Premium Aquatics Marshall Island Rock Review

[robilium]

This review reprinted from my original tank thread:
My Reef Thread at New to the Hobby


What follows is a photo review of the Premium Aquatics Marshall Island Premium Cured Live Rock @ $5.99. PA was great with my order, they had mistakenly quoted DHL as 1 day shipping to NH, which unfortunately it is not. So when I saw the rock in transit with a Shipdate of thursday and a delivery of Tuesday I felt horibble about the livestock death on the rocks. I called PA and didnt even have to explain to the guys. They immediately saw the error, told me to refuse shipment and then proceeded to cross ship a new set of rock overnight! They covered the additional shipping charge even! Now that is service. I highly recommend these guys. A buddy of mine hought that was such a good story he just purchased 3 175w MH retro kits from them.

So on to the review of the rock itself.

First off - the rock was very tightly packed and very clean non leaking box.

My only comment is that the paper was not sopping wet - more moist. Kind of a 50/50 wet to dry ratio. Is this normal? I must admit my only other experience with LR shipped is from TBS and that is drenched in water.

Next post will have rock pictures....

 

[robilium]

I have used a hammer as size comparision. My initial rock impression quick hits are as follows:

- Cool green, and purple
- Rock seemed a lil dry?
- Very neat shapes - just like a lare stone coral
- VERY light even compared to the Kaelini
- No visible sponges/livestock/etc.
- A few peices of wet and dry macro algae
- One piece that looked like it had a bit of coral on it still

Lot of rock for only 25lbs! A number of comments i have received from people say Marshall will have less life on it - but awesome shapes and color up beautifully! I think PA even says this on their site.

As for rubble/breakage.... maybe a softball size amount total?

Onto the pics...

Picture of the relative wetness of the paper. Am I just being picky??

 

[robilium]

This rock has some fuzzzy looking stuff to the right. Any ideas? Coral?

Here they are stewing.....
I am not sure how much curing they will need. They seemed pretty ready to go..... No die off visible - smelled great. I added a light that was the same as on my fuge 90w effective PC.

 

[Elite]

Wow very nice rock.. How much is it for 25lbs?

 

[eclecticvibe]

As to the fuzzy stuff, looks to me like an encrusting gorgonian. Those often survive the transit and are nice hitchhikers. We try to find a happy medium between making sure the rock stays moist, and also making sure that the box doesn't leak or fall apart allowing damage to the rock. The trick to shipping live rock is just to make sure there is moisture to keep bacteria alive. Most of the other life that's survived the trip from the Pacific to us, is hardy enough to stand some dryness. The paper also helps cushion the rock during shipping, so you get less rubble. So as long as your rock arrived with some moisture, you should be just fine. It's good to hear that the rock was as expected!

 

[robilium]

The rock was more than expected! I cant believe that was only 25lbs. there were 7 peices in the box and you can see from the picture above with the hammer that they were not softball size peices. They were pretty big.

Ok great to hear about the moisture and the paper. I had very little rubble. Just enough so I could mount some frags on it Packing was great, dry, etc.

VERY PLEASED!

Oh! This is interesting too. I checked it this morning and I had little to no amonia, 0-0.1 I could barely tell with my Salifert tests. Nitrite was also between 0-0.1.

I am almost tempted to add it to my tank this evening. There is already 100g water and 100lbs of rock in there.... I will retest this evening and see if amonia and Nitrites are 0.

Hey PA - do you guys know what is the typical amount of recuring required for your cured MI rock?

Love the stuff!
Check out my tank thread for more details.