nitrofish1 Posted October 6, 2009 Author Share Posted October 6, 2009 Did I mention featherdusters! elaborate Link to comment
nitrofish1 Posted October 6, 2009 Author Share Posted October 6, 2009 Did I mention featherdusters! although im not sure i want many live critters from florida hitchhiking on my rocks, since most likely, they will not make it into my tank, and therefore they would be dying or something of that nature mostly still looking for live rock covered in macroalgae, sponges, and possibly some coral, with a minimum, or no hitchhikers. atm, premium aquatics in the lead.... Link to comment
rics4me Posted October 6, 2009 Share Posted October 6, 2009 You can always try Craigslist for local reefers getting rid of rock. I did this once and ended up with about 20 pounds of fully cured coralline encrusted pieces. Paid about $1.50 a pound. Link to comment
nitrofish1 Posted October 6, 2009 Author Share Posted October 6, 2009 You can always try Craigslist for local reefers getting rid of rock. I did this once and ended up with about 20 pounds of fully cured coralline encrusted pieces. Paid about $1.50 a pound. dont think ill be doing that. sorry, cant always trust CL Link to comment
nitrofish1 Posted October 6, 2009 Author Share Posted October 6, 2009 although im not sure i want many live critters from florida hitchhiking on my rocks, since most likely, they will not make it into my tank, and therefore they would be dying or something of that nature mostly still looking for live rock covered in macroalgae, sponges, and possibly some coral, with a minimum, or no hitchhikers. atm, premium aquatics in the lead.... bump this. what to do with unwatned hitchhikers? do they all get thrown away? my lfs wouldnt take them.... Link to comment
rizakaniza Posted October 6, 2009 Share Posted October 6, 2009 although im not sure i want many live critters from florida hitchhiking on my rocks, since most likely, they will not make it into my tank, and therefore they would be dying or something of that nature mostly still looking for live rock covered in macroalgae, sponges, and possibly some coral, with a minimum, or no hitchhikers. atm, premium aquatics in the lead.... Actually, since it comes directly from Florida and sees an extremely minimum out of water time compared to rocks from Bali or Tonga, many more hitchhikers will survive than from any other LR seller. The surviving hitchhikers I got were an astrea snail, nassarius snail, pistol shrimp, 2 pencil urchins, small crab, numerous worms (me likey), featherdusters, and who knows what else. As far as macro algae and other things, mermaid fans, halimeda, gracilius (sp?), orange sponge, completely covered in coraline (purple, pink, red, orange, and green), some weird orange thing, and others to be identified. The "aquacultured" rock is high in aragonite and called "miami oolite." It is the very best LR I have ever seen and the cost with shipping comes to about $5.75/lbs. This doesn't just look like some rock that was thrown in a vat for a while. The rock sits in the ocean for 2 years and is completely covered in life and stays mostly that way because it only ships from Florida. I lost less than 5% of visible life as my tank cycled (the process I used to cycle the tank definitely helped with that). Also, you can tell them the kinda aquascape you want to do and what size rocks you want and they will hand select them for you. I have 0 complaints. Every day I am finding new living creatures that burrowed deep inside the rock and survived the trip. That's my last pitch. I'm only saying all this because I sincerely believe this is the best looking live rock that can be bought. I searched and searched, because I wanted the best looking rock available. Good luck with your search. BTW, I got rid of most the bad hitchhikers by doing a high salinity dip. Then I picked the evacuated creatures out that I wanted to keep and threw most of them in my fuge. When my urchins and crab get a little bigger I might try to trade them out with someone who wants them. Hitchhikers can be good for trading with someone for frags and whatnot. Link to comment
nitrofish1 Posted October 6, 2009 Author Share Posted October 6, 2009 Actually, since it comes directly from Florida and sees an extremely minimum out of water time compared to rocks from Bali or Tonga, many more hitchhikers will survive than from any other LR seller. The surviving hitchhikers I got were an astrea snail, nassarius snail, pistol shrimp, 2 pencil urchins, small crab, numerous worms (me likey), featherdusters, and who knows what else. As far as macro algae and other things, mermaid fans, halimeda, gracilius (sp?), orange sponge, completely covered in coraline (purple, pink, red, orange, and green), some weird orange thing, and others to be identified. The "aquacultured" rock is high in aragonite and called "miami oolite." It is the very best LR I have ever seen and the cost with shipping comes to about $5.75/lbs. This doesn't just look like some rock that was thrown in a vat for a while. The rock sits in the ocean for 2 years and is completely covered in life and stays mostly that way because it only ships from Florida. I lost less than 5% of visible life as my tank cycled (the process I used to cycle the tank definitely helped with that). Also, you can tell them the kinda aquascape you want to do and what size rocks you want and they will hand select them for you. I have 0 complaints. Every day I am finding new living creatures that burrowed deep inside the rock and survived the trip. That's my last pitch. I'm only saying all this because I sincerely believe this is the best looking live rock that can be bought. I searched and searched, because I wanted the best looking rock available. Good luck with your search. BTW, I got rid of most the bad hitchhikers by doing a high salinity dip. Then I picked the evacuated creatures out that I wanted to keep and threw most of them in my fuge. When my urchins and crab get a little bigger I might try to trade them out with someone who wants them. Hitchhikers can be good for trading with someone for frags and whatnot. youve been great help my only issue with critter hitchhikers is that, i dont have anyone to trade them with. i turn around with them sitting in a high salt bath, and its corn field, i dont want to kill them just because i cant take them, so id rather the rock come without them, yet, id still like as much corraline growth as possible. and i think its great you added that part about how you can have them pick out pieces like that, cuz i wonder if they would do a high salt bath for me b4 they shipped it. Link to comment
rizakaniza Posted October 6, 2009 Share Posted October 6, 2009 Actually, they will cure the rock for you at no additional charge. Obviously, it will just take longer to get the rock to you. As far as trading hitchhikers, you can always mail them to someone. Just like getting livestock from an online retailer. Link to comment
nitrofish1 Posted October 6, 2009 Author Share Posted October 6, 2009 Actually, they will cure the rock for you at no additional charge. Obviously, it will just take longer to get the rock to you. As far as trading hitchhikers, you can always mail them to someone. Just like getting livestock from an online retailer. i dont really have a place i can mail them to, or the materials to mail them. however, i may be able to take them to my lfs. but like i said, i dont want to kill a bunch of inverts just because i have nowhere to take them. thatd be cruel for me to do that. but i like corals pencil urchins reef-safe? i can get those locally nvm, they wouldnt be Link to comment
justinT Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 I got my LR from liveaquaria.com, they have lots of grades and it was on sale. I thought it was really good looking, many awesome shapes, very porous. I just washed it off really good and put it in my tank and let it cycle- it kickstarted the whole thing! cycle went HARD and FAST...no problems later on because of it. No hitchhikers, bad OR good, which I'm actually happy about...too many horror stories, and good luck getting something bad OUT of the tank! It may be a little more expensive, but you ALWAYS get what you pay for. PERIOD. :-) Link to comment
nitrofish1 Posted October 7, 2009 Author Share Posted October 7, 2009 premium aquatics still ahead atm Link to comment
nitrofish1 Posted October 7, 2009 Author Share Posted October 7, 2009 shot premium aquatics an email. they said i can still get my live rock with sponges and corals etc. if i order it cured. however, there is no guarantee of no critters, they said most likely there would be a few crabs or something of the like on them. but sounds like the deal closer to me Link to comment
Deleted User 6 Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 sealife inc. ftw. don't listen to these noobs saying otherwise. Link to comment
rizakaniza Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 sealife inc. ftw. don't listen to these noobs saying otherwise. agreed. Link to comment
matty0206 Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 sealife inc. ftw. don't listen to these noobs saying otherwise. +1 Link to comment
nitrofish1 Posted October 8, 2009 Author Share Posted October 8, 2009 +1 they r still in the running. both premium aquatics and sealifeinc have great offers, but pricewise, sealifeinc is top bump b4 work Link to comment
rizakaniza Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 they r still in the running. both premium aquatics and sealifeinc have great offers, but pricewise, sealifeinc is top bump b4 work Quality-wise too. You won't regret it. Link to comment
nitrofish1 Posted October 8, 2009 Author Share Posted October 8, 2009 Quality-wise too. You won't regret it. im not gonna lie, right now im more leaving towards sealifeinc. the timora rock that i was going to order from premium aquatics is around 6 dollars a pound, and this rock looks about as full of life, and i can get it cured for free vs. a 50 cent extra charge for cured rock. Link to comment
MrAnderson Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 im not gonna lie, right now im more leaving towards sealifeinc. the timora rock that i was going to order from premium aquatics is around 6 dollars a pound, and this rock looks about as full of life, and i can get it cured for free vs. a 50 cent extra charge for cured rock. i thought i posted here... i got 35 lbs of the timpora from PA about 6 weeks ago... i was disappointed. granted, it was uncured, but there were no viable sponges, corals, or macroalgae visible (plenty of dead macro though), and 6 weeks in still nothing. even the coralline was so-so. i've gotten from them before and this is the worst i've seen, in the past i've gotten a lot more life from their rock. maybe my perception is off from working with incredible LR fresh out of the ocean in indonesia for research this summer, but i'm pretty sure the quality at PA has gone down... i DID get a mantis shrimp as a hitchiker though! Link to comment
nitrofish1 Posted October 8, 2009 Author Share Posted October 8, 2009 i thought i posted here... i got 35 lbs of the timpora from PA about 6 weeks ago... i was disappointed. granted, it was uncured, but there were no viable sponges, corals, or macroalgae visible (plenty of dead macro though), and 6 weeks in still nothing. even the coralline was so-so. i've gotten from them before and this is the worst i've seen, in the past i've gotten a lot more life from their rock. maybe my perception is off from working with incredible LR fresh out of the ocean in indonesia for research this summer, but i'm pretty sure the quality at PA has gone down... i DID get a mantis shrimp as a hitchiker though! im still looking for close to no hitchhikers. yet if i get some shrimp or crabs, alright. was considering a pencil urchin but found out that they sometimes munch on shrimp, and get huge. im still looking for close to no hitchhikers. yet if i get some shrimp or crabs, alright. was considering a pencil urchin but found out that they sometimes munch on shrimp, and get huge. thatd be the invert id want the most though is a pencil urchin. however i saw on premium aquatics or the like that there is a nano pencil urchin, although there was no name to go with it, so i couldnt confirm that it would stay small. im still looking for close to no hitchhikers. yet if i get some shrimp or crabs, alright. was considering a pencil urchin but found out that they sometimes munch on shrimp, and get huge. thatd be the invert id want the most though is a pencil urchin. however i saw on premium aquatics or the like that there is a nano pencil urchin, although there was no name to go with it, so i couldnt confirm that it would stay small. this was on sealifeinc btw. http://sealifeinc.net/catalog/product_info...products_id=197 let me know ur opinion, or if i should ask this on the invert subforum Link to comment
johnmaloney Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 it is a pencil urchin that is young, rather than a pencil urchin that stays small. Will grow to the diameter of about a baseball. Link to comment
nitrofish1 Posted October 8, 2009 Author Share Posted October 8, 2009 it is a pencil urchin that is young, rather than a pencil urchin that stays small. Will grow to the diameter of about a baseball. would that be too big? i have a 12g, and i know this from observation, that they arent that agile.... Link to comment
rizakaniza Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 Here's a few pics of my LR after only about a month... Link to comment
Deleted User 6 Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 i have a pencil that came on my sealife rock. love it. i'm still having things pop up out of that rock. Link to comment
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