Its definitely an option we'd like to explore. Which sites do you recommend? Do you have experience with any of these sites? I'd hate to buy something and it arrives and is very weak in life.

Welcome! I'm fairly new myself and found this board to be very insightful and informative along with some really great people!!!

Welcome aboard.

Nice to meet you, This thread and the nice folks at red coral have helped walk me through my first reef tank.

I don't have personal experience... yet. EDIT: That's a lie, actually... I bought some hardgoods from J & L, got an excellent price, free shipping, and my package arrived 3 days earlier than it's delivery date. I've never bought livestock or anything like that and had it shipped, but the time is coming very soon :biggrin:

I've heard good things about J & L's rock, but again, don't have any experience. I would also hate to pay top price for rock and get rock that is live but lacking in critters, which I think is part of what makes a reef tank interesting... the hitchhikers that come in on the rock. You can request fresh rock which will give the most variety of life. This is the route I'm taking, though I'll be having my rock shipped from Bayside Corals in Saskatoon on the bus. Since the bus ride from there to here is only like 8 hours (including all the stops), this is much more economical than having 30 lbs of rock shipped by air from BC. Being that you need at least a box of rock, your price will be much better per pound than I would be able to get, and you're in a major centre (Calgary) so you're already one up on me (no transfers from an Air Canada or Westjet shipment for you).

Find a buddy off here that knows what they're doing and you should be able to find some nice rock that's been previously used. But as Snappy said, if you don't know what you're looking for it can be a real big headache. Personally, I have had less algae issues buying used rock than brand new rock. I have learned to cook all new rock (see link in sig if you're interested), and that tends to really help. Nothing sucks more than $1000 of live rock that's leeching phosphates and nitrates into your tank and polluting it causing algaes. That sucks.

welcome to canreef,
like a lot of what everyone else said you just got to keep a good eye open for deals and definitely go and visit the all the local shops(Red Coral,Golds,Ocean City,...), there will be tons of people here to help out
:biggrin:

I do agree with Myka that if not done properly, fresh rock has potential to be a hassle. The ideal would be to cook it, but if you're interested in retaining the 'critters' and macros and stuff, there's an excellent thread on NR about soft cycling properly... I'll have to find the page.

Found the thread, this is sort of the guide that I'm using... http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/inde...owtopic=180442

J&L has nice live rock. We purchased and had it shipped in from J&L before and it was decent live rock. We did cure the live rock for a few weeks before adding it to the tank (as there is die off during the shipping) but over all it was pretty good live rock for a good price.

welcome. Im pretty new here too, but found some good ppl and very informative info.
keep an eye out and youll find some good deals too!