I will soon be setting up my 75g tank and would like to persue ordering from Tampa Bay Saltwater. Has anyone used these guys before and have an opinion. If they haven't could someone with much more experience than I look at their website at http://www.tbsaltwater.com/thepackage/index.html and tell me if this is a good deal or not? It is a costly venture and we have very limited availability of a good lfs here. Thanks!!!!! :help:
Opinions Please
- Thread starter Lorna
- Start date
i dont know about their package but their rock is pretty good. You just have to do a fresh water dip because their rocks are know for having mantis in them.
I beg you not to do a FW dip on that rock! They go to a lot of trouble to get the rock to you with as much life on it as possible, and you don't want to kill off the sponges, corals and tunicates and all with a dip. Plus, the mantis may just decide to stay put.
I have done their package twice. The diversity on the rock is fantastic. Sponges, tunicates, macroalgae, corals, and so on. It is truly beautiful and interesting. The service is very good, and the cost is pretty reasonable. There will be die off over the first few months, but I still have porcelain crabs, bruttle stars, worms, sponges, corals, and macroalgae that are growing and healthy from my first batch 3 years ago.
There is a down side to diversity, which you have to be prepared for. Stephen already mentioned one problem, mantis shrimp. I got none in the first package I bought, and 6 in the second a few years later. They were extracted relatively easily because they make a burrow in a rock, and you can extract them once you fnd their hiding place. The upside is that they are very popular and can be traded if you get them out alive. Hairy crabs are also a problem. Once they get to a certain size, they can be very destructive.
Another somewhat odd problem is that there are so many clams, corals and sponges on the rock that some may have to be removed to add your own corals. The last batch I had shipped was covered with tube coral, and I may just frag some of it and trade it to make a little room.
There's a little less risk of baddies if you buy Pacific rock, in which a lot of the stuff has died in shipping. On the other hand, if you want a great experience discovering new species, the TBS rock can't be beat.
I have done their package twice. The diversity on the rock is fantastic. Sponges, tunicates, macroalgae, corals, and so on. It is truly beautiful and interesting. The service is very good, and the cost is pretty reasonable. There will be die off over the first few months, but I still have porcelain crabs, bruttle stars, worms, sponges, corals, and macroalgae that are growing and healthy from my first batch 3 years ago.
There is a down side to diversity, which you have to be prepared for. Stephen already mentioned one problem, mantis shrimp. I got none in the first package I bought, and 6 in the second a few years later. They were extracted relatively easily because they make a burrow in a rock, and you can extract them once you fnd their hiding place. The upside is that they are very popular and can be traded if you get them out alive. Hairy crabs are also a problem. Once they get to a certain size, they can be very destructive.
Another somewhat odd problem is that there are so many clams, corals and sponges on the rock that some may have to be removed to add your own corals. The last batch I had shipped was covered with tube coral, and I may just frag some of it and trade it to make a little room.
There's a little less risk of baddies if you buy Pacific rock, in which a lot of the stuff has died in shipping. On the other hand, if you want a great experience discovering new species, the TBS rock can't be beat.
I'm a big fan of TBS LR. I live close enough to pick it up myself. As mentioned, make SURE you spend a lot of time picking through it to get rid of any mantis shrimp or Octos! They sound like fun but take it from me, they can be a total pain in the butt! 
Also, don't be afraid to pull off anything that doesn't look healthy. You will have plenty of live stuff left. After six months you'll have totally different stuff living on your LR anyway.
Also, don't be afraid to pull off anything that doesn't look healthy. You will have plenty of live stuff left. After six months you'll have totally different stuff living on your LR anyway.
Just one more little thing and this mostly just IMO. It has way too many hermits and IME they are big pain if you have more than about 1 per 3 gallons of water. If possible see if they'll let you trade for more snails they do a lot more work and aren't nearly as destructive.
Thanks for the input, being new to the sw experience this seemed like the answer to getting set up as the local lfs sells cured lr at $8/$10 per pound and frankly it is just small pieces that look like they were broken off other pieces. What are octos?
I plan to only do a few fish for the first 6 months or so letting the tank settle in before I get into adding any more corals (besides I don't have any halides yet and that is an expense for a later date)
I plan to only do a few fish for the first 6 months or so letting the tank settle in before I get into adding any more corals (besides I don't have any halides yet and that is an expense for a later date)
I'd just get a bunch of base rock and a little liver rock if the quality is crappy. It might take a while but, it will turn into live rock in time anyway and it will save you major $. It will add maybe a couple of weeks to your cycle for the bacteria to spread into the base rock. An octo is an octopus.
hth
chris
hth
chris