A good place to buy the best live rock

O

Orca 33

Please suggest a few places that sell really good quality live rock.
And please suggest a place that sells live rock at a great price.

So if that is clear im looking for a place that sells for a bargin and a place that sell quality not quanity.

Thanks Charlie
 
Dallas North Aquarium has some good live rock, but you will probably find it cheaper at Aquarium trading company in garland off of Arapaho and Jupiter. Tony runs that place and is a real upfront guy.
 
livestockusa.org I bought 100# of marshall island from them and after shiping it came to $6 a #. It looked just like the pictures on there site. The rock that I got is some of the best quality rock that I have seen.
 
Yeah i know tony I picked up a huge blastomussa merltti with close to a 100 heads on it and only paid 60 for it.

I am actually looking more from some one online, or do you think the rock that most the stores get is really good quality?
 
Just for clarification, the LFS on Jupiter in Garland is Aquatic Trading Company; the one off Midway is Aquarium Trading Company...

Unrelated stores, just similiar names...
 
its around $6 to $6.50/lb at Tranquilscapes. that is where I got all mine. was fully cured and cycled my tank quick!
 
Aquatic trading off of jupiter has great LR covered in coraline algea and little critters. The owner is a really nice guy to. Would recommend checking it out.
 
IMO buy the bulk of your rock from these guys!!!

http://stores.ebay.com/Wholesale-Aquarium-and-Pond

I bought the bulk of mine from them and it was incredible rock!!! especially for the price, granted you dont get to pick your pieces. I purchase about 120lbs from them then went to the LFS and hand picked pieces to go on top but the stuff they send is really nice.

I was very very pleased, and customer service was great!!!
 
Just a suggestion, but you could buy base rock here: http://www.whiz-q.com/ and put live rock on top of it. The base rock will become "live" over time, holey rock is 15 cents a pound, lace rock is 75 cents a pound.

Of course you may wish to go with all live rock since it's already got pretty corralline on it, pods, worms, etc. But filling in the unseen areas with base rock is a great way to conserve money.

Layla started out with only a chunk of base rock, about a 25 pound piece, just added corals that were attached to little pieces of live rock, and now the base rock is covered in purple, pink, blue, and green, and has tons of critters growing in it.
 
I'd suggest franks for a variety of reasons.

1) I've ordered rock online (Live Aquaria) and while the quality was good, quite frankly I hate the curing process and after adding in the cost of curing materials, the water cost, and the 3-6 weeks it takes I'll gladly pay the LFS prices or scower the boards for deals.

2) Most LFS go by $7-9 a pound for mere Fiji but frank on the other hand is generally $6# for Fiji, 7ish for Kalini/Tonga and other hard to prononce names.

3) Franks a great guy to talk to and you'll surely leave with a smile

:D
 
I bought a ton of lace rock from WhizQ and a bucket full of small seashells for my bare bottom hypo tank, just so the fish would have someplace to hide besides PVC, and the shells so the Dragon wrasse would have something to flip around. Now that the hypo treatment is nearly over with I will just put a few peices of live rock on top of the Lace rock to seed it. I may just keep the shells on the bottom also and keep this tank as an aggressive FOWLR.

However, the best place to buy quality LIVE rock is right here, from the well seasoned tanks of members, especially if you are the first to arrive and have the option of cherry picking the best pieces while it is still in the tank.
 
plano pets is like 3.50 lb and it goes down the more you buy, the label on the tank says base rock, but its a lot better than base, but its white. if you are willing to grow your own coraline I would check them out. some of it is tonga branch and shelf. The rock I have gotten from members has lots of good things and aptasia or bubble algae too so I'm done with that. I like to seed my rock with "fresh from the ocean" live rock to get more types of coraline.
 
I really like my lalo rock from liveaquaria.com. If you want VERY live rock straight from the ocean with all the hitchhikers (good and bad) check out Tampa Bay Saltwater http://www.tampabaysaltwater.com/ I personally have mixed feelings about Tampa Bay Saltwater's rock. It's dense and I got an assortment of pests (flatworms, red bugs, etc) but I also got some critters that are very cool and lots of free corals. I have seen some stuff come out of this rock that I wouldn't even try to ID. Whatever you decide to do, bite the bullet and pay for overnight shipping. When I first bought LR I found the place with the cheapest USPS shipping and it was rotten when it got here. Heres a RC thread about TBS. It is cool rock no doubt but I'm not sure if I recommend it or not :D http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=564260&perpage=25&pagenumber=1
Angela
 
Something to take a look at is Fish Paradise in FortWorth off of Alta Mesa and 20. They have some African Live Rock thats really kool looking. I think they where asking 6 to 7 / lb. Very porous pieces and looks to be hiding alot of critters!
 
David. I’m glad you mentioned this rock. I was going to write an ID thread on it. I bought some of this African Live rock from F.P. about 20 pounds. It's a little pricey at $7.00 a pound, but in my opinion well worth the money. It is very cool. I have no idea what kind of coral skeletons were involved here, but these little rocks are very interesting and full of surprises. Looks like small popcorn balls, covered in pink, white and green coralline and some bright yellow sponge. Lots of hikers and for the first time I have some very exotic coralline spots on my glass that no doubt is coming from this rock. Does anyone have any idea what kind of corals these were? They're about the size and shape of large pine cones.
 
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