Ordered Live Rock

[lemieux66crosby87]

anyone ever order from globeaqua.com? just placed an order for walt smith fiji premium looking for any reviews, thanks

[Ninong]

Hi lemieux66crosby87,




I've never heard of that company before. Looks like they're in Southern California.

You might have been better off ordering from a source closer to your location. For example, Dr. Mac is selling premium Fiji live rock for $3.59/lb and they will select it to your specifications from their curing tanks. They unpack it and put it into their huge curing vats after receiving it from L.A. Virtually all Fiji live rock comes from Walt Smith. Dr. Mac is located in Maryland, so most of Pennsylvania is within one-day ground UPS service. Based on your name, I imagine you might be in the Pittsburgh area, so I'm not sure if that's within the one-day ground service area from Maryland.

Looks like you're paying about $3/lb plus shipping from California.

P.S. -- January is the worst possible time of year for ordering any sort of livestock, including live rock, due to the possibility of cold temperatures in transit. For this reason, you want to limit the amount of time in transit and check the weather forecast for the date it is to be shipped and the in-transit days.

[lemieux66crosby87]

i checked with dr.mac in maryland, i don't fall within their zone for shipping so it would cost me a lot more to have it shipped through them. will the rock be ruined from the cold? i am starting a new 90 gallon tank, and was going to cure all the rock in the tank. any info is greatly appreciated! thanks

[TimH07]

where in pa are you? he's just on the DE/MD boarder near my dads house, i live on the DE/PA line so its like 1.5~2 hour drive to his location

im going down there this week to check it out

[Ninong]

The vendor should include heat packs inside the boxes and that will help somewhat. You might want to ask them about that just to be sure.

A lot depends on how long the "package" is in transit and how it is handled while in transit. Being left outdoors for long periods, or even in unheated warehouses for long periods, can cause problems.

It's hard to say which carriers are better and which are not all that good because I have read horror stories about all of them.

I had one unfortunate experience with a couple of fairy wrasses shipped from Dallas to New Orleans in January but it just so happened that the overnight temperature that night dipped down to 28 in Dallas and 34 in New Orleans. The water temperature of the bags the fish were in had dropped to 63F in spite of heat packs. I lost one of the fish but the vendor replaced it free of charge.

I ordered about 175 lbs of live rock from South Carolina and had it shipped air freight. It arrived in New Orleans about 12 hours after it was delivered to the airport in South Carolina by the vendor. That was during the summer so there was no danger of cold overnight temps. However, I was shocked to see how the boxes were handled when I went to the Delta air freight pickup facility. They were all clearly marked fragile but the idiot who was handtrucking them out to the loading dock for me actually flipped one of the boxes end over end until I yelled at him.

[lemieux66crosby87]

Tim i am about an hour north east of the steel city Pittsburgh. I mapquested it and its about a 5.5 hour drive for me to the retail store in maryland.

[Ratpack]

Ninong, do you remember where in SC you ordered the live rock? Just curious since that is where I am. Always looking for good places.

[Ninong]

Yes, I remember, but unfortunately the guy went out of business a few months later. It was just something he and his wife were running out of their basement while holding down day jobs. I guess it didn't work out.



P.S. -- It was fantastic, fully cured Kaelini and Tonga branch live rock. There was also some Fiji branch that I didn't really care for. I gave most of that stuff away to a friend on the board.

[Ninong]

Here are a few pics of the live rock that I purchased in 2003 for $4.25/lb plus air freight (it was only $86 for 190 lbs). These photos were taken nine weeks after I set up the tank.

[rededteck]

I ordered my live rock from aquatictech.com, they have a store outside Cleveland, OH. The rock shipped next day into Pittsburgh and I picked it up at the cargo hold off SR60. I have also ordered from Tampa Bay Saltwater with same day shipping and had excellent success.

I live off I-80 about 2 hours northeast of Pittsburgh!

Happy Holidays

[SouthBayPhoto]

I must admit...at this point I'm jealous of everyone back east & the midwest. (originally I'm from Detroit) Because they really don't have anything out here in Vegas (at least that I've found). so, everything I order has to be shipped out. Talk about a pain. I guess I could check out some locations in SoCal and they should be able to ship it pretty readily.

Just amazing on how much money is spent on LR. I guess I best start saving up some good money for my 90 gal. LOL Out here the LR is $6 to $11/LB (plus tax) for LR, but that's at a LFS.

[rededteck]

I do know the live rock I order goes through LAX. I do not see any reason why you cannot mail order rock from an online store in the midwest and pick your rock up at LAX for a good price. Check out aquatictech.com and see if they can hook you up!

[SouthBayPhoto]

I'll check into it, but then it's about a 9 hour drive (4.5 each way) to LAX...then again, if they can just get it here to Vegas, then I'm good to go. LOL

[Ninong]

I'll check into it, but then it's about a 9 hour drive (4.5 each way) to LAX...then again, if they can just get it here to Vegas, then I'm good to go. LOL

You can't pick it up at LAX yourself. It has to go through distributors. You can pick up live rock at local retailers in the Los Angeles area or you can pick it up at local retailers where you live, assuming there are some nice ones. Or you can watch for sales online by vendors (anywhere in the country) who are trying to reduce their inventory of cured live rock from their curing vats.

As far as transshipped live rock is concerned, it's pretty much the same price all over the country except it's cheaper if you happen to live near L.A. because there's no additional air freight from L.A. to whereever. The air freight, even to the East Coast, only adds about another 50 cents per pound to the cost.

I have seen online dealers all over the country undercutting each other's prices on live rock, especially transshipped live rock. If you shop around, you will find that there's very little difference in price between the various dealers when they're advertising their very best prices.

When ordering a lot of live rock (more than 100 lbs), it's cheaper to have it shipped air freight to your local airport and then you pick it up at the airport. Of course, not all vendors offer this option. Some vendors only use the more expensive FedEx or UPS, etc.

[Ninong]

I believe Las Vegas is within the guaranteed one-day ground UPS service area from Los Angeles.

[SouthBayPhoto]

Cool...gonna have to check into it.

I used to deal with airfreight all the time, so that wouldn't be a problem for me, as long as the dealer offered the option.

I don't know if they guarantee 1 day ground or not. I know most times it's only about 1 to 2 days. Marine Depot is out of Anaheim and they get my stuff here within 2 days or so.

[Ninong]

UPS offers a service called guaranteed 1-day ground provided the delivery point is within a certain service area relative to the shipping point.