Good live rock

[jslaney]

So I am going to ask the newbie question.

How to buy good live rock?

I have read lots on live rock and have a general understanding of the different areas that it is collected and what life forms it may have hitch hiking.

Unfortunatly whenever I go to LFS, the live rock I see in their sale tanks looks like crap compared to the pictures on the internet. I dont see good corraline growth, I dont see any possible hitch hikers and most of the rocks look like they are covered in some kind of ditritus.

I will be spending 3 bills shortly and want rock that has as much life on it as possible.

I will not ask that anyone names specific stores because that is unfair, (and I think not allowed in the forum) but I will ask, can I expect to purchase what I see online and in books? Do I only have to be patient for a good shipment to come in or is what I see what I get and no one really gets all the cool hitchhikers.

I want to go through the fun experiance of finding odd creatures crawling out of my live rock.

I dont think I should have to pay premium prices for rock that is simply has been colonised by bacteria. I could create similar live rock in my tank with some dead rock and a decomposing shrimp.

Was that a rant or a question? you decide and answer, hopefully.

Thanks.

[untamed]

I find it difficult to talk about live rock without starting a rant myself....Let's just say that I also believe that LR is much more than bacteria on/in rock.

I chose to purchase aquacultured LR from Florida through www.tbsaltwater.com

My reasons were:
1) I believe the rock has more life primarily due to more rapid transit time between ocean and my tank.
2) I KNOW exactly where/how the rock was collected and feel that it was done in an environmentally sustainable way that is monitored by the Florida government.

The downside was that it cost more than purchasing at a LFS due to shipping costs. Some would also consider much of the life that I got as downside...things like mantis, crabs etc. For me, I enjoy keeping those things. Also, the rock doesn't have the elaborate shapes that you can get with rock from other areas.

Have a look from pg 19 http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...=28436&page=19

[krisalexander]

Something I have heard good things about it getting a store to order you a box. and then when they get it in, you take it and cycle it yourself and then everything is still living in it and it hasnt been cleaned out yet. Where abouts are you located?

Kris

[Salmon King]

Live rock is shipped from forein countrys covered in wet newspaper not in water.I would say it/s out of water for quite awhile.The longer it/s out the more die off.When I would pick Live rockI would go by smell myself.I sure saw some nice looking bad smelling rock though.Pretty well all the coralline dies anyway.It will gro back after you put it in your tank.Garf reefs had a good article on how to grow it back fast.I/m sure somebody on canreef would know.

[justinl]

TBS ships their LR with water in the box. essentially it's underwater all the time. No other place i know of does this practice. Everywhere else ships in wet newspaper. If you want fully cured LR with a pretty good guarantee of no cycle then id say your best chance is to wait until someone local decides to sell off some LR. that's what the classifieds are for!

or if you're a handy man with some time on your hands, you can MAKE your own LR. that way you can get custom shapes to your own liking, while spending about a third of the cash. plus it's super easy on the environment. GARF had a page on how to make it... lets see if i can find it...

[woodcarver]

www.garf.org/
Go to " How to " file ,then Agrocrete ( by Eddie Postma )

,.............Dave

[fishmaster]

Originally Posted by justinl

TBS ships their LR with water in the box. essentially it's underwater all the time. No other place i know of does this practice. Everywhere else ships in wet newspaper. If you want fully cured LR with a pretty good guarantee of no cycle then id say your best chance is to wait until someone local decides to sell off some LR. that's what the classifieds are for!

or if you're a handy man with some time on your hands, you can MAKE your own LR. that way you can get custom shapes to your own liking, while spending about a third of the cash. plus it's super easy on the environment. GARF had a page on how to make it... lets see if i can find it...

I got my rock uncured from my lfs. It came in wet paper, but wasn't too stinky. In order to save some $, I added 40lbs of base rock to the 60lbs of live. The base rock is now becoming cover in coraline, and I'm sure it's fully functioning live rock. If you are going to cure your own, and want the most life possible; first make sure you remove as much of anything clearly dead or dying. If you think it MIGHT make it,get rid of it. No matter how you look at it, anything that dies will cause a major ammonia spike which will kill more stuff. Secondly, spend the money on salt, and do major water changes every couple of days. Make sure to remove as much dead or dying stuff each time. Shake each rock around in a bucket of saltwater to help dislodge dead stuff. The more time you spend, the more that will survive. Make sure you run a good skimmer through the process as well as lots of flow. If you're not concearned with the hitch hikers, your rock will cycle just fine with no water changes in about 3-4 weeks. Your coraline will start to come back as soon as you put it under light. Hope this helps.
Shaun.

[jslaney]

Wow! Thanks for the great replies. Untamed I cannot believe the amount of life on your live rock. I am really happy as I am trying to set up my tank as sustainably as possible, (which when you think about it is kind of a joke). To get sustainable live rock and all that life is worth the extra price.

Thanks for the DIY links as well. Maybe when I get a bit more experience I will try that. Ideally I really want all the macro life rather then just the bacteria and algae though.

I am located in Calgary so I really hope TBS ships up to Canada. I will look into that.

Anyway thanks for the good ideas and responses.

Jonathan.

[howdy20012002]

u will need to get a CITES permit for the LR.
Actually the company that you are buying from will have to get it and it takes at leat a month to get it done.
so if you are looking for something immediate, it won't work from a US supplier.
HTH
Neal

[howdy20012002]

Actually looking at the webstie of TBS, they don't ship to canada.