Look for yourself liverock pictures

[jay357]

You be the judge:

I have been going round and round about this liverock that I received from www.Marinedepo.com. Their customer service is really horrible. This rock they are selling as " Our freshly imported premium Fiji live rock is absolutely the best Fiji rock available" and "It is a very light weight rock from the Pacific. It`s popular for building reefs due to it`s light weight and high capacity for bacteria growth. It has very dark purples and some orange coraline algae growths" This all quoted from their website.

Heres links to the pictures in my gallery.

http://www.3reef.com/photos/data//500/medium/DSCF3315_Medium_.JPG

http://www.3reef.com/photos/data//500/medium/DSCF3313_Medium_.JPG

http://www.3reef.com/photos/data//500/medium/DSCF3314_Medium_.JPG

http://www.3reef.com/photos/data//500/medium/DSCF3312_Medium_.JPG

I am not very happy. They will not refund my money without having me pay for shipping. The email conversations are intresting too. I will post them also. You be the judge. Am I in the wrong here or am I just pickey? The rock looks like it was burried in mud in the ocean. No sponges or any life at all. No foul smell while curing to speak of to indicate some type of dieoff. Not even a featherduster. I wont be buying anymore drygoods from them anymore. Its LFS for me. Ive been burned too mant times.

Frustrated customer

Jay
Vancouver Washington

 

[jay357]

Heres the emails. Read from the bottom to get them in order.

Jay

From: Jay Steinmetz [mailto:jaysteinmetz@gcpower.net]
Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 9:30 AM
To: customercare@marinedepotlive.com
Subject: Re: Liverock (Thread:919603)

John:
This is what Liveaquaria is selling as Figi Liverock. I would say they are probably one of your biggest competition. Look at the pictures on this page. It is from Liveaquarias feedback forum on Reefcentral.com. I got stroked on my order from the ebay vendor. This I would expext beings it is ebay. But when I call ahead of time and talk with you about your liverock and you asure me that you are selling "premium Fiji live rock is absolutely the best Fiji rock available" just like it says on your website then I am not worried am expexting to get the same stuff other venders are selling. So I happily place my order with you and not even worry about it. What great service, this is going to be great. How dissapointing John. Now I need to pay again shipping charges just to return this rock that I cannot use. Please send me a prepaid airbill with UPS so I can return this and place another order with Liveaquaria.com and setup my reef tank. No hard feelings, I will continue to buy my drygoods with you as I have been happy with the service with these items. I dont feel right having to pay the shipping charges. I feel still like the product I received is not what was presented to me by yourself and your website.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...pagen umber=3
Thank You again for helping me with this John
Jay
----- Original Message -----
From: customercare@marinedepotlive.com
To: jaysteinmetz@gcpower.net

Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 8:52 AM

Subject: RE: Liverock (Thread:919603)
Hello Jay,
Thanks for the Email. I apologize for the inconvenience. I am here Monday until 12, and not in at all on Tuesdays.
In regards to the liverock, the image below is of ultra grade tongan live rock.
Notice the branching, and the 100% coverage.
The rock received is how standard, fiji premium is sold and bought. There is some corraline growth, both green and purple and is very porous. Fiji rock is often boulder shaped, and though it is made from coral skeleton, is worn. The rock that you received is in keeping with the image provided on our website:
Tonga liverock usually very branched and has the original shape and structure of the original coral heads.
For 100% coverage, like that listed in the image that you provided, is found only on ultra grade/show grade types of rock, like the Tonga Lalo
assure you that this rock is usable and of very high quality, and meets both our standards, and Walt Smith’s. Should you be very dissatisfied, we can issue a refund upon receipt of the product received.

I apologize for any inconvenience.

I hope that I helped. If you have any other questions, I'd be glad to help you further

John Trinidad
Marine Depot Customer Service
http://www.marinedepot.com
customercare@marinedepot.com
714.385.0080
From: Jay Steinmetz [mailto:jaysteinmetz@gcpower.net]
Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2006 8:53 AM
To: customercare@marinedepotlive.com
Subject: Fw: Liverock (Thread:919603)

Good Morning:
Hello there Marinedepot, Just wondering if you are going to get back with me today on this? Your email said your manager would help me but he must not have checked the support emails last night. I sent this origionally at 1:00 PM Monday.

Thanks

Jay
----- Original Message -----
From: Jay Steinmetz
To: customercare@marinedepotlive.com
Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 1:04 PM

Here it is. Looks like ordinary base rock that has been burried under the mud at the bottom of the ocean. I have had it submerged in saltwater in a 30 gallon tank with a skimmer and powerhead since it arrived. Can you see what I meen? Pop can for size comparison.
Thanks for your time and patience helping me with this
Jay

From your website :
Fiji Premium Live Rock, 44 lbs per box
Our freshly imported premium Fiji live rock is absolutely the best Fiji rock available. This rock is fresh and and will require additional curing in your tank or in a seperate curing bin if your tank has already been cycled.
It is a very light weight rock from the Pacific. It`s popular for building reefs due to it`s light weight and high capacity for bacteria growth. It has very dark purples and some orange coraline algae growths. Each rock is going to be about 3 to 11 inches. Live Rock provides the foundation of a reef aquarium. Biological filtration, structure and beauty. This is a porous rock. Usually, 1 to 1.5 pounds per gallon is recommended. Our Premium Fiji Rock will require a 2-3 week curing process. Not recommended to place in a fully cycled tank.

----- Original Message -----
From: customercare@marinedepotlive.com
To: jaysteinmetz@gcpower.net

Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 9:29 AM
Hey Jay,

Thanks for the Email. Send over an image of the rock you received and I’ll see what we can do. On the most part, we get wonderful reviews on the rock sent, so it would be odd to hear that you received bleached/white rock, and etc.
I may not be here tomorrow, so if you send the image this evening, my manager will reply.
John Trinidad

customercare@marinedepot.com

714.385.0080
From: Jay Steinmetz [mailto:jaysteinmetz@gcpower.net]
Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2006 9:16 AM
To: customercare@marinedepotlive.com
Subject: Re: Liverock (Thread:919603)

John:
I really dont know what to say. I am not at all happy with the liverock that I received from you guys. It came in the exact same box as the junk rock I got. Its rock that has been burried in mud. Zero coraline growth and no life on it. I guess I am expexting rock similer to the other orders that I got from another vender one and a half years ago. It was old encrusted coral heads. You could see that it was not burried in mud and had macro algea on it and sponges and even came with a few crabs. This rock that is listed as premium liverock on your site is not good at all. I feel like I have now bought rock twice and cant use any of it. This is the exact same rock that the ebay seller sold me but yours was a little fresher. Can I send it back to you? Do you have any of the type of rock I am talking about? I am really not a pickey person, I just want what I paid for, or at least something I can use.

I dont meen to be a pain in the *** but I have so far had great service from you guys. I hate to complain, really I dont usually complain at all. I really dont even care that there is no coraline on it I can grow that but rock that has been mostly been burried in mud . Had the same jebo box as the other guy.
Please help me. Do I need to spend more money with you on this? Now there is shipping charges back to you. This is really a bummer. This is why I called and talked to you guys to be sure it was premium liverock.
Jay
This is what I want. Something similer to this. Notice the old coral heads. It has some coraline and macro algea.
----- Original Message -----

From: customercare@marinedepotlive.com

To: jaysteinmetz@gcpower.net

Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2006 7:23 AM

Subject: RE: Liverock (Thread:919603)

Hello Jay,

Thanks for the Email. We actually ran out of our current stock of liverock, and are picking up another box for you (fresher) today. We want to make sure you get your box both fresh, and on time, so we are upgrading your shipping to next day air (from second day air) at no cost.

Your package will be received on your Friday promise date.

I hope that I helped. If you have any other questions, I'd be glad to help you further
John Trinidad

Marine Depot Customer Service

http://www.marinedepot.com

customercare@marinedepot.com

714.385.0080

From: Jay Steinmetz [mailto:jaysteinmetz@gcpower.net]
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2006 7:39 PM
To: customercare@marinedepotlive.com
Subject: Re: Liverock (Thread:919603)

John:

I missed your call last night. You left a message about my tracking number and upgrading my order at no charge to me. What did you meen by this? Am I getting different type of rock or a better type or whats up.
Thanks

John

----- Original Message -----

From: customercare@marinedepotlive.com
To: jaysteinmetz@gcpower.net
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2006 9:28 AM
Subject: RE: Liverock (Thread:919603)
Hello Jay,
Thanks for the Email. I believe that we handled all this over the phone when placing your order.
I hope that I helped. If you have any other questions, I'd be glad to help you further
John Trinidad

Marine Depot Customer Service

http://www.marinedepot.com

customercare@marinedepot.com

714.385.0080
From: Jay Steinmetz [mailto:jaysteinmetz@gcpower.net]
Sent: Sunday, May 28, 2006 7:51 PM
To: customercare@marinedepotlive.com
Subject: Liverock (Thread:919603)

I want to order some liverock from you. Can you please send me some more photos of your figi liverock? I would like to see how much comes in a 50 pound box. Also I want to see the quality and types of shapes to expect in my order. Does your rock come from Walt Smiths facilities? I recently got ripped off buying rock from ebay. I was sent 45 pounds of very old rotting baserock. So bad I had to throw it out...at least dry it out and use it for frag plugs.

Thanks

Jay Steinmetz


_________

60 Gal Acrylic, 30 Gal Acrylic, 55 Gal Glass.
Remora skimmers, 440 Watts VHO URI's. Mag canister for carbon. 90 Pounds liverock, 100 pounds live sand DSB, Flame Angel, Coral Beauty, Clown Percula, Royal Gramma, Domino Damsel. Pulsing Xenia, Devils Hand Leather, Frogspawns, Torches, Hammers, Fox Corals, Gorgonias, Various Zoanuthus, Favietes, Toxic Green Star Polyps. Candy Cane corals, Purple Indica.


Jay
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Today, 05:51 PM #13
Jay
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 794
Karma: 71

 

[jay357]

Heres the last one. Pretty unhappy customer.

Jay

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Heres the last email I got from them this afternoon. It was over 10000 characters so it all would not fit in one post here. Also all the pictures have been removed. But they are in my gallery still : )

Jay
Hello Jay,
Thanks for the Email. Unfortunately, we are unable to accommodate your request for a shipping label for the live rock. I have spoken to my manager, and have confirmed that the rock sent is consistent with what is advertised. Please feel free to call later on this evening for further clarification. Though I will not be here, my manager, Eugene, or associate, Jorge, will be able to help you further.

Sincerely,
John Trinidad

Marine Depot Customer Service

http://www.marinedepot.com

customercare@marinedepot.com

714.385.0080--

 

[-=DieselDave=-]

I think that the rock you have looks even better than the picture of the rock on their website. Just my opinion.

 

[stewie24]

I agree with you Jay.
I ordered a box of nano live rock a few months back.
Long story short:
I paid for overnight shipping and asked for heat packs.
Box came next day, rock was dry as a bone or slightly moist at best. No heat packs, no wrapping, no nothing.
My rocks looked EXACTLY like yours did. I dont see how this even fits in the fiji catagory. I've bought fiji from Premium Aquatics and its been faaaaaaaaaaar superior fiji than anywhere else.
The Marine Depot rocks were VERY dissapointing.. They were huge heavy boulders with NO life on them at all. No worms/dusters.. I did get a small patch of some sort of algae and that was all.
I was refunded my money (thank god), however I will never buy rock from them again as its such poor qualiy and the shipping techniques were horrid. I find it very hard to belive they actually have happy customers with the fiji. I think they need to just remove the whole fiji line from their sales or else find a new supplier for the fiji.
As far as the shipping and return goes here's my thoughts:
Its going to cost you a decent bit to return that rock. After its spend all that time in transit, what are they going to do with it? Basically by that time it will be void of everything. They're still going to refund you, so they'll be losing money. I think they should just refund your money minus the cost of shipping you paid to originally have it sent to you. That would be the best way to do. The rocks I got from them got chopped up and are now sitting in my sump ready to be used as frag plus as needed. (Thats all they're good for....)

Hope you get this resolved and I hope their quality of fiji improves over time. I know they raised up the prices of the fiji nano box a week or so after my order. For over 5.00 a pound for that crap, you'd be further ahead going to a lfs and paying a few more dollars a pound to cherry pick nice pieces.
Keep us updated man.
Stewie

 

[jay357]

Yep. John there told me that what they do for the Nano boxes is get a 45 pound box and just break it into two boxes. I also found out by emailing the drygoods support email which is a different email that they are actually two seperate bussinesses. Marinedepot.com and marinedepotlive.com are ran seperatly and the dry goods people have nothing to do with the livegoods people so they cant even lean on them to help me. I am just giving up. I will get my rock elsewhere where I can see it first for now on. Goes to show you that having repeat customers is of no importance to them.

Thanks Stewie

 

[ncny21802]

Honestly, you paid for cheap rock and got cheap rock. Marine Depot has always been great on everything I've ordered from them. If you ordered really good rock from the beginning you would've saved money. Pay the extra for the Marshall Island or Pukani and you will be happy. Don't buy a Geo and expect a mercedes

 

[stewie24]

Actually, I bought 10 lbs of fiji/marshall islands from premium aquatics and couldn't have been happier.. It was the best looking rock i've ever seen. awesome green coraline algaes (the MI rock didn't come w/ much life), but the fiji looked almost identical to it that I could barely tell the difference. If you want pics straight from the box, I'll give you a link (i posted the pics in the PA forum if you care to check there and see the pics yourself).
Good luck w/ the rock you get.
Stewie

 

[LBCBJ]

I'm as picky and critical as you can get, but there's honestly nothing wrong with that rock. That's what live rock looks like when it's dry; colorless. Did you even put it in your tank? You probably wouldn't have been dissapointed then. Also, the quality of live rock is always changing. The government of of these islands only allows a certain amount of rock to be collected from certain areas, and the live rock from Fiji hasnt been the best lately.

 

[scarter]

fiji rock very often comes with that muddy look, chuck it in a tank and blow it off with a PH every day for a week and it will be gone. you may be suprised at what you find living under that "mud".
I found one of my best orange sponges under there

 

[Wryknow]

That looks like good rock to me. It will color up nicely in your aquarium with care and a little time. You're just not going to get a lot of visible macro-fauna on rocks that have been shipped half-way around the world. The stuff that survived the trip was hiding in the rock and is probably dead now after it was left sitting (dry) on an asphault driveway. Despite this, MD customer service still offered to refund your money. Why are you unhappy again?

 

[LegoZ81]

LR IMHO sucks in general... I'd leave this in your tank and see if they will offer a partial refund. find someplace local that has a REALLY nice piece but it and tanke in home covered in water or place a small TBSaltwater order and do it that way to get life and seed this rock.

 

[cwegescheide]

If I were you I'd go to Premium Aquatics.. I got about 100lbs of Marshall Island rock and lots of color and life. I was happy with it.

 

[eperez25]

I purchased mine from Aquarium Arts and had no issues. Actually, I dropped into an already functioning tank and went through about a 2 day "mini-cycle" so to speak with no loss of fish or inverts.

Some of my rock looked exactly like yours did. I did a few pieces with thick algae on it and 3 weeks later I have a few feathers, a sponge, pods like mad, and a zoo growing on the rock.

I was very pleased. Again, I don't really see too much wrong with that rock in the pictures. That being said, I don't know what you were promised.

Elio

 

[Ferevh]

I work at a LFS and we see rock come out of the box like that all the time. Some batches are good while others are ugly and boring. If you buy your rock cheap on-line you're going to experience this chance yourself. It will come direct from the wholesaler in it's origional box from half way around the world. No one is going to hand select peices for you. You get what you get when you buy a box of liverock and not per pound from a holding tank.

 

[Teremei]

I also think those shapes are really nice. You've got some nice shapes to work with to make your rockwork. I agree with what some people have said that you have pretty good rock.

 

[takayan]

I just wanted to say that I also bought LR from MD and it was not good. Actually, it was just rock, not a Live Rock.
When I bought LR from local store, there were so many live stock. However, MD's LR did have any live stock... Very disappointed!

Here is a link for highesr quality LR store in Japan.
http://www.aqua-planning.co.jp/liverock.htm
Most aquarist very satisfied their Live Rock.

 

[maddyfish]

If you want nice live rock, don't order it, select it yourself.

 

[cajunpuffer]

Sorry to hear about your rock. I agree with you ...it does look very poor. I bought figi LR from ebay before from florida and it was all covvered in purple corraline and tons of feather dusters.

 

[trigger111]

I recently bought rock from MD and it looked very similar to what you received. I was disappointed when I first got it but after about 4-6 weeks in a quarantine tank it started to come around. It doesn’t have all the macro life of premium hand selected rock, but it is now covered in coarline and looks good. I am pleased and I am sure you would have been too had you given it a chance to recover.