Advice from LFS - what's your opinion?

[tjm80]

I recently found a third LFS, nicest store, and he willingly admits not having all the answers, but will help when he can. He flat out told me today that he'd refuse to sell me anything because I'm just now cycling. lol. Wasn't going in to buy anything, just look, but it was refreshing that he didn't just try to sell something to make a quick buck.

Anyway, onto my 2nd favorite LFS, with the most experienced owner. I just bought about 15 lbs of LR from him and got it in my tank. But 2 days ago I bought about 15 lbs from another LFS, the closest, but least favorite of the 3. The rock that I bought 2 days ago is covered in purple coralline, and the guy from LFS #2 said I shouldn't buy any LR with purple corraline because I'm just buying someone else's problem. Meaning that it either wasn't cycled properly, or it is from a tank with parasites, bad algae problems, etc. He pointed to some spots on the LR in his tank and said that it was coralline, but that if cured properly it shouldn't be purple until it is set up in an established tank.

I don't know what to make of his advice... Can't find anywhere else that suggests against buying LR with purple coralline, and get the feeling that he's full of crap.

 

[pat8you]

Buying rock with coralline is not a bad thing. It is not harmful to your system in any way. A lot of people just like the way it looks. You do however have to be careful when buying cured live rock for other things that could be on the rock. Watch for algae is the big one (hair, bubble, marco) all of that you don't want in your tank. I usually buy a small amount of cured live rock to seed my tank and the rest i buy dry base rock and let it cure because it is so much cheaper.

 

[Bettababe1011]

Go with your gut feeling. Like the person before me said, it's not bad for the tank. If you think he's full of crap, he probably is.

 

[tjm80]

I think he's full of crap on the LR with purple coralline. But he knows his stuff. I also ordered some catalina T5 HO lights. He said they were the worst fixture on the market. For every one bad review I've found online, there are 9 others that love them. I'm sure I will eventually upgrade, but for now this will do.

I ended up buying some rock from him though, because it was good, porous fiji rock with lots of good stuff on it. No algae that I could see. I'm about to post a picture on my build thread of the tank with the 4 new rocks. That makes 7 total.