Thanks for your reply Steve. I understand exactly what you mean. Simply
asking the LFS guy if the LR is mature and not still decomposing makes
perfect sense to me. My system is undergoing the setup cycle and the last
thing it needs is decomposing matter on the newly purchased rock causing
even more of a spike of amonia. I did notice that they keep their LR in
blue plastic tote boxes on the floor with a simple light over about four
boxes each. The problem with me is, when I look at that LR, I just don't
know what to look for to see the condition of it. I look at pictures of
newly purchased rock in tanks on the net here and I just can't notice
anything from rock to rock, tank to tank, but one site showed closeup's of
their rocks and I could see the blue algae and red algae on it .... so of
course this was a good quality rock. My problem is .. I just don't have a
choice of what I buy because their is only two places to purchase it and one
is like a "chain" store and I refuse to give them my money. The other store
is small, but they have about six big tanks, and 10 small tanks of reef
setups, and also about 8 Nano tanks setup. And as far as buying it online
and having it sent to me ... I just read that this guy bought 60lbs and it
showed up all DEAD, he wrote that the stink of the dead rock was so bad that
his wife tried to wash it while he was at work ... which I assume is not a
good thing to do either.
Thanks again for your reply Steve. I am reading up each and everynight
about reef keeping, because I know that this is the best way to have a
trouble free first reef tank.
PS: Anybody else reading this, please feel free to add to my discussion
about purchasing Live Rock. . . thanks in advance.

Charlie
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada