Live Rock Ripoff ??

Well we were hoping to have our LR in the cycle stage by now
The LFS have left me feeling a little unsure ( Western Australia )
We have gone to 2 LFS so far to get our LR. All the LR looked very clean...
too clean... I asked where this LR came from, ( Wait for it ) " We place clean
rocks in our system for 4 weeks with cured LR then thay are ready to go "
Needless to say.. NO LR And off to the next LFS ... Only LR for sale is from a Saltwater Tank that has had some issues.. Looking at the septic tank that still had 1 dead fish (dont know what type due to white hairy stuff growing on it) He let me know that we could have the LR for AU$28 per KG (US$13lb)
I gave him some advice on what to do with the rock.. NO! LR!
Get home, phone another LFS ( 2 HOURS DRIVING TO THIS LFS ) He has soldout next shipment is in 2 weeks, then he holds the LR in his holding tank for another 2 weeks before he will sell the LR .( DUE TO 4 DAYS TRANSPORT FROM THE EAST ) Would the LR be ok with the 4 days of transportation or would we be risking our $ and wasting another 4 weeks Well it looks like I can play with my PH & Salt levels for the next 4 weeks

 

So if I understand this right, first lfs doesn't really have lr they just put in some rock and call it live. Second lfs has expensive bad lr. And the third place has live rock in four weeks. When is this 4 day transport? Is it four day transport to the lfs then it has four weeks there?

 

the lfs is recieving his next shipment of lr in 2 weeks.
the lr comes from Queensland ( East Coast ) and the lfs said it is in transit for 4 days before he recieves it in Western Austrailia.
lfs then places the lr in a qt for 2 weeks before it is released for sale.
Found another lfs that has dead staghorn coral as lr. it is fully cured, looks great and would give some good hitching posts for the seahorses. cost $29 per Kg.. But I have read that dead coral used as lr can give you some problems..
On a lighter note, my ph, temp & sg are spot on... my aquarium is still void of any life forms

 

If packaged correctly which I would think it would be, the lr in four day transit should be fine. I'm not sure of the dead staghorn coral, you would probably receive very few lifeforms on dead coral since it is not from the ocean. I can't find much info on dead staghorn coral but what it sounds to be like is dead coral, put into a tank for awhile to cure it then sell it as lr. Which sounds similar to making your own lr. I don't see any problem with getting the lr and waiting for weeks but don't know about the dead staghorn coral, none of my lfs's sell lr like that and I can't find much info on that type, maybe somebody else will know.

That's good for your levels, in time you will get life forms, it just takes awhile.

 

HI ATM
The staghorn is from the ocean. and is cured. pieces are broken off in storms and these pieces are collected and sold to the lfs.. I went to the lfs again and thay have a piece that is still attached to a piece of lr ,, it looks like a little tree growing on a rock. and is covered in purple etc

 

So sounds pretty much like lr just in smaller pieces? The purple stuff would probably be coraline algae.

 

The staghorn comes in small and large 12"x12"
Hey I got some LR !
Put it in last night. Only got 2 bits 9lb each and some baserock 20lb.
It looks good so far. starting to smell a bit..
Will do a clean tonight and prep water for a 15% water change.
Will try and get some photos soon.
How is your sw going?

 

hmm if it smells the lr is not cured, hopefully you did not pay for cured lr. What are you planning to clean, you shouldn't need to clean too much besides the junk that fell off. Can't wait to see some photos

Nothing new on my tank, waiting for a paycheck and some time to travel to the saltwater store by me and get some more corals.

 

Smell is going, maybe it was some deadloss from the drive home.
Have some photos.

 

Looks nice. How many powerheads do you have, I only see one small one?

 

As the tank will hold seahorses, and don't like strong flows, we only require a small power head. sea horses get smashed around and stress in strong currents. the canister filter moves 250g per hr and we will be looking at flows
to prevent stagnant areas in the tank. this may require splitting the filter suction/discharge. ie suction to the filter could come from 4 locations in the tank

 

hmm sounds good. Rio makes a nice small powerhead if you ever need one, I have there mini-rios pump about 50gph and you can make that less if you want.