Why LFS sells live rock at 17.99 /lb ...

[Anonymous]

Ok so remember the thread about my LFS' being all s00per spendy when it comes to live rock?

Well I went back to the one that had the high quality stuff for $17.99 / lb (sorry, i thought it was 19.99, i stand corrected). I inspected the LR and it was clearly better than most - the amount of stuff growing on it was incredible! However I asked in a polity way what was up with the cost, and the guy explained it like this:

You are paying extra to help keep the natural, existing reefs in tact. This stuff was farmed in the caribbean. Some guy takes a bunch of base rock, plops it in the sea near (not on!) a reef, and lets it chill out for two years gathering life forms. Then he harvests it, and ships it THE DAY IT WAS HARVESTED, overnight, to the LFS.

Cool! I bought some! My tank is mostly stocked with live rock that came from other hobby'ists tanks. That is what I am using for base rock. I am now in the process of covering the base stuff (which appears to be a waste of money, crappy live rock from World of Fish in Richfield) with this good stuff.

Spendy, but high quality, and i get a greenpeace award. yay!

 

[Anonymous]

It justified part of the cost, but it still don't make sense that it cost more than a live Marine lobster.... :?

 

[Anonymous]

17.99?!?!?!?!?! 8O Godness that is expensive. But astleast its enviromentally farmed :wink: I probably will never pay that much and sell my tanks if LR got that expensive. Buy that time my reef hobby will pass my motocross hobby as the most expensive hobby I have!

 

[Anonymous]

Hmmm, try http://www.tbsaltwater.com/price.html for the same thing much cheaper. There is also www.gulf-view.com , but I can't seem to get the page to load.

 

[smlacy]

pic?

 

[Anonymous]

http://www.website-x.com/reef/
Basically everyting in the pix is from the new/good/expensive live rock. The live rock i got from the other retail store is, as near as i can tell, CRAPOLA.

 

[smlacy]

woah. Too close! How 'bout a wider shot?!

BTW, your tank and website are coming along great!

Steve

 

[Buehlz]

basically you are paying for all of the life form on the rocks.... which you get a couple of good chunks of that and it will end up seeding the rest of your rock

 

[Lostmind]

You guys in the states suck. I aint got NO rock source out here for anything looking like that

 

[Lostmind]

:evil: <-- thats mad jealousy man...

 

[fishfanatic2]

Welcome to The Club! :lol: :roll:

 

[JohnD]

There are 2 reasons for the $17.99 LR at the LFS. Bierboy is right because the LR is very environmentally friendly. I visited Tampbay Saltwater's website a few years back and was very impressed with their dedication.

The second reason is because they can. Many folks who walk thru the doors of the LFS are not aware of sites like this that offer unbiased information. After all, the LFS is in the business of making sales. Besides, the LFS satisfies the American desire for instant gratification. I just have to have one of those tanks, today! You have seen that before, I am sure.

My $.02.

 

[Anonymous]

Im all for the Enviromentally safe way to go, but come on man...I think that is outrageous...I think its a rip off....But if you wanna pay for it by all means...I think i would need a better explanation other than it was aquacultured....Lie to me and tell me it has gold in it or something...

Btw..it is pretty rock

8)

 

[Archmage]

That thing in the middle of the pic,

Is that an aiptasia or a rock anemone? I have several of those things and have been looking to identify what that thing is...


Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

It is not a Aptasia since it has a hard skeleton. It probably will turn into a plate coral of some sorts. I have a 3 inch flores. green plate coral that came in that way about 3 yrs ago. It was about 1/8 inch with 18 or 24 tenticles.

 

[Archmage]

Sorry to get off topic again, but just wanted to make sure that you are looking at the same thing. I'm not looking at the orange mass. I'm looking at the transparent mass with the tentacles alone. I have several of these things growing next to one another. In my tank, I got several of these growing in a small circle, others in a tight circle that they are within centimeters of each other.


Thanks again.



Getting back on topic, I wouldn't pay 17.99 a pound for rock. For 60 pounds, I would have to pay $1000. For just the rock? I don't think so.
There are many ways to be environmentally conscious, and you don't have to choose the expensive way to be so. People in an earlier post mentioned aquacultured via the web. That is the best way IMO if you want to preserve the existing reefs

 

[Anonymous]

I know you were refering to the tentacled critter. If you notice the skeleton underneath the "skin," you will see the star (*) pattern it has. It is a type of plate coral, as I mentioned above, and Aptasia does not has skeleton.

It is a very good idea to pay a bit more for the aquacultured live rock, and the quality is very good. However, somebody along the line of distribution make a several hundred % markup on the rock, since I am sure the aquaculturer does not charge half as much for the rock.

 

[serjuanca88]

All of the life forms on that rock look exactly like wat was on my Gulf View live rock. Which ended up being $4 a pound after shipping.

 

[hillbilly]

Hwarang, No wonder your avatar is punching itself! That's big bucks for
LR... You know, I have some swampland for sale.... No seriously, good
luck with the new set-up!

 

[ggoodrich]

I also got 60lbs live rock from Gulf-View that has things on it that look just like that tentacled thing in the picture. Quite a bit of life on it, I just hope that I can keep most of it alive. I'm new to sw, and am doing water changes, but my ammonia was at 0.6 (0.06?, whichever) last night, nitrites at 0.2. I added "Prime" to the water as instructed by a LFS/Reef store that seemed to know what they were talking about. Oh, BTW, tank is cycling, so nothing else in there but the rock (and a couple of snails that were hitchhikers). Only thing about Gulf-View rock, gotta watch out for mantis shrimp, had a 2" one in my shipment.