[1EightT]

For my new tanks I decided to go with Gulf-View.com live rock. I did quite a bit of research on the subject before hand and decided to give it a shot being that it was a good combination of price and quality. I spoke with Dale over at GV several times via e-mail and he answered all of my questions very promptly which is important for any company that does business online. I can't say enough great things about the service I received. When it came time to order he asked when a good time would be for the shipment to arrive. I told him Thursday which meant that he only has 2 days notice to get the rock shipped. To my surprise I had confirmation that the shipment would get here Thursday, and by Wednesday he had sent me an air bill to confirm the delivery.

The rocks themselves were shipped via air freight which was great because it saves you a ton of money over typical overnight shipping methods like FedEx or ups. In total 85lbs of rock only cost 60 dollars and change to ship overnight which is an incredible value.

Next came the exciting part, the opening of the boxes. I opened the boxes to find they were VERY well packed. Each group of rock was sealed in thick plastic bags inside of a Styrofoam box inside of the shipping box. Now some complain about the fact that the rocks are not shipped completely in water, but I would rather pay for shipping rock than water myself, and it seems that dale has found a very nice alternative when shipping his rock. There is a small amount of water in each bag, and then each individual rock is wrapped very well in a soaking wet piece of paper towel. I found that each rock was still very wet when I removed them and that everything living on the rocks was still living once in the tank (even the sponges).

I can't say enough great things about the appearance of the rocks themselves. Each one is completely covered with life. They vary in color and size nicely and are very diverse. The rocks themselves are also quite porous contrary to what I have heard in the past (not quite as much as the Fiji rock, but very nice none the less). The following link shows some of the life you can expect to see on the rock http://www.gulf-view.com/species_list_on_rock.html . Every day I literally find myself staring at the rock for hours and each time I do I notice new life that I hadn't seen the day before.

Bottom line, I definitely recommend talking with Dale at Gulf-View (floridaliverock.com) if you are in the market for some nice live rock. Here are some pictures of the rock I received. I'll take more pics as I have more time as well. http://www.deepseaforums.com/photopo...bee7cb236f5f11