Reef Dreams

Derek Hopkins was fired for embezzlement and fraud. He was not the owner. Derek was caught shipping thru the US Mail every day in Styrofoam and sand with boxes obtained at the postal store at 1380 garnet who will testify to his drug trafficking drugs to other states and overseas. Derek is no more than a low level thief and drug trafficker. Do not do business with this man or his wife. They are criminals.
Reef Dreams is prosecuting these two. US motors is also looking for them for bank fraud.
Derek Hopkins now is a low level employee at Sea Dwelling Creatures in Los Angeles.
This is after being fired from Korralen Supply Enterprise in Torrance Ca for stealing and putting their license at jeopardy for selling both wholesale and retail and drug trafficking.
Derek is a mere renter now in case you need to arrest him or repossess his vehicles, they are located at 342 South Redondo Drive Oceanside, Ca 92 057
His new cell is 858 886 9069 for tracking his cell whereabouts to arrest him or repo his cars.

These guys have everything in the way of corral. They may not be the biggest but they have the best exotic corral anywhere. Not sure where it comes from but no one compares to the selection they carry of rare and exotic hard to find pieces. The other nice thing is that their prices are better than the bigger stores, probably just lower overhead, but I am more than Happy. Derek has always taken care of me, like a friend.
If he does not have what you need, he can always get it at a better price.
Thanks buddy

Got a couple of very nice corals from Derek this weekend. I found him courteous, respectful and very knowledgeable. He carrys very affordable corals to corals costing hundreds of dollars.
He really is into client service, and is willing to take his time to explain things to you. He doesn’t have a lot of fish, he tends to concentrate on fish that he can get on sale and pass on the savings to you. For example this weekend he had purple tangs $ 100.00 (a good) Also I scored two blue spot jaw fish for $ 50 a piece usually go for around $ 80.
I also like his natural algae based filter system. Corals and animals look very healthy. Sometimes on the weekend parking can be a little tight down on pacific beach but I definately will be back.
Overall dealing with Derek was a five star experience and I would recommend him to anyone.

Have you ever seen the episode of How I Met Your Mother where Barney talks about how he’s «got a guy» for just about everything? Derek is the «salt water fish guy.»
Generally has a decent selection of fish, corals and plants in stock at the shop. If he does not have it, place an order and within a week Derek will make sure it is there for you to pick up. Extremely fair prices, knowledgeable owner and access to everything under the sea are all you could ever ask for in a live fish store.

This place is terrible. Bubble algae and aptasia all over the corals. I would never put anything from here in my reef tank.
Employee just hid in the back while I was there. Never even asked if I needed anything. Would not be surprised if this place goes out of business soon.

This place was absolutely nasty. I am not even talking about the customer service. It looked like their tanks haven’t been cleaned in months. Would never buy a fish or anything from this place. You can tell the owner has no pride in his work.

Was happy at first that I can get some corals in pb, but after being there for a few minutes, with no employee in site, I left. On way out, there was the employee listening to headphones and playing with computer. No acknowledging myself as a customer. Guess ill stick with the other places where customers are more important than music.

Derrik was awesome the environment was a little small and cramped at first but once we started asking questions it was a pleasant experience! we left the store we tons of coral and was way cheaper than any store. He was super friendly tanks are clean fish look really friendly. I would really come back here and tell all my friends he can even special order me stuff for cheap cheap cheap. This guy is alright in my book even though my nephew was being a basic one year old he didn’t give us dirty looks.

Everything in their tanks are so clean, healthy and amazing. Their coral selection has more selection than other fish stores I’ve been to, and by far much healthier specimens. Derek is very knowledgable and courteous, talking to him is like talking to an old friend, best customer service here! Picked up several corals today. Thanks again, and for sure adding this place to my come back to list.

Derek is a damn honest guy, I have known him since before he opened here at Garnet… He’s a pretty stand up guy, and runs a good business… You need to be smart about what you buy, ANYWHERE, but here Derek is a helpful and resourceful dude.
Reef Dreams always has cheap prices on softies (euphillia and such), as well as on fish…
Good, good shop, great people, I’d go back & always will…
FYI — reviews with 1 or 5 stars should always be filtered out: take out the extremes, and you get a more fair perspective of ANY business… And for the record, anyone who goes to Unilocal to call someone a «Mean man,» as well as a «crazy man» obviously is a kook, and does not know how to properly vent.

The Boyfriend and I were in San Diego on vacation and he made it a point to check out some salt water fish store in the area since the selection in Las Vegas is dismal. This was the last stop on our trip before driving back to Vegas and conveniently enough this was the only salt water store open late :)
After shopping at every single salt water store in the area we were very pleased with the level of knowledge and service that the owner (Derek). The location was difficult to find but we called the phone number listed and a woman answered and led us straight there. To our surprise Derek was there. The only thing we could think of is that the phone number listed was his wife maybe. We walked in and realized that he was in the middle of a remodel. So we were about ready to walk out until we started chatting with him. We ended up picking up a copperband butterfly fish and a mimic tang. He was extremely nice and packed up our fish all neat in a Styrofoam container ready for the 5 hour drive back to Vegas.
We’re happy to report that they both made it back to Vegas and everyone here is jealous that we have these two rare salt water fish.
I would recommend this place to a veteran aquarist who knows what they want since he seems like he specializes in special orders. He also has an amazing coral selection. He also takes orders and ships out of state so we will keep in touch and stop by when were back in town.

Small store more for the local hobbyist looking for selective pieces but good place to get nice pieces that you are looking for with GREAT prices. Owner willing to make deals, frag pieces and work with you. I would recommend!

Mean man. Would never ever deal with him again. He yelled at me and was completely irrational for no reason. He appears to be unstable. Do not do business with this place, crazy man!