Tampa Bay Saltwater (1 Viewer)

[Guest]

I am doing research for the purchase of a new aquarium. During my research I found a company "Tampa Bay Saltwater" that sales live rock and live sand. I was wondering if anyone in the Houston area has tired them. They have a complete package including critters. Sounds good to me but I do not want to spend the money if there is a better option.

 

[ShaneV]

HolyBanana has ordered from them a couple of times, Im sure hell chime in.

 

[Guest]

I don't like their package because it has too many hermits and has other critters like starfish that don't belong in a newly established aquarium. Also their package forces you to buy too much live sand. All you need is dead sand and a few lbs of their sand or a cup of sand from someone elses tank to make your sand live. That being said there rock is beautiful because it is so fresh but the hitchhikers that come on it like evil crabs and mantis shrimp can be a PIA. If you want to order from them for their rock and a little bit of sand go ahead but I wouldn't worry about the package.

 

[ebayes11]

i got the package to start my 55 gallon reef tank about 2 years ago. i agree with tcarlson - partly. the hitchhikers (evil crabs and mantis shrimp) are a big PIA, but the crabs are pretty easy to trap and feed to the starfish, and the shrimp can be gotten if you perform some preventative actions before you put the rock in the tank for the first time, like dunking the rock in very saline water, or freshwater. The critters that you get are definitely a bit much, like the cukes, and the pistol shrimp, but i didn't mind all the hermits. that said however, the rock is amazing. the life that you get on it is truly awesome. there is amazing color to the rocks with all the sponges. all the other rock i see, whether its fiji, kaelini, whatever don't have this kind of life on it,(admittedly i haven't seen all that much high-quality live rock). i had tunicates, barnacles(which a mantis made quick work of), hardcorals, macroalgae, and other stuff. one other huge plus is that they ship it underwater, so you get very little dieoff, a huge plus in my mind. also, i got a little goby with my live sand. with regard to it being too much sand, once again, i agree that you don't need all live sand to start off with, thats why you can use quite a bit of it to start off your dsb in the fuge, or another tank, or whatever. its not the cheapest way to start a tank by any means, but all in all, i think the beauty of the rock outweighs any of the negatives.

 

[Guest]

I thank you for your input. What I was thinking of doing is order for a smaller tank and add some dead live sand to the mix. Right now I think I will be buying a 170gal. RR acrylic from Tenecor. If that is my decision, I could order his complete package for 100gal. What do you think?

 

[HolyBanana]

I have over 200 lbs of TBS live rock and I cannot many bad things about it. The rock is awesome! Its full of life. I suggest you get the coral rock or if you are short on money the boat run will do. The rock simply is overwhelmed with life. The evil critters can be taken cared of. Simply leave the rock on a piece of paper for 20 minutes and the will come off. Sometimes some will be stubborn, but most of all they are not difficult to catch. I had a mantis in mine, but he got eaten by a crab while molting.
And beware the evil pods hehe, its a good idea to leave it fishless for a while.

Anyway, the rock comes with tons of life. Star fish, cucumbers, porcelain crabs, mithrax crabs, sponges, turnicates, cup corals, anenomes, nudis, spaghetti worms, bristle worms, feather dusters, x-mas tree worms, barnicles, clams, scallops, all types of corals, macro algea, pistol shrimps, and an occasional blenny (if you get lucky).

To me the positives outweight the negatives IMO.

 

[Guest]

i remember hearing that it was very dense (compared to fiji et. al.).

 

[HolyBanana]

yes thats correct. Thats why you will need 2lbs per gallon.
Its some heavy rock. Putting some fiji rock in there would also help if you like.

 

[Guest]

So are you suggesting that I buy the Live Rock and skip the critters and the live sand? What do you think of my ideal of buying the complete package for a 100 gal tank and put it in my 170 gal tank?

 

[HolyBanana]

Unless it makes economical sense, I woudl skip the critters and live sand.
The live rock by itself has tons of life on it and will come with tons of critters. So no point on buying the critters.

The live sand in the other hand, its up to you. Their sand is nothing like what you see in the stores. Its a coarse brown shell like sand that is usually found in the beaches of the caribbean. I have some in my tank and I cannot tell if it has done wonders. But then again I have it mixed with fiji sand and Puerto Rican Live sand. I figured if you buy 50 lbs of it and mix it with some LS from the LFS you should be ok. No point on paying too much for their sand. Diversity in the sand , IMO, is the best. So get a little of it and mix it with other types of sand and see what comes out of it. But the sand critters will come with the rock.

That said, I would wait until your tank is cycled before purchasing the rock if you are going to go buying only the Live Rock (coral rock). That way the dieoff is minimal.
If you go with their package they will mail you some rock first until your cycle is over. Then they will mail you the good stuff.

Hope this helps

 

[Guest]

I went to Aquatic World on Jones road this weekend and they have some live sand in 15lb bags that was really white. If I mixed a 100lbs of that with 50 lbs from Tampa do you think that would be a good ratio for a 72x18x30 tank? If I order the sand alone will that produce enough bacteria to cycle the tank or do I need some base rock also?

 

[HolyBanana]

You could use some base rock if you wanted to. The TBS rock does not have much shape so you will be building a rock wall or a pile of rocks. No fancy architecture unless you get lucky. The base rock would save you money. I don’t know if the TBS rock will seed it.

I would buy live sand opposed to dead sand. It speeds up the cycle IMO. But dead sand with 50 lbs of TBS LS could do the trick. When I bought my sand it was LS from fiji that came in a bag with a bit of water. The TBS sand doesn’t have many critters, mostly bacteria.

 

[Guest]

I think I just about have a plan! Where do you recommend that I get the live Fiji sand and some rock with character?

 

[HolyBanana]

I did that. I got live sand and about 40 lbs of fiji rock. The rest is TBS.

 

[AggieBrandon]

In my opinion the prepackaged live sand from the LFS is a rip off. There is no way to know how long they have been on the shelf or been in the package (don't think they have "born on" dates on the packaging) You could just as easily use dry sand and then add the stuff called "cycle" or some TLC saltwater stuff. Basically bacteria in a bottle but then again you don't know how old it is. A few table shrimp will create a cycle or some uncured liverock from the LFS. I think if you ask around you will be able to get enough live sand from fellow reefers to seed your tank....if you are going to do a sump/refugium with caulerpa you can obtain lots of life that way too. maybe order rock from TBS with a few lbs of live sand to add to the dry sand you use and you will be fine.

Brandon

 

[pernelf]

Have you had an acrylic tank before? I have one now and I wouldn't buy another one but that's just me. It's a pain to keep the glass clean and keep coraline off those hard to reach places. But then again I'm short so I have problems reaching it all.

 

[AggieBrandon]

Wow Leslea you can reach the top of your tank....now that is amazing...hehe

 

[pernelf]

Shouldn't you be sleeping or something. You have to work tonight goofball.


And yes, I can reach it with a stool

 

[AggieBrandon]

yeah yeah...i am heading off to bed in a few minutes....had to finish transferring files so I can reformat hard drives. Fun stuff...I did however catch out two zoanthid eating nudibranchs...came from my citypets frag...argh

Brandon

 

[Guest]

I have not had a aquarium period. How do you keep yours looking nice? I was told to use a plastic scraper! Is that right? I was also told not to user cleaners! What do you recommend?