Advice on live rock order

poesraven

poesraven

New Member
Hi everyone,
I need some advice on live rock that I ordered online. (not from here). I ordered 50 lbs of live rock on Feb 12. Their shipping policy states that the rock would arrive (at my house) in 2-3 days. My order just got shipped yesterday. I checked the tracking number and it shows a delivery (to me) of Tuesday. My rock will have been in transit for 5 days before I get it. Can live rock make it for 5 days out of water and still be okay?
Thanks,
Loretta
 
semaj

semaj

Member
5 days is not the best for sure. You still will have live rock but there will likely be plenty of die off. Hopefully they packaged it with plenty of moisture. Hopefully they also have good heat packs 'cause it is cold here in IL.
 
j-bird

j-bird

Member
Yes, 5 days seems like quite a long time. There will be plenty of die off, I would not put directly in my tank. I would complain to site that you purchased from and think twice before ordering from again.
 
dischirm

dischirm

Member
You will definately need to cure that rock outside of your tank. That is a LONG time for rock to be out of water. IMO the company should not have sent anything that had to sit over a weekend in some deliverer's terminal. You will be able to tell how good them rock is as soon as you open it by the smell. It should smell like the ocean, but I have my doubts about how good yours may smell :thinking: If I was you I would complain to the company that shipped it over a weekend. Good luck and let us know!!
 
poesraven

poesraven

New Member
Thanks for the opinions, they pretty much match my own.
According to their shipping info, it should have shipped on 2/13/06. (Monday) He said the shipment was delayed and my order would go out the next Monday. (2/20/06).
When I checked the tracking # yesterday it showed my order was shipped 2/23/06 with a delivery date of 2/28/06. I did email him and ask him about the rock being in transit so long and he said it would be fine, to just clean the rock nice like the instructions on the site say.
I won't be ordering from there again. (well, unless the rock comes in looking awesome...lol)
 
dischirm

dischirm

Member
I would understand them delaying shipment for whatever reason until the following monday, but to ship on a Wednesday, unless your doing overnight, ( which IMO is the ONLY way to ship LR) is horrible. I sure hope shipping was cheap!! What kind of shipping is that?? I have never heard of anyone shipping Live rock on anything more than second day standard delivery. And I do understand the cost of next day air on rock. I just got 50 pounds delivered and it cost me $115 from Florida to Sacramento CA.
Of course the person who sold you the rock said it was ok! What would you expect them to say? "oh that rock will be ruined"??
When you get this rock and it smells rotten, I would complain and ask for replacement to be sent next day air, even if you have to pay the shipping on the second shipment, that is what I would do! Then start curing the rock you got and see if you can save it.
 
alyssia

alyssia

Active Member
Originally Posted by Dischirm
I would understand them delaying shipment for whatever reason until the following monday, but to ship on a Wednesday, unless your doing overnight, ( which IMO is the ONLY way to ship LR) is horrible. I sure hope shipping was cheap!! What kind of shipping is that?? I have never heard of anyone shipping Live rock on anything more than second day standard delivery. And I do understand the cost of next day air on rock. I just got 50 pounds delivered and it cost me $115 from Florida to Sacramento CA.
Of course the person who sold you the rock said it was ok! What would you expect them to say? "oh that rock will be ruined"??
When you get this rock and it smells rotten, I would complain and ask for replacement to be sent next day air, even if you have to pay the shipping on the second shipment, that is what I would do! Then start curing the rock you got and see if you can save it.

definitely
 
poesraven

poesraven

New Member
It was free standard fedex shipping on orders of 50lbs and free overnight on orders of 75lbs or more. Shipping showed 1-3 days from them to me. (FL to IL)
The rock is for my 120g we just set up. I figured we would get some base rock, order some cheaper live rock online and hope it's decent and buy some local we can pick out ourselves. I didn't expect this rock to be really great but I didn't expect all of this mess with shipping either. I complained at first when I found out it didn't ship on time and he apologized and said he would add some free live rock. But it didn't ship when it was supposed to the second time either. (both times were supposed to be a monday).
I've never ordered live rock online before so even though I thought 5 days was too long, I just wanted to get other opinions. I am so anxious to see what is waiting in this box when I open it.
 
mopar9012

mopar9012

Active Member
i dont know if anyone has said this...probably have but i would say something if there policy is 2 or 3 days and you get it in 5. i orded some rock off line and got a pretty good amount off die off, but i still had a little better amount of rock still alive, i just used the dead rock as base rock...
 
dischirm

dischirm

Member
If you decide you want to go ahead and get some really great live rock at a really good cost, please email me and put in subject "live rock" (get alot of spam) and I will email you a website address.
Dischirm@yahoo.com
Thanks
 
N

n_sarno

Guest
Let me guess... you got it from a guy named Gary Sharp... I ordered some as well and have gotten the run around w/ them I paid 2.50 a lb w/ free shipping.. sounds to good 2 be true and im starting to believe that it is I finally today got the info on the package and the tracking number comes back w/
Ship date
Feb 22, 2006
Estimated delivery
Feb 25, 2006
Is this going to be ok? I to live in Illinois and really hope they packed it w/ heat packs because its chilly here!
I also complained and they said they'd send an extra 5 lbs
 
poesraven

poesraven

New Member
You guessed right....same guy. I will give him credit for answering my emails right away at least. I had read reviews on a reef site about a year ago and people were saying he was great to buy from, great rock, etc.
I'm going to hope for the best and see. Can you email and let me know how your rock is tomorrow? I'll do the same when I get mine if you want.
poesraven25@aol.com
Good luck!
~Loretta
 
agent707

agent707

Member
I'm fixing to buy some rock myself. How much did you get and how much did it cost incuding shipping (which was free?)
Thanks
 
nytrillium

nytrillium

Member
hmm... idk guys, i had 2 orders from Gary and i am very happy with both. I ordered 50 lbs of Live rock that came in great sizes (nothing less than 8" and no rubble) and i got 40 lbs of rubble from him like 3 weeks ago. I dont know if it was just a bad deal you got but i havent had a problem. I emailed him before all my orders to confirm ship date so that it would deffinately ship out on a monday, it arrived wed morning for the first and thurs morning for the second. Granted it is still a long time for rock to be out of water, it survived and the first order has been in my tank for 6 mos now. It looks great.
 
poesraven

poesraven

New Member
I'm glad to hear you had a good experience with your rock. I just hate knowing the live rock is going to be sitting somewhere over the weekend and stuff will be dying on it. On top of that, we have had our 120g tank sitting with water, sand, skimmer and filter since Feb 10 and I am dying to get it cycling!
Plus, even though it is a family tank, the live rock was my husband's valentine's day present from me because we bought gifts for all of us to enjoy.
 
stsweene

stsweene

Member
Placed an order with another Florida LR company on sunday night, rock was shipped monday afternoon and arrived at my door in No. VA at 9:30am Thursday. Out of water about 72 hours. Had very little die off, was packed well and was still very wet.
Paid about $3.25/lb shipped.
 
nytrillium

nytrillium

Member
Raven: i am sorry about your rock. At lest you know you will b able to cycle it...
I would like to know where you got that rock from steweene email me (my username)@gmail.com
 
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