisingly, none at all. The customer service is top-notch, with AquaticKart ready and willing to help customise my order over WhatsApp on a Sunday night.
I even ended up buying stones online from AquaticKart – something that I'd have never even considered if it weren't for the great customer service. This was again done over WhatsApp, with the seller laying out the stones and sending me photographs of the same with some everyday objects for scale. All I had to do was mark the stones I needed and just like that it was done. What's more, the price per kilo was 50-percent lower compared to what the best Aquarium hobby store in Hyderabad had quoted me.
The packaging and shipping is brilliant as well. My first order contained a total of 11 items, and AquaticKart shipped them all in three separate shipments to expedite the process. What (pleasantly) surprised me the most is how the measly Rs 2500 Aquaclear filter was delivered in a sturdy shipping crate. To put this into perspective, another Bombay-based shop had delivered the Hydor 600 canister filter (costing nearly ten times as much, mind you) to me in a damaged condition thanks to piss-poor cardboard packaging.
It just beggars belief how AquaticKart manages to spend so much on shipping crates and staggered shipping, despite the rock-bottom pricing. Needless to say, I'm doing all my shopping here from now.