Confused..

Budnik · 02-01-2004, 04:50 AM

I'm extremely confused.. I recently visitied a few LFS' to check out their selections of LR. Unfortunately I was very disappointed with what I saw.

The LFS selection of LR was fairly large. However all the rock had no "life" whatsoever growing on it, coraline-algae was non-existant, no sponges, corals, plantlife, NOTHING.. Just brown/white rock. My LFS continues to call this cured "live" rock.. while I tend to agree that it may infact be "cured," it certainly is not "live" in my eyes.

When I look at sites like Tampa Bay Saltwater and see the abundant life growing on their rock it is extremely difficult to purchase what I'd call "dead" rock from the LFS.

Since it's late and I'm feeling somewhat drained, I'll end with this.. What is ultimately going to be the difference as far as end result when purchasing rock from the either of these places? Obviously the rock from the LFS is not going to "grow" any plant life, corals, anemones, etc. I'm sure over time, it will be covered in coraline-algae and have life forms (placed by me) all over it.

I can purchase Fiji rock from the LFS for around $5 lb. Although I may pay less than this online, the shipping costs will certainly bring it up to around $5 lb. With that in mind, would purchasing rock from a place like TampaBaySaltwater even be worth it, even with the abundant life / coraline-algae covering all of it?

yardboy · 02-01-2004, 07:08 AM

I know exactly how you feel Bud, as I've just gone through the same thing.I looked from Tampa to Mississippi for liverock for my tank, needing about 100 lbs. I, couldn't look everywhere, when I was in tampa I'd never heard of Tampa Bay Liverock. Most of the stuff in lfs's is just pretty poor looking stuff. I finally ended up getting mine online, from Dr. Mac, my choice as most of the stuff I keep is Pacific, so I personally decided on Pacific rock. Tampa's stuff looks good in the pictures. That's always the problem with online, not knowing just what you'll get.
I can say that I was glad I ordered on-line. My rock was much better looking than anything I've seen in lfs, smelled good, nice size pieces, plenty of corraline. I think by law you won't see any coral on Pacific rock, you might on Florida stuff.
Oh, and the rock I got was just a hair over $4.00/lb. with shipping. I couldn't find any rock that cheap at a lfs.
Better/cheaper. Why not go on-line? Only disadvantage, not instant gratification. My rock shipping was postponed 10 days due to weather and supply problems. Tank was set up and empty all that time. Kinda frustrating, but I've gotten over it now. Got to have patience.

RWD · 02-01-2004, 08:35 AM

Same here at the LFS's, rock with little to no life. Sure in a year or so it will have some coraline growing on it but so will the back of the tank. The stores around here sell that type of rock for $10+ per lbs. ! I say buy online if the lfs's can't get the good stuff.

tims · 02-01-2004, 08:57 AM

Perhaps they were thinking of it as a base rock...

lucky i have two different LFS that order in some really nice LR and base rock.. picked up some nice figi for 650 /LB and base was only 3$ -5# a rock!

since you do not have that option of seeing really nice rock then going on line to a rep. source would be best...

Alice · 02-01-2004, 02:48 PM

Hey Budnik

*Technically* the "live" in LR refers to the live bacteria population so the LFS is pushing the envelope considering what we've all come to now know as real LR.

Why pay the premium amount of $ for what we now consider base rock when you can get good stuff elsewhere?

Doug1 · 02-01-2004, 02:59 PM

I think most LFS cherry pick the good stuff for there tanks or save it for those on their "friends list"

kali22 · 02-01-2004, 03:22 PM

yep, i was at the lfs yesterday and they only have the "base" stuff as LR...

cdemeritt · 02-01-2004, 06:27 PM

This is common. often due to shipping stress the larger animals and plants die or are removed, as they often die and can cause pollution issues (or so they will say) I have even read recommendations to scrub LR with a stiff brush to remove as much as possible, then to be held in a unlit holding tank for a couple weeks to keep dieoffs to a minimum in the display tank. I know not if any actually do this or not. When I first put my tank together, the LFS had three grades of live rock $10.99 for a priemium Fiji, $8.99 for base Fiji, and $7.99 for base rock. As I needed about 50lbs on a limited budget, I wasn't going to spend lots of $ on 'live' rock that had very little life, and spent what I had on equipment instead. This store also sold 'dead' rock (dried live rock) which was sitting on the shelf. This sold for $1.89 lb, then carefully selected about 4lbs of the priemium rock that had good seed life on it. If I was going to buy basically dead rock, I might as well save a few $$. It didn't take too much time for the life to spread. I now have more life on this dead rock than I see in most lfs's live rock. but again, not the instant gratification of good life covered rock.

good luck with whatever way you decide to go,
Chris

ElMonoDelMar · 02-01-2004, 06:42 PM

When we sell live rock at the LFS I work at, it looks a lot like what you described-- white and brown and not much else. Let me tell you that this is probably caused by bad conditions in the live rock tank. I know that we don't always keep up on the SG, pH or other chemical aspects of our live rock tanks simply because the bacteria are fairly hardy and can tolerate a little mistreatment. Try buying a small piece of LFS live rock and just see how it does in your tank. The rock I buy from my LFS usually springs to life after about a week in my tank with the better water and lighting conditions.

Mafiaman · 02-01-2004, 06:55 PM

Having seen LR from Tampa bay saltwater as well as http://www.liverocks.com/ (I have been in there shops)I can tell you the pictures are accurante.
These rocks are Aquacultured and do no harm to beach heads or reefs. So that is an added plus.

adrianleewelch · 02-01-2004, 11:33 PM

I got mine from dale barger at gulfview marine, its aquacultured from florida, it has sponges,coral,corraline in 6 different colors, feather dusters, urchins, and macro algaes abundant, even had barnacles and a few clams, also sent me 2 free gorgonians approx 12 inches tall. It was overnited, he collects in mid afternoon from the dive site, boxes it and takes it to the airport at 5 pm and you get it the next am, I put 80 lbs in an established tank and had ammonia at .25 for 5 days and now all my levels are o, there is nothing like the good mail order stuff, I had never seen LR in any LFS that was half as good.