Buying live rock online?

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DurTBear

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Jan 6, 2007
Messages
102
Location
San Francisco, CA
Has anyone ever purchased LR online? I just recently purchased about 15 lbs of LR and 10 lbs of base rock. However, I'm a little disappointed in the condition of the rocks. I don't know what to base it on because I've never done it before. But the rocks definitely don't look like the pictures they show on the internet (not that I'm totally surprised about that). Anyway, it seems as though there used to be decent color on the rock. For the people that have purchased over the internet, how does your rock look when you first received it and how long did it take to "come back to life." Thanks!
 
I`ve bought all my LR from the LFS so I`ve not bought it online but it will sometimes look bad but as you add it to your tank it will go back to it`s beautiful self provided your calcium level is where it needs to be. When you get it from online you need to scrub it really good in SW and then cure it unless you are currently cycling your tank in which you can cure it as you cycle your tank.
 
Thanks for the input guys. I'm basically starting a new tank so I'm just curing it as I cycle it. After looking at those pictures, maybe I should pull the rock out and give it a good scrub? I rinsed it in salt water and tried to just hand rub off all the loose debris before putting it in the tank.

So I bought my live rock from oceanproaquatics.com. Maybe I should have ordered from liveaquaria.com! I'll probably need some more so I'll consider ordering from them. Here is a link to a thread with a picture of the tank after adding all the rock. The pic is at the end of the thread and sorry it's kind of dark:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=92640
 
Almost all of my LR is from the LFS.
Almost all of my base rock is from local construction sites (coral bedrock).

I did break down once and buy some LR from ebay because the photo was beautiful and the price was right.
What a mistake.
The rock had punctured the bags in shipping and the box was leaking stink water all over the place.
The rock had none of the beautiful pink and purple coralline that was in the photos, and basically it was one big lump of die-off.
If I ever buy online again it will be from a reputable aquaculture farm.
 
I just purchased 30 lbs of Lalo LR from the Drs. website. They informed me today it's going to be delayed when it should have been delivered today. I've liked what I've heard so far about this rock, so I hope it's good.
 
I think it really depends on what you're willing to pay. You see some really "good" deals on live rock, but normally I think you get what you pay for. You can get uncured, "cured", or really and truly cured - all with varying degrees of hitchikers.

I bought all my rock online, as the stuff I was seeing locally didn't really do much for me. I figured I couldn't do any worse online, sight unseen. After researching around, I gave premiumaquatics.com a call. I didn't order online, but instead called and talked to someone there, described what I was looking for size and weight-wise, what size my tank was, and asked them to pick out about 90 lbs of rock they thought would do the job. (I have a 46 gallon, and figured I wanted a little extra in case I had to break some pieces up, or didn't like a piece they sent.) They came through with flying colors! Great rock with shapes that worked perfectly for me. It wasn't the cheapest rock in the world, but it was far better than anything I saw locally - and I have about 6+ fairly good LFSs within an hour of me. It was already cured (for real!) and was shipped airport to airport with me picking it up at my local airport within 18 hours of when it was packaged. I had a very slight cycle and no major die off.

I guess my point is you can order "online", but still talk to a real live human and get a feel for their inventory, what kind of shapes and sizes they have, and how "live" it really is. You won't be able to do this with all online suppliers, as many of them don't even see the stock themselves. But there are some great folks out there with great customer service.
 
It works in your advantage that you are going to use the LR to cycle your tank. the die-off on the rock from the shipping process will certainly help the cycle. You may also be able to save some money on shipping if you have it sent two-day instead of overnight.
 
lando said:
You may also be able to save some money on shipping if you have it sent two-day instead of overnight.

The Drs. website charge you only $6 more for overnight instead of 2 day, so I chose overnight. I was surprised at the closeness in price, actually.
 
The Drs. website charge you only $6 more for overnight instead of 2 day, so I chose overnight. I was surprised at the closeness in price, actually.
that's a no-brainer. Iwould happily spend the $6 extra for over-night. The price surprises me as well.
 
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