finding live rock online?

[cinnamongirl]

I'm new, but have been studying my :wink: off for months now... I plan on a reef, using a 4" sandbed and live rock... but i need to purchase it online (I'm living in the middle of nowhere)

I've read all about curing this stuff, but I'd rather not have to do that, mostly because of my inexperience of knowing what its actually SUPPOSED to look be like once cured. I can't find a LFS that has anything remotely beyond a FO tank, none of which are utilizing LR.

Can one truly expect to find CURED live rock online, and have it shipped to me without my having to recure it? I'd like a mixture of some simple baserock, probably some Fiji, topped with a few tonga branch.

Better yet, does someone know where I can actually go buy some within 50 or so miles around central Pennsylvania?

(75g tank, currently empty)

 

[WannaBeReefer]

I purchased my rock from Harbor Aquatics, (Sponsor for this site) they cure their rock before they ship it out. I had to wait for 3 weeks to get it. Joy said it was not ready. I had a little amonnia spike at day 4 and 5 but now I read zero's across the board. I have had it about a month and am very pleased.

 

[Mikef1]

I was very pleased with marinedepot.com

 

[Meloco14]

Even the most well cured rock you buy online will give you a cycle, due to die off during shipping. If you get the rock shipped in water, like TBS does, there will be less die off, but the lack of light and temp changes may still kill some stuff. You shouldnt be too concerned with having to go through a cycle though, everyone has to do it, and it is not very labor intensive. I assume you are starting from scratch, so just put the sand and rock in the tank with heated saltwater, and a powerhead for flow and a skimmer if you have it, and let it run for 3-4 weeks. This time may even be less. All you have to do is take occasional ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate tests. you will see all three spike, then gradually decline to 0. Once this happens, the cycle is over and youre ready to go. There really is no indication by looking at the rock or anything, just check your tests. Even if you buy cured rock from an LFS there will be a small cycle, though it will help if you transport it in buckets of water. If you are looking online, I've heard good things about harboraquatics and TBS, and I shop at jeff's exotic, though I go to the store and dont buy online from them. HTH

 

[shr00m]

what he said is right if you get mail order l/r expect to cure it... some places there wont be as much die off as others and it may just mean you have a small mini-cycle. but there will be some dieoff for certain. places that sell pre-cured rock is cured until they ship it.... depending on how quick you get it and get it in water its going to be a lot less than if you got some freshly imported rock. the only way to get true cured rock you can just throw in the tank is by getting it at a LFS that cures it.

 

[Anonymous]

Welcome to RDO! I (we) are glad to hear you're researching now while your tank is empty!

Why are you against buying uncured? Since your tank is currently empty, you could save a couple of bucks and order it uncured. Get it dropped shipped to the airport closest to you, and pick it up. Throw it in the tank and watch the cycle. THen use the $100 bucks or so you save and put it towards your lights or skimmer!


Just my $.02

B

 

[shr00m]

wheres a good place to get l/r drop shipped like this, i live right by the airport.

 

[DLS]

I ordered from www.reefscience.com and was very satisfied.

 

[cinnamongirl]

I'm not against cycling, I just dont want to cure it. The only thing I'm against doing is having to go thru the curing process, picking off the things that have died, and living through the smell.

If I buy uncured and let it cure, will it still have the myriad of alive things that come alone with cured?

 

[cinnamongirl]

I guess maybe I'm worrying a little too much about the nature of this rock when I should just go with the flow and cure it ?!?!

 

[shr00m]

as long as you get stuff that is sprayed down and all you dont have to worry too much about this, although its no fun to get mantis shrimp... you can still find deals on cured l/r but you will still have to cycle with it. i would go with something not completely uncured but somethign that maybe has been scrubbed and sprayed or whatever they do to pre cure rock in fiji....

 

[Meloco14]

Uncured rock typically has more life on it that cured does. Now this varies greatly according to where you get it, but in general this is correct. The curing process isn't as bad as you may think. And it is a good thing to know how to do for your future tanks. Anyway, I am in the middle of curing 18lbs of rock in my nanocube, and I haven't put much effort in at all. With my previous tank I scrubbed the rock, because I thought I had to, but now I wish I hadn't, because I lost a lot of the life that was on it. With my nanocube I did nothing to the rock, just put it right into my tank to cure. There was a lot of die off and a lot of white bacteria build up the first week, but I just sprayed the rock with a turkey baster while performing water changes, and sucked up all the loose crap. I haven't used a brush at all. I can see a bunch of little feather dusters, worms, and sponges that are surviving. So I think you would be fine if you bought either cured or uncured rock, put it in your tank, and let it go, without scrubbing or anything. The water does smell for the first week when you go right up to it, but if you cover the tank you can't really smell it, IME. My nanocube is on my desk right by my bed, and the smell wasn't a problem at all. HTH

 

[shellshocked]

I live in Georgia and a nice weekend trip would be a drive to Tampa Bay Saltwater and Liverock.com in Tarpon Springs. The savings on shipping the rock would pay for the trip. I will be needing about 75# of rock and some sand in the near future. Anyone know anything about Liverocks.com?

 

[djbarnes88]

I purchased LR from two different online vendors. First was www.reefsupply.com. It was figi rock that was covered in corraline and he sent the sizes that I asked for. It cured very quick and I didn't notice any smell. There was not a lot of hitchhikers so not a lot of die off to cure.

Next I purchased some from www.gulf-view.com. It was absolutely covered with hitchikers and it took a little longer to cure. There was also a little smell but it couldn't have been too bad because my wife didn't complain.

Depending on what you want there are pluses and minuses. With the gulf-view there were so many mussels and corals that we are having trouble placing the corals that we want to buy. Whatever you do if you have airport access have the rock shipped to the airport. You can arrange it to where the rock is only out of the water for a matter of hours instead of days.

 

[DLS]

I think the key to curing live rock is to rinse it all off and give it a gentle scrub BEFORE putting it in your tank. You're trying to get rid of all the crap that's coming off anyway, and that detritus is just going to smell (ugh) if it sits in your tank for the curing process.

 

[DLS]

The dreaded double-post! I am ashamed.

 

[shr00m]

as far as scrubbing goes, if the rock is covered in lots of dead stuff do it, but if sometimes people end up scrubbing sponges and polyps off.... some people wish they didnt scrub later on, but really its up to you, you have to judge from how much dead stuff is on the L/R when you get it.

 

[djbarnes88]

I am not saying that it is the best way to do things but I did not scrub mine. I added it to thje tank and cured it with the lights on so no photosythetic life dies off and as we noticed something that was obviously dead we went in and pulled it out. It wasn't the quickest way to cycle probably but there were a couple of things that we thought were gone that ended up pulling through.

 

[djbarnes88]

It looks like the double post bug strikes again. My apologies :roll:

 

[cinnamongirl]

Does anyone else have experience using "The Package" at Tampa Bay Saltwater?