Local places for decent live rock?

[apexkeeper]

Anybody in the NJ/PA area know any local stores that usually have decent live rock? I just need a few small pieces so it's not worth buying online. So far I've tried The Hidden Reef, The Fish Factory, and All Aquatics... Slim pickings at each and all the rock I found looked like it could have been picked out of a desert, no signs of coraline or any life whatsoever. :thumbdown

 

[Spork3245]

Anybody in the NJ/PA area know any local stores that usually have decent live rock? I just need a few small pieces so it's not worth buying online. So far I've tried The Hidden Reef, The Fish Factory, and All Aquatics... Slim pickings at each and all the rock I found looked like it could have been picked out of a desert, no signs of coraline or any life whatsoever. :thumbdown

Hidden Reef, if you're facing their curing tubs from where you walk in, the most-left one is "home-grown" hitchhiker-free live rock that is fully encrusted in purple coraline algae... Of course it's about $8+ per pound. Personally, this is the only LR I'll buy since my tank has been set-up as I do not wish to chance adding a bad hitchhiker to my established tank. The other curing-tubs contain rock pulled from the ocean.

 

[apexkeeper]

Thanks for the tip, I'll stop back and check again. I was in last week and dug around one of the tubs and wasn't impressed but they didn't have any labels or prices up on them at the time so I figured they were all the same rock.

 

[Spork3245]

Thanks for the tip, I'll stop back and check again. I was in last week and dug around one of the tubs and wasn't impressed but they didn't have any labels or prices up on them at the time so I figured they were all the same rock.

There's usually a small piece of paper stuck on one or two of them, very easy to miss.