reef building the fundamentals

[Doug]

Thanks for the call and great advice and discussion Eli. Top notch customer service as always.

[eli@fijireefrock.com]

Originally Posted by Doug

Thanks for the call and great advice and discussion Eli. Top notch customer service as always.

Thank you,...it was my pleasure
Hope you like what I picked for you ...lots of photos
Cheers

[Doug]

Originally Posted by eli@fijireefrock.com

Thank you,...it was my pleasure
Hope you like what I picked for you ...lots of photos
Cheers

All arrived. Yes, I like. Very good selection. Now have to assemble. Thanks

[asylumdown]

I feel like there should be a fourth option:

I would get natural dry rock and seed it with high quality live rock that is ordered directly from the distributor, and picked up before the box from the airplane is even opened. You couldn't pay me to put live rock that's been in a holding tank in my aquarium. Pests rarely come from the rock, they come from the holding tanks.

[eli@fijireefrock.com]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

I feel like there should be a fourth option:

I would get natural dry rock and seed it with high quality live rock that is ordered directly from the distributor, and picked up before the box from the airplane is even opened. You couldn't pay me to put live rock that's been in a holding tank in my aquarium. Pests rarely come from the rock, they come from the holding tanks.

That is a good option but how many people would actually do buy live rock directly from the airplane landing,...i would sell rock that way but no one will follow through with the purchase...That's why I always say pick your live rock pieces carefully and from a trusted tank.

[asylumdown]

I did it that way when I set up my current tank, but it required making a special arrangement with (the now closed) Red Coral. Rather than having the rock ordered especially for me, I just asked to purchase an entire box worth from his next order, and the night it arrived I picked it up before it was unboxed. I can imagine that if you're ordering the rock just for that person it might be harder to arrange, but in that case he was ordering it anyway and if I had flaked off for some reason it still would have been sold.

I know not everyone can do that every time, but the beauty with dry rock is that you can cycle it perfectly fine without having anything to seed it with, the bacteria you need will proliferate eventually, so you can take your time tracking down the perfect pieces of live rock to 'seed' the critters and algaes you can't otherwise buy. In any case, I don't think I'd ever set up a tank without most of the rock being dry natural rock of some sort again.

[eli@fijireefrock.com]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

I did it that way when I set up my current tank, but it required making a special arrangement with (the now closed) Red Coral. Rather than having the rock ordered especially for me, I just asked to purchase an entire box worth from his next order, and the night it arrived I picked it up before it was unboxed. I can imagine that if you're ordering the rock just for that person it might be harder to arrange, but in that case he was ordering it anyway and if I had flaked off for some reason it still would have been sold.

I know not everyone can do that every time, but the beauty with dry rock is that you can cycle it perfectly fine without having anything to seed it with, the bacteria you need will proliferate eventually, so you can take your time tracking down the perfect pieces of live rock to 'seed' the critters and algaes you can't otherwise buy. In any case, I don't think I'd ever set up a tank without most of the rock being dry natural rock of some sort again.

I do agree with you that people could buy the whole box when landing and I am sure that most store front shouldn't have an issue with doing so...I just simply think not many folks will do so...or can you imagine a customer comes in for their box and only wanting to pick through all the rock when the store owner is unpacking 10 coral rock and fish boxes at 9 pm or midnight...