ThRoewer
New member
In need of some nice live rock with lots of coralline algae for my new tank, and because the local store either don't have live rock it or didn't have the quality I was looking for I decided to order a box online from LA.
Based on the description I decided the Drs. Foster & Smith Select Fiji Premium Live Rock was what I was looking for:
So I ordered a 45 lbs box which arrived yesterday after a minor UPS snafu.
Unfortunately the rock in the box did not match the description in anything but the size.
They were for sure not fresh.
Even after soaking and scrubbing off the sediment there shows little coralline, let alone the advertised 70-90% coverage on the "show side", and what little coralline is there has turned yellow and is decaying.
I also didn't see any signs that these rocks were rehydrated like they advertise. The rocks I receives were so dry that I wondered why they had to be shipped via expensive Next Day Air. Standard ground would have been sufficient and wouldn't have done more harm to these than the days they likely spend sitting dry in a warehouse in LA.
Now, back in Germany, when I helped out in a local saltwater store I have seen freshly arrived live rock (usually from Singapore and Indonesia) that was full of coralline, macroalgae and all kinds of life forms, including soft and hard corals (I even got one piece once with a fungia base polyp on it). They usually also contained all kinds of worms, crabs, pistol shrimp, brittle stars, most still alive and fit enough to survive. Usually there was also always moisture in the box that kept everything alive.
Even here in one of the local stores they get often much better quality rocks.
What I got looked more like the Fiji Foundation Rock.
Now I would like to know what others here received when ordering the Select Fiji Premium Live Rock.
Was it as advertised and I just got a bad batch, or is this the normal condition these rocks come in and the advertisement is just full of it?
Based on the description I decided the Drs. Foster & Smith Select Fiji Premium Live Rock was what I was looking for:
So I ordered a 45 lbs box which arrived yesterday after a minor UPS snafu.
Unfortunately the rock in the box did not match the description in anything but the size.
They were for sure not fresh.
Even after soaking and scrubbing off the sediment there shows little coralline, let alone the advertised 70-90% coverage on the "show side", and what little coralline is there has turned yellow and is decaying.
I also didn't see any signs that these rocks were rehydrated like they advertise. The rocks I receives were so dry that I wondered why they had to be shipped via expensive Next Day Air. Standard ground would have been sufficient and wouldn't have done more harm to these than the days they likely spend sitting dry in a warehouse in LA.
Now, back in Germany, when I helped out in a local saltwater store I have seen freshly arrived live rock (usually from Singapore and Indonesia) that was full of coralline, macroalgae and all kinds of life forms, including soft and hard corals (I even got one piece once with a fungia base polyp on it). They usually also contained all kinds of worms, crabs, pistol shrimp, brittle stars, most still alive and fit enough to survive. Usually there was also always moisture in the box that kept everything alive.
Even here in one of the local stores they get often much better quality rocks.
What I got looked more like the Fiji Foundation Rock.
Now I would like to know what others here received when ordering the Select Fiji Premium Live Rock.
Was it as advertised and I just got a bad batch, or is this the normal condition these rocks come in and the advertisement is just full of it?
