Buying Live Rock

[E Angel]

I am just starting a 55 gal tank and I want to buy 75 lbs of LR. Where is good place to buy live rock, that is somewhat cheap??

 

[RMPD109]

Check out one of the sight sponsors. LIVEROCKS.COM it is the best stuff around in my opinion. The rock is very fresh full of color and has lots of life to it.

 

[lando]

Yup, can't go wrong with www.liverocks.com
Some of the best rock and customer sevice around.

 

[WhiteCloud]

Liverocks.com has been great to deal with. I was able to place my order and schedule the delivery for a date that I wanted...when it would be warmer up north...and cool enough on FL to send Heatpacks with the LR...and when I could be home to receive the shipment.

I got an e-mail today that my rock will ship out on Monday, and will be at my doorstep on tuesday.

WC

 

[Salttanker]

Ditto on liverocks.com

Let us know how it looks when you get it WC.

Mike

 

[foma2000]

dont go with liveaquara.com. there rock is the ugliest stuff ive ever witnesed

 

[Thumper]

When you say the ugliest you've ever witnessed what do you mean. I'm about to order 100 pounds basiclly for base rock and cover it with the 100 pounds I currently have and add another 100 pounds from liverocks.com. Would you reccomend against this? I cant see spending the money for 200 pounds from liverocks.com when i can seed my own rock from liveaquari.com Input would be appreciated.

 

[RMPD109]

LR.com has great base rock at a good price. Shipping may be slightly more but it wont be dry dead rock like baserock from some places.

 

[leesanhua]

do you mean LR from liveaquara.com is not good? why?

 

[Thumper]

Well i was looking at just purchasing live rock from liveaquai.com and using it for the price. I'm not concerned about the colors as it will seed in time on it's own. Somebody got a better idea I'm all ears.

 

[RMPD109]

The baserock from LR.com will be cheaper than the rock from liveaquaria.com. I could not find baserock on their site. The smith premium and the caribbean rock are close in price.

 

[foma2000]

dont buy from liveaquaria.com unless you never plan on seeing the rock in the tank. i bought 20 lbs of their figi premium and it looks disgusting. the rock is very brown and black, and has little to no coraline algea, not only that but it has absolutly no hitchikers. i havn't found a single thing come off that rock. this rock looks so bad that ive decided to take it out of my aquarium and place it in the fuge so ill never have to see it again

 

[Thumper]

Well I guess that answers that. It will be seen so I guess I will order base rock from liverocks.com and just order 120 pounds and then 40 of keys. Thanks for the input.

 

[Salttanker]

I bought lr from liveaquaria.com in the past and it was pretty decent. Of course they don't have the hitchhikers like liverocks.com. Is that was you are refering to?

Mike

 

[leesanhua]

what is hitchhikers? i just bought a LR from LFS but don't see anything swimming around... did i buy the wrong thing?

 

[RMPD109]

You purchased the right stuff but most LFS rock has been through several hands and has lost some of its life. LR from LR.com comes with many hitchers. My 30lb order had brittle stars, snails, limpits, crabs, urchins, sponges, barnacles, feather dusters and aptasia. I removed what I did not want and kept what I did. None of the hitchikers caused any problems and I still have some of each still on/in the rock. Some LFS even remove some of the life to sell seperately.

 

[leesanhua]

if i want to order 20 lbs for my tank from LR.com. does the rock come in one big piece? because my tank is only 15 gal

 

[foma2000]

it will come in diffrent sizes maby even some rubble but not one peice. my 20 lb order from live aquaria came in 2 bug peices and 5 smaller peices

 

[Brad]

I don't think that enough mention is made of the billions of hitch-hikers that come in on good quality LR that are so small one might never see them. These critters are a necessary component of the complete ecosystem.

It's fun to see all the high profile hikers like stars, urchins, pistol shrimp, etc....and challenging to deal with the troublesome hitchers like mantis and crabs....but I think the real benefit of getting healthy LR is very hard to see.

I also read often about the suggestions for ridding LR of hitchhikers so that you can sort through the good and bad...but I often think a lot of the life on the rock pays a terrible price for some of these techniques...and it is life you aren't likely to notice you've lost.

 

[RMPD109]

Contact Zack on the sponser forums for liverocks.com. If you only need 20lbs he can make sure to get you the right size pieces for your setup. They are great to work with.