nervous about buying live rock

[mp32]

Weil I was thinking about purchasing some live rock form this site later on and I was reading the hitch hicker ID forum, and not so sure about live rock anymore. I saw the post on the Cirolanid Isopods, and that freaked me out. I looked them up on google and found this guy who had captured or killed at least 386 of them in his tank! Here is a link to his site he does not sell anything so I do not think posting this is a problem, *********My question is this how safe is the rock from this site, because I saw that they hang the rock so that pests will fall out but how effective is this? Is there anyway of identifying these things before they are introduced to the tank and start doing damage?

 

[al mc]

IMHO it is as safe as any other live rock supplier. It is best to scrub the rock when you get it and cure it/QT it for a minimum of 3-4 weeks before it goes into your DT..........Unless you DT is empty, in which case you can cure it right in the DT and use the curing process to start you biologic cycle.
There are a couple good threads in the archives that talk about handling/curing LR.

 

[alexmir]

It is very rare to get killer isopods, and to get rid of mantis shrimp and unwanted crabs, you can just dip the rock in extra salty, not sure the exact number, but i think its about 1.035 SG and the pests should quickly exit the rock. The rock from this site is just as safe as rock from any other site.

 

[t316]

Originally Posted by Al Mc
http:///forum/post/2608733
IMHO it is as safe as any other live rock supplier. It is best to scrub the rock when you get it and cure it/QT it for a minimum of 3-4 weeks before it goes into your DT..........Unless you DT is empty, in which case you can cure it right in the DT and use the curing process to start you biologic cycle.
There are a couple good threads in the archives that talk about handling/curing LR.
+1

It's no different than lr you would get anywhere else, in regards to hitchhikers. If anything, I would like to think that the folks here have taken a few extra steps to ensure that you are receiving good quality, verses your lfs. Any lr that you get is a guessing game as to what goodies you might find, but most often it turns out to be something good, not bad.

 

[michaeltx]

*No links to competitors or sites that link to them nor other BB sites
your link above had everything that is not allowed. just take a look at the site you are wanting to link to and see if it shows any of them. pretty much ANY reefkeeping mag site is owned or operated by a BB of some kind so they are pretty much against the rules.
I did forget to answer your question though. this site is a very good place to buy from. I have heard no complaints about the rock they send out only praise.
HTH
Mike

 

[mp32]

thought I had a good link had good info on those things. Oh well I will not do that again. Thanks for the info, I understand that you take a risk when you are buying anything, I can handle a mantis, or a crab no problem and thought that would be the worst to find until I saw those things and how difficult it is to deal with them. I will still order my rock but will deffinately keep on eye on it when it comes in and hopefully catch anything bad before I put stuff in it. I will be using it to cycle the tank. Again thanks!

 

[michaeltx]

thats alright learn and live LOL
as far as the rock even if you buy it at a local place you can still end up with unwanted pest. They get the same rock that you can order online and jack the price up to 6$+ a pound in most cases. where online you can get it fiji rock here for $199 I think shipping included that comes to about 4.22a pound or so.
Mike