Liverock Shipping Question

[dredstarr]

Hello,
I posted a thread earlier about getting live rock off of the web. It looks like the thread was removed which was my fault for mentioning another site in the forums. I apologize for that. I guess the question I have is if you guys/gals were going to order live rock being several states away from it if you'd trust UPS on the ground shipping for something of that nature? My gut tells me it's a big risk but I'm not sure if it is best to go that route and pay through the nose for shipping expidited or just go through the LFS?
Thanks,
Dred

 

[evilss]

well alot of time you can save money ordering online. as far as recieving it. the condition should be still good. now you will have some die off. i wouldnt just throw it in your display tank. unless you are going to cycle with it. then it makes no difference. is this going into an estabilished system??

 

[dredstarr]

Originally posted by evilss
well alot of time you can save money ordering online. as far as recieving it. the condition should be still good. now you will have some die off. i wouldnt just throw it in your display tank. unless you are going to cycle with it. then it makes no difference. is this going into an estabilished system??

Thank you for the reply Evilss. This will be going into a brand new tank not established yet. That would be the best way to do it, right?
Thanks,
Dred

 

[dredstarr]

Originally posted by evilss
well alot of time you can save money ordering online. as far as recieving it. the condition should be still good. now you will have some die off. i wouldnt just throw it in your display tank. unless you are going to cycle with it. then it makes no difference. is this going into an estabilished system??

Maybe it would be worth ordering a little more that I actually need assuming there will be some die-off? That way I won't come out short. I figured I'd put 150lbs in my 125 gallon tank. Does that sound like enough?

 

[evilss]

well as far as die off. it will only be some of the live organisims on it that dies off. not the actual rock itself. the amount of live rock depends on the type of system that you are gonna run. fowlr or reef or aggressive. which of those are you planing on doing?

 

[dredstarr]

I'm planning on doing a FOWLR tank. If your asking about aggressive in terms of fish I don't have any plans toward using aggresive fish. I'm thinking of 150-200lbs for live rock to put me in that 1 to 1.5 lb per gallon range. Does that sound adequate?

 

[evilss]

with a fowlr situation its still personal preference. do you want a tank with a full of live rock look? if so around 150-200 lbs should fill it up pretty good.

 

[snipe]

It sounds good to me I have a 55 and got 75lbs I have another 6-10lbs on the way and it is pretty full. I dont know if I could go 2lbs per gallon lol.

 

[dredstarr]

Thanks for all the good advice everyone. I'm sure glad this board exists to give better opinion than most fish shops do. When the live rock gets to me do I just chuck the stuff that looks dead or is there a way to bring it back to life so to speak? I've never had experience with live rock so I'm a bit confused about it.
Oh yeah...anyone got any advice on how to let the wife know I'll have $2k into this before fish? hehe
Oh well...I guess it's better to ask for forgivness than permission!
Thanks,
Dred

 

[snipe]

Place it in a saltwater bath and scurb the dead stuff with a toothbrush "if you dont want to cycle your tank" if your going to use it to cycle your tank then leave it on the rock and just place it in there.

 

[lefty]

Even if you scrubbed the rock, wouldn't your tank still go into a cycle since it's new?
-lefty

 

[mbrands]

lefty,
There is definitely a good chance of still getting a cycle. It would depend on the amount of die off.

 

[lefty]

I don't mean to be a thread hijacker, but I was just curious because I will be adding LR to my new tank before the end of the week. I thought scrubbing it would be for the best, but now it sounds as if I shouldn't scrub it. If I add flake food to feed my invisible fish and scrub the LR before adding it, will I still get my tank to cycle?
-lefty

 

[snipe]

Well since most stuff is shipped over night there is going to be some die off but not everything on the rock will be dead. Most of the stuff that dies will be (I.E sponges, clams, anemones, shrooms and polyps) and then again some of the stuff will make it. So that stuff is big enough to spot so it would be easy to see what is dead and what isnt. But yeah I am sure even scrubing it may still have a small spike that is why it is recommended to place alittle every couple days or every week to not cause this. but if your cycling your tank with it or already I would just place it in there.

 

[mbrands]

Originally posted by lefty
I thought scrubbing it would be for the best, but now it sounds as if I shouldn't scrub it.
I think all online retailers would recommend that you scrub anything you can visibly tell is die off. You shouldn't have any problem with your tank still cycling. There are more gaps, holes, and crevices on live rock than you could ever scrub clean.
Not to make things even more confusing, but I got LR that had very little die off. It arrived overnight from California so I had it withing 24 hours. I was lucky and the bacteria on the rock, combined with the shrimp method, helped to cycle my tank faster (only 10 days). I would test your tank at least 3 times/week at first to look for the ammonia spike (IMO).
Good luck!

 

[lefty]

Okay, thanks for all your help mbrands!
-lefty

 

[snipe]

Well it all depends it is "as most stuff is in this hobby" a pref differance " I dont think I spelled that right" scrubbing it will still allow for a cycle but leaving it will get that amonia to spike faster.