should I buy cured or raw?

[StirCrazy]

I was at a fish store today and the guy was going over my intentions and he offered me a deal (or at least what I would veiw as a deal) on a skimmer. it is a sea clone skimmer and the normal price is 150.00 and he will give it to me for 100.00. is the sea clone alright for a 33 to 50 gal tank?

the main point that interested me was when he said I should buy my rock cured instead of uncured. I am planning on buying my rock from J&L and I am getting 50lbs (or a box)for my 33gal tank. now he said uncured will cost more in the long run due to water changes nd such and that it realy stinks while it is curing. My concern was the critters that come on uncured rock. will you get the critters on cured rock also?
so I guess the question is.. should I go cured or uncured, and why? so I can make up my mind on this new glitch in the plan hehe..
thanks
Steve

[DJ88]

I like getting uncured as it is a great way to cycle a new tank.. To me the work involved is worth it. Plus you will get a bit more stuff.. But that is my opinion.

As for the skimmer.. No the Sea Clone is not worth $100.00. I have two Sea junk Mod's sitting here I am planning to blow up and post the video online. Don't buuy it. I am assuming that if you are talking about a store in Vic, so it must be either Raf images/smiles/icon_mad.gif images/smiles/icon_mad.gif or Ken. images/smiles/icon_mad.gif images/smiles/icon_mad.gif And they will do anything and say anything to get your money. images/smiles/icon_mad.gif Spend the money and get a skimmer worth while. In this hobby you are better off to spend the cash now. If you don't, you will later.. I guarantee it. A good hang on skimmer for up to 90 gallons is the Precision Marine HOT-1. If you can tho I would highly recommend having an in sump model. I am running a PM Venturi skimmer. the 426. It kicks butt. No doubt about it. J&L sells both. And are in stock. I saw tehm when I was in this weekend. Several times.. images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

If you find anything for sale, even online other than the two I mentioned, pop on here before you buy it and ask what people think about it and how it runs. They will tell you.. Bluntly, most likely... images/smiles/icon_wink.gif images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif Save yourself the grief others of us have had. Get the right stuff from the start.

[titus]

Hello StirCrazy,

1. I'll cure rock on my own. It really isn't that much more expensive, given if you have good skimmer to use.

2. Skip the Sea Clone. There are stores in Vancouver that still sell it. I personally am not the type to diss products or stores but for Seaclone, I'd have to say forget about it. In this hobby, there really isn't much rip off (at least for good equipment) given the amount of price competition going on.

3. If you are able to dish out the cash, try going for a "real" venturi, airstone, or any high aeration skimmers. I've seen the performance of PM HOT-1 and Aqua C Remoras. While these two models are okay for small tanks, I personally would opt for a more powerful one. This gurantees your chance of upsizing your system anytime down the road. A good skimmer last for years.

Titus

[reefburnaby]

Hello,

Seaclone...they are okay...sort of. It really depends on the type of system you are trying to set up and how much fish you want to stock. More fish = bigger skimmer.

If you don't want any fish or just 1 fish, then a seaclone is fine.

But if you want lots of fish (like 3 or more big fish), I would skip Seaclone. Get a nice big skimmer. It prevents a lot of problems in the future (like hair algae and etc). When you gain more experience, you can experiment with Darren's Seaclone images/smiles/icon_smile.gif

Cure vs Uncured....its your choice. I think Darren and Titus have explain the good points. What's wrong with uncured ? Sure, you get more life out of the rock -- but how do you know its good life or bad life. Nasty criters like Mantis shrimp, coral eating criters and bristleworms are usually undersirables in a enclosed reef, but they do live in reefs and live rock. They are in cured rocks, but they are usually removed before they are sold. You'll have to remove the evil criters while you are curing. So....keep this in mind when you buy uncured.

- Victor.

[DJ88]

Victor,

by the time I am finished with the Seaclones I have they won't be useable.. images/smiles/icon_wink.gif

It is a chancy thing with unknown critters in uncured.. But I would love to set up a Mantis tank.. images/smiles/icon_smile.gif As long as I can catch the little bugger.. images/smiles/icon_wink.gif

Ultimately it will be your choice. You may get some really neat hings but at the same time you may get some things you don't want..

[terryp01]

I buy all of my rock uncured. When buying cured rock from an LFS you are getting picked over rock. They LFS goes in and sorts all shipped rock by sizes, algae coverages, etc. and you get better rock by paying more.

If you buy from an online source/boxed uncured rock you get a variety of rock. I have puchased several hundreds of pounds of uncured rock and have never had a problem.

Based on the amount you need, you could cure in your garage or basement. All you need is a rubbermaid tub which costs about 20.00 a high flow water pump and a skimmer. The more water flow and skimming you do the quicker the rock will cure. Most of mine completes in under two weeks. If you can get some water from a cycled tank, it cures faster.

Remember, the LFS are going to tell you want they want to because they need to move merchandise. There is nothing wrong with buying from them if you do not have the ways of performing the function yourself.

duss.

[Aquattro]

As for critters, I got my mantis from cured rock I bought from Raf. Hell if he is going to remove anything. BTW Darren, as of Nov 1 Raf doesn't run the place anymore. Ted bought it.
Seaclones are crap..period. You could buy a used skimmer for $100 and get 5 times more skimmer. Someone here was selling Berlins (Marc??) for $100.
And I would only buy uncured. Curing it is half the fun!!

[StirCrazy]

Ok what stores are Ted and Raf with? I don't know either name, the one I was at was at the new on in the save on foods plaza in esquimalt, he doesent have crap for saltwater I think thats why the deal on the sea clone, as for the rock he doesent sell it at all so he wasn't trying to grab my money, he just said that cured was the way to go (even though I think I am going uncured). Hey for the people that live in victoria (or used to) did you ever shop at creatures? and if so what did you think of them?

Steve

[One_Divided]

Hey steve... You are on the right track with uncured from j&l.. I'd stay away from rock in town.. I wouldn't risk buying anything from creatures (I never have).. Safari may have a sale soon becuase of the new owners taking it over.. Raf is the guy at safari (old owners son).. They sometimes have some nice rock there.. The rock out of the right reef is the best.. Peices I have gotten from there have been full of bugs and worms.. But hey, that's still $9 a pound for fiji?.. =/

From my experience, go through J&L if you want fiji.. or if you want to spend a couple dollars more per pound, (well worth it) get rock from big al's They have some sweet bali rock.. I just bought 10 pounds and it is full of life!

[ 18 October 2001: Message edited by: One_Divided ]

[Aquattro]

Steve, the store you went to started selling marine when he opened, but gave it up. Don't buy a skimmer in town; it'll cost you too much.
Creatures is a good place to shop if you want to buy algae...I wouldn't buy anything else there though. J&L just got in a new type of rock, not sure the name of it but I saw some when I was there last week. Really nice stuff! Ted, who owns Specht's, will be the new owner of Safari at the end of the month. I think things there will go from bad to worse. I heard a rumor that there is a new store opening and I know the owners...good people. Can't say too much until they open the doors. Overall, buy what you can from J&L until we get something decent in Victoria.

[StirCrazy]

Hehe, thats to bad as Creatures is the best place around for fresh water stuff I was hoping there salt would be good also.. oh well.

Steve

[Reefmaster]

i have a look in both every now and then. sometimes i will find a really nice fish or coral and it makes it all ok. otherwise i think its a flip of the coin, neither one is better than the other in my opinion.
shane