Questions.

[lougotzz]

I am setting up a new tank and am looking at TBS for rock and possibly sand.

How do you guys ship your stuff? Does it come in water?

I read something about a package, and basically I just follow the rules at the bottom. One pounds sand per gallon two pound rock per gallon and so on.... You give CUC members, is it safe to add these things to a tank that just had water in it? Wont the critters be affected through the cycle?

I think in a couple of weeks I am going to place an order with you guys because I really like the way the rock looks.

I am guessing when I order this is all cured rock?


I guess if I go with the rules of the package, I would need 58 pounds rock, 29 pounds sand, 1 serpent or brittle star fish, 2 tiger tail cucumber, 29 blue leg hermit crabs, 14 turbo snails, and 1 peppermint shrimp?

Is that the correct amount for a 29 gallon oceanic bio cube?

Thanks. Lou.

 

[lionbacker54]

well, i am not an employee or part of TBS, but i am a happy customer, so this was my experience.

richard ships everything, including the rock, in water.

he typically sends things in two installments. the first contains base rock. once this cycles, you let him know and he sends the second installment. this contain rock with more life in it, as well as the critters.

it is not "cured" rock. it is live rock. to me, cured rock is rock that has been kept in storage long enough to kill all the life on it. this is the exact opposite.

 

[small alien]

Hi Lou. I too am looking at TBS live rock for my next tank. If you do some reading on their site and in this forum, I think all of your questions will be answered. And then you'll have a new set of more targeted questions, the answers to which will be more useful to you and others.

I'll throw you a bone here and say, yes, they ship their rock in water and that's part of why it arrives so alive. Good luck.

 

[lougotzz]

So I get the base rock, cycle the tank. Does the sand come in the first shipment? Or is that reserved for the second? I think I am going to go with TBS because the rock you guys are pulling out of teh box just looks awsome.

 

[coral_lagoon]

Lou, Richard ships his rock in water. When you recieve it you just put it straight into your tank. There are no die offs, everything is alive.. Heres a thread I posted. I dont know if you have seen it yet ..

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1686019

 

[helix149]

Again not a tbs employee but have followed his forum and website closely for awhile to answer your questions more accurately yes sand is with first shipment.
First shipment is sand and base rock second shipment is premium rock, critters and goodies. The rock is not exactly cured rock it is live rock. To explain this further standard live rock is usually harvested by locals and thrown on a beach or boat Out of the water for however long it takes to harvest the amount they need for the day. It is then transfered still out of water to a warehouse where if lucky it is rapped in wet newspaper and shipped to the US to a store or home. From there they typically start the curing process. The curing process is necessary to remove all the dead and dying organisms from the rock that were killed off due to the way it is harvested. Tbs rock in comparison is harvested by only the owner/operator. It is moved from the harvest site into water filled containers on his boat spending only seconds out of the water on average. It is then moved to well filtered and circulated holding tanks in his warehouse. From there it is packed in water and shipped to our homes in that water. Because of this there is little or no die off and no curing needed. This iS because the rock and sand has not been hurt to need any curing.

As for how much to get on his site there is a package page heres the link http://www.tampabaysaltwater.com/thepackage/package_chart.html it tells you what you receive with the package size that he recommends for the amount of gallons in your tank.

To be fair I have not ordered from him YET. We are slowly getting the things together for a 75 gal and have the tank and sump now but need to get our lighting and skimmer before we make our order and money is tight so it will be awhile before it happens however we Will be ordering the package from him and know we will be very happy and have far more of the little critters we love to watch that have made us decide to transition to salt water. We will probably also have a tank that looks as good or better than tanks in the local reef club in months instead of years by going with tbs as we wont have to revive our live rock for years to repair the damage that is normally done during harvest and shipping of "cured" rock.


If you have more Q's def ask on this forum the people are great and we all started at some point right where you are now in the learning stage!

 

[helix149]

Oh yeah and Richard is not being rude he is a one man show and is away currently. Fishing if Im not mistaken anyway he will surly respond himself when he gets back he usually does until then ask here and we will help as much as we can as many if not most of the posters her have tbs tanks and are so happy with the product they cant say enough about tbs live rock and Richards operation.

 

[lougotzz]

Now, is this rock bad for someone who typically doesnt want SPS corals in their tank? Can I specifically ask him not to get rock with those corals?

Thanks.

 

[helix149]

Now I cannot for obviouse reasons answer specifically for Richard however I have never heard of his rock being bad for anything you want in your tank. As for asking him to leave things out that you dont want I have asked him that question personally as we dont care for the tree sponges and his answer was basically yes and no. Yes in that you can ask and he will do what he can to reasonably accommodate your request as in he will not put them in as extras but no as in that he probably will not scour every crevice of every rock sent to you looking for and removing them before shipping. But it never hurts to ask him once he gets back for a more clear cut answer. I think he is due back sometime this week or next.

 

[Madratter]

Again, not a Tampa Bay Saltwater Employee, just a very happy customer.

Richard ships the rock and live sand in water so that it stays that way (live).

"The Package" is sent in two parts. In part one, he sends all the live sand, and half the live rock. The CUC is not sent until part II. The ammonia part of the cycle is then done on part I. Richard doesn't send part II until your ammonia goes up and then comes back down below .25 ppm.

When the ammonia does get back down to .25 ppm and stays there, you e-mail Richard and he sends part II. That consists of the remainder of the live rock, the CUC, and any goodies he feels like tossing in for free. The tank will go through another mini cycle but it should be pretty easy to keep the ammonia below 1 ppm. The cleanup crew should do fine.

None of the rock is "Cured". The FAQ on Tampa Bay Saltwater's site goes into this in detail. Basically, curing rock is a process by which stuff that is going to die because it has been mishandled is left to die so it won't fowl your tank. Consequently, by the time the rock is cured, there isn't much left that is really live about it.

There will likely be some dieoff on Richard's rock but if you follow his instructions, it should be minimal and manageable. Basically you do partial water changes to keep the ammonia level below 1 ppm. I had an enormous amount of life make it. I did have some die off (some sponges are just about impossible to keep alive once exposed to air, even if very briefly). Richard's method requires that you have a large amount of water premixed so that partial water changes can be made as needed. In my case, his recipe calls for up to 24 gallons of water for partial water changes (I have two twelve gallon tanks). My one tank used 17 gallons of water for water changes. My other tank needed none so it worked out about right. The one tank used so much because I was trying to save something. It didn't work and I did end up having to take it off the rock.

In terms of the amount of stuff to get, when you submit the order, you will just order the 29 gallon version of "The Package" and Richard will get the numbers right. But I think you have the numbers about right.

In my case I had two 12 gallon nanocubes and I ordered 24g worth of the package. Because of the back compartments, I don't have 24 gallons of usable display space and I ended up putting one rock I got in a different tank. But I'm glad I ordered the full 24 gallon package. I like having the 12 snails instead of 10, 24 hermit crabs, etc.

Read everything on Richard's site, even the testimonials. I think it will answer a lot of your questions. Personally, getting "The Package" worked out wonderfully for me.

 

[lougotzz]

Just one more question, the rocks, are they very porice, with lots of nooks and crannys? Or are they like oval eggs? I am really trying to get the porice look and the crannys, I nont want just a lump of rocks.

Thanks. Lou.

 

[coral_lagoon]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15551851#post15551851 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by lougotzz
Just one more question, the rocks, are they very porice, with lots of nooks and crannys? Or are they like oval eggs? I am really trying to get the porice look and the crannys, I nont want just a lump of rocks.

Thanks. Lou.

Lou,
The rock is porous with holes+ tunnels..

 

[lionbacker54]

lou-
agree with coral lagoon. the pics don't do the rock justice. when you see the pics, they certainly look (to me anyways) like oval lumps. but in fact, they are very craggy. to get an idea, check out the thread on richard's DRY rock. this is what the rock looks like before getting submerged for several years. it is the same rock later, just encrusted with all sorts of life.

 

[Madratter]

It varies. I have some that are very porous, I got two that are like flat plates which don't have a lot of holes in them (which I found very useful), some that are in between in terms of porosity.

I think you should e-mail Richard, indicate what you want, and see if he is willing to provide it.

In general the reputation is that Pacific rock is somewhat more porous.

Personally, I love the rock I got.

Another alternative is buying a bunch of the dry rock he is selling (which is very porous), and buying some of his regular rock to seed it.

 

[liverock]

Thanks!

Thanks!

Thanks guys for jumping in here while I was in the Keys.....all the right answers!

Keep up the good work!

As for the Keys trip....disaster...

blew the first trailer tire 36 miles outside of tampa......got to the Keys, was way to rough to go out...i did...got my butt kicked....went back to the dock <the same one I have used for 30 years>

Bent two blades on my prop pulling her out....great..

Went and bought a new prop....went out the next day, trolled 60 miles.....not one strike.....I know better than going fishing in August on a full moon, but it was my window...

Pulled the boat out, and the AC in the truck quit working....not a good thing in the Keys.....

Put the boat in gear, and the shifter cable broke.....that was it!

Back to Tampa, but then blew another tire 76 miles of of Tampa....

so after 3 days of fixing the boat, and $1000.00 later, I was back up at 5am this morning to place another 3500# of rock on my site.....was pretty bumpy out there, but got the rock overboard....then went down to harvest some rock, visibility was terrible as we had a tropical storm the last 2 days....

Was working a rock pile, one of my bags drifted off, I went up to retrieve it, turned around and sank back to the bottom right on TOP of a jewfish that was over 10 foot long, I saddled him like a horse......scared the <****> out of me, he must have been behind me watching me work, and when I went up for the bag, he slid into see what was under the rocks, and we met.

Did not bother him a bit, he just slinked off to the side about 3 feet from me, and continued to watch as I worked.


I am used to them, but no vis and that greating was special...


Have another 3500 # rock on the boat again for deployment tomorrow, then I expect the weather to go bad as Bill is on the way!

Richard TBS
:rollface: :rollface: :rollface:

 

[vlim13]

I was wondering about the storm... Glad you made the dive because I got my order yesterday!

I ordered a 30 gal package for 400 gal tank that already has live rock in it, but only been set up for 2 months. I needed some color, and thought that I was only going to get colorful rock. Richard surprised me with lots of extras like sponges and coral (gorgonians?) that instantly made the tank look a lot better.

In comparison, I got some Fiji rock at the LFS that after two months is just barely starting to have coralline and calcareous algae growing on it. Richard's rock and goodies made the tank look more mature.

Some of the rocks and sand ended up going into a 14 gal nano. Couldn't resist!