Vendors! Take care of the live rock!!!

[whatcaneyedo]

I didnt see any mention of LR being blanketed in aptasia.... Obviously aptasia exists in the wild and some of it could hitch a ride in on a shipment of LR. I can believe that. But when a LFS has a LR tank that doesnt have any aptasia and then a customer tears down their tank and sells/give their LR to the store which is blanketed in huge aptasia why would they put the two together? It wasnt only the LR tank that got it that day. They put that aptasia infested rock throughout all of their stores systems! Did I forget to mention that they ask $12/lbs for it too? Or $8/lbs if you buy over 20lbs... something like that.

At least I can be thankful that our LFS has a skimmer on their LR tank. Now if only they had a working skimmer on their coral tank...

[Myka]

Waaay too many comments on my post to comment back on, but for those vendors that think they are taking good care of the rock (and I'm sure some of you do, but it really is few and far between), how many of you test the water for ammonia? How many of you do 100% water changes on the new batches of rock?

I agree with untamed that when I buy rock I want it FOB (fresh off the boat) to preserve life because I honestly don't trust a vendor to do this because "most" vendors view live rock with much less value than I do. However, with the prices of "new" live rock these days I have to buy "used" rock, and shop around until I find some good, clean, healthy rock.

I use the same method as Steve (Stir Crazy) when curing rock. I check for spikes, and do water changes as needed. A couple days in 4 ppm ammonia does a lot of damage to the life on/in the rock. Heck, 2 ppm is damaging. For me, I don't really care how you achieve the clean water (be it skimmer or water changes or both), just keep the dang ammonia and phosphate down!!

Btw Steve (sphelps), the comment about opening a store of my own I was joking hence the . I'm not an idiot, I've managed enough stores to know that retail isn't easy and you can't have it all. I'm not one to shop somewhere else over $1, but I sure will if it's a 15% (or more) difference! Retail fish stores don't make very many owners rich...

[sphelps]

So out of curiousity what life exactly are you all trying to preserve?

[Myka]

For me, mostly a diverse selection of nitrifying bacteria and mollusks. I also don't want a bunch of unchecked die-off polluting the rock with phosphate, and gumming it up with detritus.

Out of curiosity, what's the most important aspect of live rock to you Steve (sphelps)?

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by Myka

For me, mostly a diverse selection of nitrifying bacteria and mollusks. I also don't want a bunch of unchecked die-off polluting the rock with phosphate, and gumming it up with detritus.

Out of curiosity, what's the most important aspect of live rock to you Steve (sphelps)?

I'm in it mostly for the structure in terms of shape and porosity. The rest is garbage in my mind. High quality base in worth more in my books than actual live rock. Bacteria is free and you don't need "live" rock to get it.

I'm not sure I see the appeal in mollusks but ok. As far as general bacteria goes ammonia levels wouldn't really affect that and the best way to remove "pollutants" is to eliminate everything that pollutes from the rock.

I just don't see what the big fuss is about with this whole live rock thing. I'll take dead and clean any day over live.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Who cares?

Just buy the rock from wherever you want and let the vendors do what they want. It's the same as buying anything, if you don't like a product, don't buy it. Simple.

[Jason McK]

Originally Posted by GreenSpottedPuffer

Who cares?

Just buy the rock from wherever you want and let the vendors do what they want. It's the same as buying anything, if you don't like a product, don't buy it. Simple.

Bravo !

[Skimmerking]

I look at it this way if I'm going to buy Rock I'm going to go where there is the cheaper price, end of bitching, come on people support your local vendors if they arent doing it right thing teach them. Don't bitch about it fix it. wow too much complaining, until you have a head dollar of 100,000K to play with (zip it) its nothing worst then someone bitching to get posts or just to be heard. just to make a statement. sorry folks to many people here trying to make a name for them selfs. I understand that people can't make t he proper business or thatthey dont have enought money. But come on they are making a statment or trying to help out.. give them a chance.
mike OUt

green well said

Originally Posted by GreenSpottedPuffer

Who cares?

Just buy the rock from wherever you want and let the vendors do what they want. It's the same as buying anything, if you don't like a product, don't buy it. Simple.