Tampa bay saltwater ?

[Sliceofocean]

Hey guys and gals , I was wondering if any of you fellow reef heads have had any experience with Tampa bay saltwater . In specific the " package " . Ok get your heads out of the gutter haha. But now that I have your attention . The package is all in one reef set up . Sand rock cuc . And all the hitchhikers the good the bad the ugly . The price for this for a 90 gallon is $1073 for 100 lbs of lr 90 lbs of live sand .90 blue leg hermits 45 astrea snails 4 tigertail cucumbers 2 bristle stars as well as 2 peppermint shrimp . If you all have any advice please feel free . Thanks for your time all

 

[willray]

I had used them yrs ago. While pricy...none of my tanks ever looked better than that one. Be aware there are lots of bad with good. I.e.mantis (so cool),gorillas etc all easy to catch or git rid of though with knowledge. You will get lots of extras...not like they are going to any effort to remove critters hiding.
IMO though save some cash and get a smaller package then add some bulk reefsupply rock (paticularly liked thier pukani rock,nice and light well worth the money) or similar (marcorocks) and arogonite sand after the cycling a little here and a little there so you don't end up with another major cycle.

 

[BoDiddley]

I used them to set up my biocube a couple years ago and got lots of cool stuff, got around 5-8 porcelain crabs, a sea urchin(he got very large very fast) like 15 mantis(kind of annoying) amongst other things sponges, and other items it was very very cool got , and when i get a larger tank i will get some rock from them.

 

[PSU4ME]

This might be against the rules (moderate me if needed) but I wouldn't buy a pack that included rock that needed to cycle with a CUC at the same time. You'd need to separate them until the water cycled. And ta boot, you'd only add the CUC once the tank needed it, especially one that size

 

[willray]

They ship in 2 separate shipments. After your cycle with some base rock the they send you the goodies. So many beautiful life forms in aquacultered livecrock.

 

[mnavick]

Thread moved to appropriate forum. Questions are not allowed in the Vendor Experience Forum

 

[Greg Hiller]

TBS goes WAY back. They were one of the first (maybe THE first) to lease a space in the ocean and put down dry rock to culture their own live rock. I've been to their shop and even went out diving with one of the two original partners of the operation.

All that said, it's true you will probably end up with a lot of mantis shrimp. Not impossible to get rid of, but kind of a pain. If you purchase rock from a place like TBS there will be a LOT of life on it. Also, a lot of that life will not survive shipping, or just will not survive long term in a typical enclosed system. That's okay, but you need to realize that, and not be surprised when some of the live goes away. Also, the life that dies will be adding nutrients to your water which you may be fighting long term. Some of the life will take many months, even years to die off (think large clams imbedded in the rock itself).

In this day and age I think a better way to set up a tank is use mostly base rock and add a few pieces of select live rock. Saves a lot, but then again, you won't see all the life from the TBS rock....tradeoffs.

 

[delta]

They were the first after they shut down the LR industry in FLA. this was the begging of what most use today. Marc T of marcorocks really brought using deadrock to the mainstream reefing USA. I used the TBS system way back but since have moved to Dry rock. I think the whole Die off issue while you do lose some you have a ton that is there for years. it is like buying LR before they let it die off before shipping. Mantis and gorilla crabs are a real issue. I actually took the largest mantis and made a species tank and fed him gorilla crabs

While I love the life the TBS rock had today it is kinda yesterdays news and way over priced one at that. I moved to Marcorocks Dry fiji rock and never looked back. How ever there is a trade off. it takes longer to establish a tank. And you really should seed the tank with LR from a few sources. In the End I agree with Greg today it TBS package just doesn't weigh out economically. Having done both the TBS system is pretty much plug and play and you will have a well established system inn short order. But the shipping is ridiculous and combine that with the package price and it really doesn't add up to a real value. And why all my subsequent systems have been Dry rock start ups and not TBS.

 

[Flame Angel]

All interesting with some added history

 

[Docstach]

I have always wanted to try some of their rock, mainly for the diversity and the unexpected surprises that come with it. But I could never really get over the cost. Some day I could see setting up a "wild" tank with TBS rock and just let the mantis and crabs do their thing. Of coarse I realize this will eventually turn into an mantis species tank but that is cool too. I loved the mantis I had. Actually, I already have the perfect spot already set up... Road trip to Florida!

 

[Greg Hiller]

As an alternative it might be worthwhile just purchasing a small amount of their rock. Also in the FWIW category, I believe that the base rock they dumped in the ocean to make their live rock was comparatively rather dense (mined from within Florida). This may have changed over the years.