How to pick the best LR

[eb0]

Hi, I'm going to an Internet Retailer who sells live rock, and luckily he's only an hour from my house so I'm just driving there and picking it up. He gave me the option to hand pick the LR if I wanted to, so I was wondering some ways to tell the quality of the rock.

thanks
-jeff

 

[saberry]

Look for the presence of coralline algae and lack of slime algae and aiptasia (nuisance anemone.) It may be difficult to find it with no aiptasia; you may want to pick up a few peppermint shrimp while you are there as aiptasia are a natural food source for them.

 

[Atari]

If it's anything like my LFS then all the rock will be of the same quality. I just picked them based on the shapes and sizes I wanted.

Also you may want to hold off on any livestock purchases until the tank is fully cycled (assuming it's new).

 

[JonSolo]

Hello eb0, I'm from Indiana as well. Are you going to Premium Aquatics? I've purchased numerous items and livestock for them in the past.