Group buy to tampa bay saltwater?

[Swim74]

Hi there-
If there is any interest in this, I dont mind facilitating. I live a stones throw from Logan Airport, and when I got my rock and sand and critters from tbsaltwater, I saved a TON by shipping airfreight.

this time around I am not so interested in their rock (maybe a couple of pieces) as I am their sand, and critters. you can get really cheap sea stars, sea cukes, and other things from them.

ALL of my stuff came alive and well when I used them a year and a half ago.

I just set up a tank for my roomate and he wants some stuff too. So already there are two of us.

you need a minimum of like 100lbs before you can airfreight I think....
here is their link:

http://www.tampabaysaltwater.com/

if you do one of their "Package" deals for snails/hermits/sand you save money. and if you reason with them, you may not HAVE to get the rock, they will subtract the price out. in other words, you get a deal when you buy bulk snails/hermits/sand

let me know.
IMHO their customer service is tops, really its just dealing with the whole mantis shrimp thing, if you dont want them in youre rock.

 

[JBendel]

In a Hurry?

Hello Swim74,

I don't know if you are in a hurry, ... I m about a month away from being able to buy some Rock ... ~ 50 lbs. (Tank setup still in progress.. and I have Biz. travel this month). Please let me know your time frame.

Thank you,

J.B.

 

[~Flighty~]

You might want to check out gulfview too. When I bought my rock they were rumored to have better LR than TBS

 

[dedfish]

Got any pictures of your tank? I'd like to see what it looks like after a year and a half. Most of the pics I've seen of gulf rock was rather new. I need some rock in about a month as well (hopefully) but not sure what I want just yet.

Thanks

 

[ScottM]

I'd suggest you group together and buy rock from a LFS.

I have had my hands on both gulf view and Tampa bay. TBS had better shapes.
I hated both.
The pieces I had did arrive with TONS of life. Including mantis shrimps.
Most of the life died off.
They were unbelievably heavy. Not porous at all.

I think you'll get more for your $$ buy grouping together to a LFS and buying a large amount of cured rock.
I bet you could get 3-4 per pound hand picked.
There?s a lot to be said about hand picking you own rock. Fiji and kaleni rock seem to be 1/2 the weight of FL rock.

Just my .02

 

[Piscevore]

I agree. See the Nate Hanson Live Rock posting.

 

[Matt L.]

Although from the Tampa Bay area, you have to go with pacific live rock. There's no comparison in my opinion,

Matt

 

[Mr. Slippery]

I have had my hands on both gulf view and Tampa bay. TBS had better shapes.
I hated both.
The pieces I had did arrive with TONS of life. Including mantis shrimps.
Most of the life died off.
They were unbelievably heavy. Not porous at all.

I agree with Scott. I have some TBS rock and fwiw it's not that great. Lot's will die off and you'll have outrageous PO4 readings and hair algae like me.

 

[~Flighty~]

I think the gulf view rock was great. I didn't have much die off at all. The diversity of life was astounding. And Macro life means micro life too.

I think getting a direct flight and picking it up air cargo probably makes a big difference. Also the macro alge that I got helped termenduosly with the cycle IMO. It was a form of culupera that grew on the rock and grew so fast durring the cycle that I was removing a soccerball size clump every three days or so. Therefore the cycle was fast(bacteria still alive in the rock) and the nitrates never got high enough to kill everything. Now that my water is clean it grows very slowly and looks great in the tank and gives the critters a nice place to hide.

I requested specific shapes and got them, all long and thin or flat, large pieces, no round. It is heavy, but I mixed it with marco's dry rock (about as heavy as styrophome) and had an easy time aquascaping.

floridaliverock.com

There is a time of year that bad fish eating isopods show up (spring I think) don't get it then.

 

[NateHanson]

I agree. I've found gulf rock to be heavy and uninterestingly shaped.

I'm buying about 40 pounds of pacific rock in the next month, probably from AquaAddicts, unless I find it from another reefer first. I'd be happy to bunch up with people to get a whole load of rock from AA if people want to. I love that place, and their rock is really nice looking.

 

[shawn]

My take on florida "live" rock vs. pacific "cured" rock is that it is a preference - decide what you are looking for. My preference for setting up my tank was the florida rock - with the life on the rock I didn't feel the need to rush into adding anything for months. If I were to add more rock now that my tank is mature, I might go with pacific, which allows me to populate it with exactly the life I want (or I might just go with some dry base rock). Both have positives and negatives, which depend greatly upon one is looking for. One thing to consider is that you can be assured no reefs were harmed with the aquacultured florida rock. Can you really be sure where the pacific stuff comes from?

A year and a half later, if I were to start another tank (not a nano) I'd do it with TBS florida aquacultured rock (again).

 

[Swim74]

Tbs

sorry to not post in a while, I thought there was no interest.

I want to clarify that I think they have the best sand and critters deals. I kid you not I have probably 50 porcelin crabs that came with the not just the rocks but the sand as well. and more small serpent stars than I know of. the last time I had the rocks out of the tank there were probably 2 dozen. they are gray with black stripes, no larger than 3 inches across. you hardly ever see them but they are there.

My personal experience was the die off I had was my own fault for putting in too much at once

I will say, THEIR ROCK IS NOT THE BEST. its heavy and some would argue ugly. I kinda like it. and for what its worth, now that I am getting closer to having steady parameters, the sponges that did die off, are growing back. most of the stony corals on the rock never died off. and those that did died when I was away from my tank for 2mos.

but yes, in I think 50lbs of rock, I had 4 mantis, once still residing. and lots of hairy gorrilla crabs. they are easy to catch though because they are so hungry they fall for the trap every time. but the mantis are elusive. but with a few beers and an old sharpened bicycle spoke you may have some success. not that I know anything about that *coughcough*

so I really would like to get some sand and critters...they have sea cukes for a good deal, and some other things. check out their catalogue.

if someone else wants to set up a group buy with a LFS, or some other company for sand and critters equivalent to TBS, with competitive shipping (air freight), count me in.

I am just trying to do my part cause I live super close to logan and its easy for me.

 

[NateHanson]

I'm trying to get people together for a rock buy from AquaAddicts as well, for those who prefer pacific rock. We'll be able to get Fiji Rock for $4/pound, and you can pick the shapes, sizes.