Best Place in town to buy Live Rock and Live Sand

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Hi Everyone,
Anyone know of any place in town that gives good deals on live rock and live sand. You may have already told me, but please refresh my memory. I'm more interested in sand right now, but while I'm at it live rock could help also.
 
key's island, reef n pond, quality aqua, premier fish and reef. all 4 of these places have pretty good deals depending on what you are looking for.
 
I would say Ki has some nice rock with great prices in now. I was in yesterday. (Keys Island) Santa Fe and Oxford. I also saw some nice stuff last weekend at Quality Aqua. See Yale or Jeff. On Santa Fe next to Reef and pond or around the corner.

Martin
 
I'd say don't buy live sand in advance of getting your tank. Getting rock started on curing makes sense (I have had 200 pounds in a curing tank for months waiting for the tank to be ready :p ) You will be better able to seed your sand with a cup from another established tank after adding all of the dry sand you will need. At that time find somebody who has a similar color and granularity and swap them a cup of new for a cup of their old...plenty on here will be glad to help. It will eventually populate your full sand bed.
 
You might contact gsxrguru2 (James)

he has some Bali rock left. That is my favorite rock it is truly amazing.

I would suggest just using sand and not worry about the "live" factor of it as the sand will go live once some live rock is added.


Kip
 
I agree with Kip. In fact, once your tank's running a couple of pinches of flake food now and then will start your dry sand's population of bacteria. You need live rock or some other source for "macro-detrivores," though (as opposed to the bacteria who are "micro-detrivores").
 
I'm new to salt but I've got 100lbs of Carribean curing in my basement that I ordered from Int Marine Fish for $3.15 a lb (cured or uncured), and next-day air to DIA was free. It's been tanked w/good circulation for two weeks, the tank is starting to cycle and it looks like corraline algae is starting to spore all over the place.

There are some other things coming to life, not sure what they are but little rolly-polly looking guys are popping up here and there along w/red polyps or something budding up.

Point is, they advertise their rock has lots of life on it. Mine appears as though it does. I'm not paying $5+ downtown, saved almost $200 on my purchase. Repeat customer here.

Poupon
 
I have had rock from Caribbean, Fiji, Tonga, Kaelini, Bali, Marshall and I am sure elsewhere.

You are correct that the rock has tons of life. Some of it is quite amazing too. I remember one time seeing a little orange shrimp that I thought was too cool Ok, back to the topic, ahem, but the problem was that most of it died off and thus the cure time on the tank was huge as was the skimming needs even after curing. Also, the rock was quite dense relative to some of the South Pacific rock. So, you may find that the rock cost perhaps more than a similar amount of Fiji for example due to porosity. On my current tank, a 165 gallon, I used 120 pounds of Bali. So it cost more per pound, but the overall amount was less, and thus my total cost was similar.

The life on Caribbean is very cool. and compared to Pacific quite a bit better, but in my case, I want to know what is on the or in the rock rather than a mix as I would not want something dangerous to my sps, clams, fish, etc. Isopods, flatworms, fireworms, crabs, shrimp, etc can be dangerous.

There is very little markup in rock and my guess is most stores are paying around $4 a pound or so. This is speculation mind you, but our LFS provide us such a good service, I would encourage you to consider using them when feasible/possible as everyone is simply trying to make a living.

My new 600 is using Bali rock with a few branches of Tonga. Of all the rock I prefer this, although even this rock I make adjustments to fit my own personal tastes. I hae chosen to kill it all with interceptor just to be safe. But that is the beneift of this hobby, we can each have our own preferences and find the product that meets our personal tastes.

Kip
 
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