Talk to untamed. He'll let you know all you need since he actually got a bunch of TBS across the border legally.

From my post on RC:

quote:Originally posted by lastlight
Can you ship dry rock to Canada?



Sure can, this rock has it's own special US Customs description as the rock was submitted to them, analyzed and classified by the US Government.

This is not considered coral, as ALL other rock is that is in the Industry. So very easy to ship without any customs, or US Fish and Wildlife permit.

Also I have shipped aquacultured rock to Canada, VIA a US airport many times.
Nobody has ever encountered any problems at the border, just declare it, pay some tax as the Canadians have there own designation for cultured rock. It is taxed and recognized as 'limestone' by them. Ask here in RC there are a few of your countrymen who have done it.

Richard TBS

So the process would be to ship it near the border, go pick it up and drive it back? That's doable, but is it possible to just ship it straight to Calgary's airport?

I think you'd have to go with your first option there.

Be prepared for a ton of cool things and maybe some things that you might not want. That rock is off the hook in both directions lol.

Hey that's pretty cool. Sounds like they can ship it right to the Canadian airport. As long as you make sure they don't use a courier you won't get brokerage charges, so you should just get the 5% GST at the border. I wonder if that's the case, or if there actually are some type of "brokerage" type fees or something. Very interesting.

On another point, you say you want rock directly from the ocean? I think you're nuts! :p Sure you might get some cool hitch hikers, but you also usually get bad hitch hikers. IMO, for the cost of it, I'd rather just buy good old cured rock from another reefer. :D

There is no such thing as bad hitchhikers :razz: . I like just about anything that comes in...except for majanos

Yeah, Im a newbie reefer so I want to experience some of the bad things for my self. Worst case scenario I buy a new 40 dollar fish and it gets killed by some mantis reef that I eventually would need to figure out how to get out of my tank lol

Or a whole myriad algae species, or eunicid worms (they are usually caught by previous reefers when you buy "used" rock), predacious crabs, or weird stuff we don't even know what it is but it's bad, or aiptasia, or majanos, or hydroids. Or, or, or. If course a lot of this stuff, well all of it really, could be found in "used" rock too, but at least you get to look at the rock first and see for yourself whether there are pests. The reefer would know if there were predatory critters in the rock if they've had it for a few years.

Plus "used" rock is cheaper.

I will never bother myself with buying uncured, FOB (fresh off the boat haha) rock again. Pain in the @$$.

I used to have an obsession about trying the TBS rock too. It was really going to cost a lot once it arrived and all bills were paid. I'm glad I didn't do it, but I still wonder a bit. In the end though...I don't like hitch hikers. I want a tank full of corals so that you don't even see the rock. All I want the rock to do is make pretty shapes and process the nitrate.

Ok, this sounds like I'm getting all worked up over it. I'm actually kinda laughing right now...anyway I don't actually care what you decide to do, but if you're like me and money isn't an overly abundant source, I wouldn't spend that much on it! If you do though, be sure to report back with pictures!!! :D

You just went to the "Insane" category of my CanReef Personality Filing System. Hey, better than some of the other categories!! ;)

:lol: , My husband placed me in the same category. He thought I had truly lost it when I was trying to train my clown fish not to eat a little mantis shrimp that I found in a shipment of live rock. :lol:

*edit*I also have a sundial snail living in my quarantine tank that I have to find tasty zoos for, I even kept zoanthid eating nudibranches as well for a long time before they just disappeared one day

Oh and I still have the red bugs on my acros :D

It sounds like Richard has made some progress with the CDN government since I purchased my stuff. That is great news for reefs because I am pretty sure that most of the rock we see for sale in Canada has been plucked from a reef somewhere in the world.

Edit: Hmm...it seems that he is just able to ship his dry rock directly to Canada. Live rock still has to be personally carried across the border and I worry that there may still be problems there.

Even three years ago, cross border shipping wasn't possible so I picked the rock up in Seattle. I'm not sure that bringing it across was legal at the time, but I certainly made no attempt to hide what I was doing. I declared it all and they got their taxes.

I do like my aquacultured TBS rock. If you are going for shape and porosity, then it might not be for you....but if you like critters then you can't find anything fresher. I had some problems with ciranolids that I easily defeated. I had 6 mantis and I'm very disappointed that they did not seem to survive more than 1 year in the main display. The mantis that are likely present in TBS rock are not a threat to fish. Hermit crabs should feel afraid.