Saltwater fish.com bad experience

[me & my baby]

I placed an order for some ultra premium live rock . The weather has been super cold out for the week . I made sure I was going to be home when it arrived . Ups knocked on the door I grabbed the box and took it over to where I had my tank waiting on it . I opened the box and the worst smell came out it was so bad my wife in the other room said something about it . When I started grabbing the rock it was like I was picking up blocks of ice . There was no heat pack in the box just a small piece of damp newspaper . Looking at the rock it didn’t look ultra premium at all it didn’t really have any color to it . I placed it in the tank and let it site . At that time I turned my skimmer on because I knew there would be some die off . The smell coming out of the skimmer was so bad I had to put carbon in the lid to keep the smell down . I contacted SWF.com and all they said was it’s fine . I responded about how cold it was and the smell and once again I got the same response. After a week and 3 water changes the rock still stick really bad , my skimmer is still pulling nasty hunk out and it’s still turning the water in the tank brown. I contacted them again and explained how disappointed I was and I also let them know they could have there rock back I wanted a refund and I was never ordering from them again. There response was it’s normal and I could have a 25.00 credit . I responded and told them I don’t want credit because this was the first and last time I would order from there store and I wanted a refund. Never got another response. I have been in this hobby since I was 15 . I am 42 now so I have been around the block . I have order rock in the winter from other places in the past and they always came here with heat packs . The purpose of buying live rock is for the beneficial bacteria that comes with it . And like I told them , I just got some very expensive base rock . That’s my experience and I will not buy from them again

 

[Thomashtom]

you are not the only one!!! Very bad!!!!

 

[Daltrey]

How can you have 163 posts and only 3 likes? Someone please give me a like for posting this. Thanks

 

[domination2580]

How can you have 163 posts and only 3 likes? Someone please give me a like for posting this. Thanks

Liked [emoji39] [emoji38]

 

[Daniel Waters]

I've never dealt with SWF.com, so I'm not here to defend them or support them. I'm just commenting on dealing with live rock. In this particular case, I don't think heat packs would matter. If the rock was kept moist, then the beneficial live bacteria and organisms will still survive and repopulate when placed back into saltwater. As far as the smell and dying / decay, that is normal when live rock is shipped (sponges die off when exposed to air). Typically, you should scrub the live rock and remove dying matter such as sponges as much as possible. Even then, I would not place rock straight into a tank and would recommend placing the rock in some buckets or containers with a powerhead and heater for a few weeks, removing the rocks to scrub once again and doing a few water changes. After all that, then the rock can be placed into the display tank. The bacteria, microfauna, and various coloration will still be there (but not readily apparent) but will come back given time. Nature is quite the survivor.

 

[Daltrey]

Live rock can bring all kinds of things you don’t want as well. My advice is to stick with base rock.

 

[me & my baby]

I understand they can bring bad things but they also brings great things . Read Mike Palletta article on his elos tank he explain some things