Risks of Using Live Rock

[FLSharkvictim]

I should probably also mention my live rock was from petco.....

You'll likely be fine if the rock is from a good source.

There is your answer~!! You bought it from Petco!! Do you have any pics?
Do you even know what kind of live rock it is?
It's probably Haitian Live Rock.

 

[FLSharkvictim]

I tried ordering from KP and TBS a couple weeks ago but they were not taking orders. I ordered 20# from gulfliverock. The rock is pretty much as expected, although I was disappointed in the (free) FedEx ground shipping time. Five days.

So most of the critters/corals/algae/bivalves arrived dead, but I was really buying it for the bacteria and microfauna which are likely just fine. The rock was plenty moist and temperate on arrival.

It is in a vat with heat/flow/light for the next couple we

Not a big fan of gulf rock!
This is just one buck of Marshall Island and Tonga Branch rock recurring for my new build.

 

[Sharkbait19]

There is your answer~!! You bought it from Petco!! Do you have any pics?
Do you even know what kind of live rock it is?
It's probably Haitian Live Rock.

That was back when I was a newbie and didn't know where to get live rock. Nowadays I don't buy anything alive from Petco.
It's probably just painted concrete dipped in parasitic water, but I really don't know....

Here's a pic of the tank when I first introduced live rock:

Here it is today:

The tank is thriving these days, but the first few months were definitely rough for me, because my first live rock was from petco. Lesson learned...

 

[blstravler]

Cost

The cost output for live rock may be more but if you look at what we spend over all on the hobby it’s not that much more. You could also look at spending more upfront on live rock might be cheaper then having to deal with the ugly stage of using dry rock.

 

[Kershaw]

The cost output for live rock may be more but if you look at what we spend over all on the hobby it’s not that much more. You could also look at spending more upfront on live rock might be cheaper then having to deal with the ugly stage of using dry rock.

I absolute agree. When I started in hobby in 2012 I bought a established 180 that was started with live rock. I never had 90% of the problems I read about. Had all kinds of alien life on it.
How ever I still have all that rock, no longer live.
I hope to clean it, cycle tank then order 10-20lbs of live rock to seed the old rock with life. I’m already into my build 6800 on 5k budget so telling my wife I need another 600 or so for live rock won’t go over well. not to mention we only make about 70k a year in CA where everything is expensive.