Gulf Live Rock arrived not even wrapped in paper towel?

[Clowns4life]

Did anyone else have this problem? I just sent him an email and am planning on going with KPA and TBS instead. 

 

 

 

[patback]

what exactly did you order?  Cured? Uncured? 

[Clowns4life]

I ordered the 10lbs premium live deco rock

[debbeach13]

That is disappointing. The web site says it will be wrapped in paper towels. Yours looks like a couple paper towels might have been placed on top. How long did it take to receive it? I would still put it a bucket of SW with a power head Or if the tank is empty I might even put it in the tank. It doesn't look as impressive as as the pictures as far as life on the rock. I would wait to hear from them before ordering other rock unless you were going to any way. 

[Clowns4life]

I ordered it on Monday and it came on Friday. I sent him an email and I'm waiting to hear back. 

[RedTheReefer]

I order from them for my 365 Contest Tank. It arrived exactly like this. It was pretty disappointing. A lot of die off. I will not be buying from them again.

[Tired]

Looks still damp, at least. Put it in the tank, or a bucket, and see what's alive. I see some bits of halimeda and such.

[mcarroll]

8 hours ago, Clowns4life said:

Did anyone else have this problem? I just sent him an email and am planning on going with KPA and TBS instead. 

 

 

 

 

 

Paper towels are still in short supply in most places..and Florida is (currently) one of the hardest hit areas.  First I would try to understand that's what is behind the single paper towel....you're lucky they have any is my guess.

 

IMO I would relax...the towel looks wet and that's all it's in the bag for is to make sure it doesn't dry out.  The plastic bag is probably all that's needed, but the rock is sharp, so the bags sometimes get nicked, so the paper towels (used to be newpapers back in the day) are a little backup.  

 

Paper towels aren't going to save anything that needs to be in water to live, in case that's what you expected...it's to keep the stuff in the pores of the rock alive.  Anything more than that is a lucky bonus.  

 

To me that rock looks wet.  Personally, I would be very happy with it.  You'd have to get your rock shipped in bags of water (a la Tampa Bay Saltwater) to do better, and I'm not howe that compares price-wise....and I'm not sure if TBS has been able to do any harvesting lately due to weather...I know it had been quite a while, but haven't checked since covid.

 

So stop despairing (IMO) and enjoy that rock!  😃

[Tamberav]

I wouldn't be bothered by it. They ship priority so you will get die off with or without the towels. I ordered from them years ago and priority leads to some stanky rock but life returns in time. Even dead looking corals came back.

 

If you want to preserve the life then shipped in water and pick up at an airport is ideal but expensive. I think KPA offers this if requested as well as Tampa. Not sure about the gulf rock.

[Clowns4life]

This rock doesn’t have a lot of coralline unfortunately. I ordered from them years ago and these are nothing like what I’ve received before. I’ll post pics when I get them.

[devaji108]

a few years ago now I order from KP was quite happy with it. deff. get that rock in SW ASAP.

 

[Elizabeth94]

Rock looks good to me. For what its worth, if you get KPA shipped to your door its going to be packaged the same way. I ordered some for my current tank and it still had plenty of life. Even after several months I am finding more critters than when I first added the rock. 

[Jimpens71]

On 7/17/2020 at 1:23 PM, Clowns4life said:

Did anyone else have this problem? I just sent him an email and am planning on going with KPA and TBS instead. 

 

 

 

Wow that’s awful. Hope you got something back off your bill

[Clowns4life]

Just wanted to give everyone an update. This rock was garbage. I ordered from him years ago and the rock actually looked like the pictures (not like this). It's all dead and brown.

 

Dan never contacted me even though I emailed him several times. I opened a case with paypal (he still never responded) and paypal sided with me and refunded my order.

 

I created a google review page for GulfLiveRock so that other people can leave their reviews. (It pops up if you search "gulf live rock tampa fl")

[thedon986]

I’m afraid I am about to go down this same path with them. My order was packed and dropped off last Tuesday and got to me in Denver on Monday. The rock was 60* F using an infrared thermometer. No heat packs, not that they would have lasted six days spending at least 2 of them in a winter warehouse (the package was in Denver all weekend). Some wet paper towels over the top of the rocks. The ammonia from the die off was so dark green on the test is almost looked navy blue. Dead worms and amphipods all over the bottom glass, dead bivalves, melted macro-algae, except for halimeda which is bleached. I sent an email yesterday because I wanted to see what the ammonia would do overnight (also dosing AmGuard) but no reply yet and probably won’t get one. I offered to pay for UPS overnight for a replacement. I did pay by PayPal which may be my only way out. 
 

I did order this same package almost 2 years ago to the day and it was great. All the macro algae survived, tons of hitchhikers, good and bad, and also tons more coralline algae like you mentioned. 

[Tired]

Don't order things that need to ship fast in December. Everybody's ordering things, especially this year. If you get replacement rock, get it after Christmas, the shipping issues clear up a day or two after. Overnight might be okay, since it's a higher priority, but you should only order dry goods for all of December and maybe the last bit of November. 

 

Hopefully some stuff on that rock survived. Maybe there are some cool spores.