Where to buy LR online?

Has anyone had any experience with buying rock from Aquacon.com? All of my local stores are really expensive and I dont necassarily trust what they say about the origins of the rock but the advantage is I get to hand pick what I want from what they have in stock.

Any other sites you would suggest for LR would be greatly appreciated as well.

 

Hey Steve,

After 2 weeks of research and price comparison, I found the best deal to be from liveaquaria.com. Back in April I picked up 90 lbs of their Fiji Standard live rock for $89.99 per 45lbs + delivery. I bought 90 lbs and it worked out to be about $3.38 a lb, delivered. I just checked for you and the price is still the same, a great deal.

The rock came to about 8 pieces per box; 3 large, 3 medium, and 2 racquetball sized. It is of medium density and has tons of pockets in the rock to put frag in, etc. Also, there was practically no rubble; some live rock sellers add rubble to get up to weight. Currently, it is purpling up very nicely and I have to say I am extremely pleased with the rock.

I don't know if you have ever bought anything from Dr. Fosters and Smith/Live Aquaria, but their customer service is the absolute best. Just this week, I called them to tell them that my one of my Coralife arm length gloves was leaking at the seam. Unbelievably, the agent I spoke to just asked for the order number, looked it up, and sent me a brand new pair at no charge, nor did she ask me to ship the others back. They are great to work with.

Forgive my longwindedness, if I can help with anything else, please let me know. Good luck with the rock hunting.

Jim

 

Marcorocks.com and reefcleaners.org are two places I hear touted a lot. I know they're both pretty cheap.

F&S definitely has some very good customer service. I told them that I received a test kit with a vial broken, and they didn't ask for me to send it back, just sent a new one.

 

If you already have some live rock and just want to add more then I would go with reefcleaners. The rock is dry and white but it will become "live" in no time, plus you actually get more without all the water to weigh it down. Super nice stuff, even better prices and you won't regret dealing with John over there. I got 80lbs to restart my tank and I was very impressed with what I got...almost like he knew exactly what I needed .


TJ

 

Thanks for the reply Jim. I have looked at F&S website and agree they seem to be a quality online resource. I have also looked at the marcorocks.com site and they do have very reasonable prices. I always get worried when something is too cheap, then I begin to wonder about the quality of it.

 

I can sell you fiji live rock for 2 dollars a pound, and 3 dollars a pound for tatoka. Right now have around 400 pounds left of rock. Just have to add on shipping. I'm from Southern California.

 

Macrorocks is cheap because it is dry "base" rock. It doesn't have any of the bacteria or algae that makes people consider live rock to be live. Base rock also isn't going to have any unwanted hitchhikers.

If you get live rock online a lot of the "live" stuff is going to die off and your cycle is going to be longer and more chaotic. If you go with dry base rock like macrorocks or reefcleaners.org sells and use a piece of table shrimp to start your cycle it will be shorter.

In time the "cheap" base rock will look exactly the same as live rock. My tank is half and half and you couldn't tell the difference. The baserock didn't come with a stone crab that killed several fish though. ;D

 

90% of mine is MarcoRocks base...

Day 1




and the FTS at 11 months

 

Whatever you do, dont order anything from Aquatic Connection.(Aquacon.com) You will never see your liverock and your money will be lost.

 

Just ordered my base rock from marcorocks. I'm thinking I will just get my lr from a lfs.