Best place to get sand / rock?

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catmel

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Apr 20, 2008
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Findlay, Ohio
Hi again :) thanks everyone so far for your help.

What do you guys find to be the best place to get live sand / base rock / live rock at the most affordable price for good product? either online or LFS. If online, please point me in the right direction!! :)
 
For the price You`ll need to get it online. If you want to see what you are getting and see the quality then you`ll need to go to the LFS.
 
Have any of you had good luck with live aquaria.com? I was looking at the different live rock there and it really does seem to be a good price. I havent seen what they charge for shipping though.. decent?

I was looking at the premium fiji rock that you have to cure. With a new tank and no fish / coral etc in it yet would this be the best idea to cycle? On the site it recommends doing a 50% water change weekly whle doing this.. is this necessary? Or should I go ahead and spend a bit more and buy fully cured live rock?

I appreciate your help greatly :)
 
Fiji is probably the most widely used worldwide for its lovely corraline colorations, reasonably light weight, interesting shapes, and porous. Premium Fiji just seems to have less rubble and perhaps a couple nicer pieces than the regular, but nonetheless my preference. I prefer uncured liverock especially when cycling a tank (kicks off the process). There is also the added benefit of decent added fauna if it is reasonably fresh (anything under 2wks time).
I would only siphon rotting material from the bottom of the tank as it falls from the live rock. Large water changes can inhibit cycling as it is a slow process anyways.
 
LiveAquaria (Drs. Foster and Smith) bought FlyingFishExpress which is where I got my initial LR from. They continue to have great quality LR at a reasonable price for online sources.
 
I bought 150Lbs of base rock from marcorocks.com. They are super pourous. I seeded that with a little LR from my LFS. I bought 270LBS of dry sand from drsfosterandsmith and shipping was $15. You may want to look into shipping costs added to the price of your products.
 
I'd be a bit leary getting something living off ebay hah, as long as it worked great for you :) I'll have to look into seeing what the shipping costs of liveaquaria is there, they've got a pretty good deal on their live rock. thanks for the help!
 
its about $160 with shipping for 45 lbs of regular grade fiji live rock.. is this the best deal I'm going to get? $60 for shipping is pretty darn expensive, but I guess thats what it costs for 45 pounds of anything shipped quickly lol... everyone have pretty good luck with live rock from live aquaria?
 
Dr fosters & Smith definately the best place to get sand because of shipping. Don't buy the live sand as its dead by the time you get it usually and the dry sand will be live in no time especially if you cycle your tank with live rock. I just bought the carribsea dry aragonite reef sand, I like it.

As for Rock I bought a 45# box from Live aquaria and it was like $180 dollars shipped like 4 dollars a pound.My favorite pieces lots of Coraline coverage. I got like 1 huge rock and 3 big rocks great for a base to stack my other rocks I bought. I also ordered 30# from caribbean from here Welcome to International Marine Fish - Premium Live Rock I called and requested my pieces and got what I wanted. But very stinky smelly rotten rock great for kick starting a cycle but no coraline coverage at all.
 
Thanks for the input. $160 even with shipping for 45lbs of live rock is a lot better deal than trying to buy it from the LFS - they want $7 a lb for up to 50lbs.. thats $315.. so essentially half off. And if you guys say its good quality rock, i'm certainly up for it.
 
Thanks for the input. $160 even with shipping for 45lbs of live rock is a lot better deal than trying to buy it from the LFS - they want $7 a lb for up to 50lbs.. thats $315.. so essentially half off. And if you guys say its good quality rock, i'm certainly up for it.
If you took the money you would spend at the LFS and bought Online rock you would have twice as much rock and you could pick your pieces to fit just right and have more aquascaping options. whatever's left you could break it up for rubble for the sump/fuge or you could even sell it to your LFS for store credit.
 
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