i have bought LR from them once before and got premium figi...."not so premium".. it barely had any coralline on it. some of it looked like peices of concrete...over time it was covered in purple...i recently tried them again...i pretty much got a bunch of base rock garbage...small pieces,no coralline..i contacted them, they agreed to trade it and promised premium rock this time...i got one good piece,still hardly any visible coralline. the rest was tiny frags....i just kept them so i wouldn't have to deal w/ it... i won't buy any kind of rock from them again...i hear prem aquatics is pretty good and reefer madness...anyone used either one? was it any good?
won't buy LR from liveaquaria again
- Thread starter ronj
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wrightme43
Well-known member
I get my live rock at www.vividaquariums.com
Tell Dave exactly what you want and he will get it. He charges for it too. Then again, a extra dollar a pound is not bad when you actually get what you want. I got two huge island chunks of Tonga branch over 20lbs each. I mean just the absolute best I have ever seen. I have got for a customer one over 40 lb piece of Kaleni rock. All of the pieces come individually wraped in bubble wrap. It does not come covered in coraline, he tells you it will not come covered in coraline. The coraline dies anyway during shipping so why pay for it to show up purple then turn white and die then grow back anyway. His figi is from Walt Smith so it is the same as everyone elses. The tonga is the way to go at his site.
Reefer madness is a super neat site too. I just havent tried them yet so cant give you solid experince.
Tell Dave exactly what you want and he will get it. He charges for it too. Then again, a extra dollar a pound is not bad when you actually get what you want. I got two huge island chunks of Tonga branch over 20lbs each. I mean just the absolute best I have ever seen. I have got for a customer one over 40 lb piece of Kaleni rock. All of the pieces come individually wraped in bubble wrap. It does not come covered in coraline, he tells you it will not come covered in coraline. The coraline dies anyway during shipping so why pay for it to show up purple then turn white and die then grow back anyway. His figi is from Walt Smith so it is the same as everyone elses. The tonga is the way to go at his site.
Reefer madness is a super neat site too. I just havent tried them yet so cant give you solid experince.
i checked out vivid aq. before..they have good prices for figi, but almost $90 for shipping is high...and that is their cheapest shipping..i almost bought from them ,but decided to go with live aquaria...guess i got what i paid for! garbage!
wrightme43
Well-known member
Yep I get the same thing. Every time I try to save a little I end up buying it again so I am out the money I thought I was saving, my time, and then I still have to buy what I wanted in the first place. Its cheaper for me to just go with the good stuff out the gate.
Like I can buy 3 cheap fish that dont live anyway or one more expensive fish that thrives and is a show piece. Same with corals.
Like I can buy 3 cheap fish that dont live anyway or one more expensive fish that thrives and is a show piece. Same with corals.
I bought 30bls of live rocks for $168 from Gulf-view: https://www.gulf-view.com/pricelist.html. It had a lot of coralline, some buttons and sponges on the rocks and a spiny sea urchin hitchhiker along with a few snails. It did come in with a gorilla crab that I had to kill. Overall, very nice rocks, i would use them again.
In my opinion, it is obviously the preference of the 'rock buyer'. If you're trying to simulate an Indo-pacific style tank, then Caribbean rock, no matter how live it is, isn't pacific rock and with life not from the Pacific. I guess this depends on how 'strict' you are on your reef tank. I'm sure lots of people mix biotopes from opposite sides of the world.
Best,
Ilham
Best,
Ilham
When I ordered from live aquaria. I ordered 45 lbs of fiji and got rock that was stored in a warehouse for a long period of time. After it was sitting there for weeks they through out a 45 lbs box special like they always do. This is what I got, small boulders, lots of rubble, bugs ( larvae had time to hatch and flies grew, opened the box and here came flies).
This is what happends when you see a $89-$99 box deal.
They bring it in, they leave it in boxes for long periods of time. as the rock sits there for weeks they get cheaper and cheaper.
I use premium aquatics They have 3 big rock pools so when they get their rock it is put into the rock pools. When you order they pick the size, shape of what you are looking for. I used the airlines to ship my rock from there and it got here fast and in good shape. Will buy from them again!!
curing times
live aquaria 45 lbs fiji 2 months before my tank was stable
prem aquatics 90 lbs kealini 1 week had no ammonia,trate's,trite's
Thats a huge difference!!!
This is what happends when you see a $89-$99 box deal.
They bring it in, they leave it in boxes for long periods of time. as the rock sits there for weeks they get cheaper and cheaper.
I use premium aquatics They have 3 big rock pools so when they get their rock it is put into the rock pools. When you order they pick the size, shape of what you are looking for. I used the airlines to ship my rock from there and it got here fast and in good shape. Will buy from them again!!
curing times
live aquaria 45 lbs fiji 2 months before my tank was stable
prem aquatics 90 lbs kealini 1 week had no ammonia,trate's,trite's
Thats a huge difference!!!
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