Wow, Ogre, I'm really sorry to hear this. How damaged was the damaged box? Were the items in the box still in water or had it leaked out?
CPD: TBS rocks are shipped in water, completely covered and doubled bagged in huge thick plastic bags. He ships it and you pick it up the same day. I got a few bad hitchhikers too, but never had any major problems. Sometimes ya gotta take the good with the bad and it's SO worth it, IMHO.
I had 1 cirolanid (thank heavens, it was just the one) or maybe I had more and someone ate them? The gorilla crabs maybe or maybe my purple lobster? Anyway, haven't seen one in months now and no fish fatalities to report. I have 4 or 6 what I guess are gorilla crabs. Mine don't have those black claws though. They are hairy and brownish pink. Or pinkish brown. I caught one munching a hermit last night. First time I've ever seen them eating anything. The hermit could have died on his own or been killed by another hermit though. So far, as long as they're not hurting anything, they can stay. One of them is even pinkish enough to be sortof pretty.
I probably didn't get as much rock as you Ogre and I did add it to an already established tank, but still never had any die off. I really wonder if something happened in the damaged box enough to start all your problems.
I would still use (and plan to order more eventually) and recommend TBS rocks. It just adds SO much diversity to the tank that you just don't get with cured rock. If not TBS, I do like to buy rocks from established tanks that people are taking down and selling off.
Oh but I got the absolute best members of my CUC with my TBS rocks! Stomatellas! They multiply like crazy and even eat cyano! I've seen them doing it!
Ogre, I recommend getting a few pounds of live sand from Richard once you get your tank set back up again. I know you're using black sand, but maybe you could put it near the back and put your rocks in front of and on top of it. There are tons of good stuff in the sand too. I used it to seed my refugium.
OR, I also LOVE the 9 for $99 package from IPSF.com. You can get tons of good critters and bacteria from them to help seed your tank and get things going the right direction.
