saltcreep1025
Aquarium Advice FINatic
whats the best online store? as far as both price and quality.
thx
ross
thx
ross
buying live rock/sand
- Thread starter saltcreep1025
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Hm. Your question asks what is the 'best'. This is kind of a subjective thing. My idea of best is different from someone elses.
You have different types of live rock. Each type has its own unique qualities that make it better than others and worse than others depending on your needs and tastes.
Almost all of the fiji rock comes from 1 main distributor on the fiji islands so if you buy fiji from any store online its probably ultimaly the same rock source.
Dont be fooled by precured or cured live rock online. You will have to recure the rock if its shipped to you. Depending on how long its out of the water will depend on how long it takes to recure it.
FL aquaculture rock is often denser than fiji but some will say it has more life on it. I think it just appears to have more life on it because it can go from ocean to your door faster than the fiji because it does not have to be imported.
Then you have tonga rock. Tonga or branching rock is simular to fiji rock except it is in more round branching shapes vs the fiji "rock" shape rocks.
You have different types of live rock. Each type has its own unique qualities that make it better than others and worse than others depending on your needs and tastes.
Almost all of the fiji rock comes from 1 main distributor on the fiji islands so if you buy fiji from any store online its probably ultimaly the same rock source.
Dont be fooled by precured or cured live rock online. You will have to recure the rock if its shipped to you. Depending on how long its out of the water will depend on how long it takes to recure it.
FL aquaculture rock is often denser than fiji but some will say it has more life on it. I think it just appears to have more life on it because it can go from ocean to your door faster than the fiji because it does not have to be imported.
Then you have tonga rock. Tonga or branching rock is simular to fiji rock except it is in more round branching shapes vs the fiji "rock" shape rocks.
saltcreep1025
Aquarium Advice FINatic
I mean as far as the different web sites go, which one has the best service, price, rock quality, ect.
MT79
Aquarium Advice Addict
I bought my fiji LR from www.marinedepotlive.com I got 44 LBS. for $162.00 including overnight shipping. I was very happy w/ the rock, lots of corraline, and 2 different hard corals etc. check it out 
Koijoy
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I got my live rock from here
http://www.aquarium-live-rock-saltwater-reef-tank-supplies.com/index.htm
and I am very happy with it. I had it shipped to an airport close to me and I picked it up there. The rock was fresh and had plenty of life on it. It was much better then LFS live rock. It had very little die off and the tank cycled in about 3 weeks after it was in the tank. You will have less die off if you can pick up your live rock at a airport. This way the live rock is out of the water much less then it would be durinr ground shipping.....
Good luck
Koijoy
http://www.aquarium-live-rock-saltwater-reef-tank-supplies.com/index.htm
and I am very happy with it. I had it shipped to an airport close to me and I picked it up there. The rock was fresh and had plenty of life on it. It was much better then LFS live rock. It had very little die off and the tank cycled in about 3 weeks after it was in the tank. You will have less die off if you can pick up your live rock at a airport. This way the live rock is out of the water much less then it would be durinr ground shipping.....
Good luck
Koijoy
BillyZ
Aquarium Advice Addict
wow... thats a name and a half!
HEHE, BIllyz beat me to it.
Other places are www.liveaquaria.com --> they tranship fiji rock from the islands so they cant hand pick the rock.
www.exoticfish.com --> they say you can pay extra for hand picked rock
www.liverocks.com --> one of our sponsors who sells FL aquaculture rock
www.tampabaysaltwater.com --> Another FL aquaculture site
www.eastcoastclams.com
There are a few more but i cant recall off the top of my head right now.
Other places are www.liveaquaria.com --> they tranship fiji rock from the islands so they cant hand pick the rock.
www.exoticfish.com --> they say you can pay extra for hand picked rock
www.liverocks.com --> one of our sponsors who sells FL aquaculture rock
www.tampabaysaltwater.com --> Another FL aquaculture site
www.eastcoastclams.com
There are a few more but i cant recall off the top of my head right now.
Biggen
Aquarium Advice Addict
I got my LR from www.liveaquaria.com last Thursday. I was extremely impressed with the rock. Had purple, green, red, and pink coralline algae all over it.
I don't think it is transhipped though. The return label on the box was not an out of country address. I can't quite remember where it came from and I have since thrown the box away however. supposedly, there ARE supposed to hand pick the rock. At least that is what they claim on their site and in there magazine. whether this happens or not is a different story. But I was still impressed. I bought it when they had a sale on it. The 45# I bought for $99 + $60 shipping (had it shipped overnight).
As far as I can tell, my tank has already cycled. Yeah, I know, it has only been one week and a day. But apparently my ammonia spiked within two days of putting the rock it (which was last Sat) and nitrite spiked along with it. Since then, I have had zero traces of ammonia, zero traces of nitrite, and about 20 ppm nitrate. I have confirmed this with another test kit as well. Because of this I started feeding the tank a few sinking pellets a day to help feed along the bacteria until I get some livestock in there...
I don't think it is transhipped though. The return label on the box was not an out of country address. I can't quite remember where it came from and I have since thrown the box away however. supposedly, there ARE supposed to hand pick the rock. At least that is what they claim on their site and in there magazine. whether this happens or not is a different story. But I was still impressed. I bought it when they had a sale on it. The 45# I bought for $99 + $60 shipping (had it shipped overnight).
As far as I can tell, my tank has already cycled. Yeah, I know, it has only been one week and a day. But apparently my ammonia spiked within two days of putting the rock it (which was last Sat) and nitrite spiked along with it. Since then, I have had zero traces of ammonia, zero traces of nitrite, and about 20 ppm nitrate. I have confirmed this with another test kit as well. Because of this I started feeding the tank a few sinking pellets a day to help feed along the bacteria until I get some livestock in there...
