wrote:
Its going to need a bunch of live rock, and I'm
probably going to have to mail order it because I live in a small,
isolated town without a LFS.

I bought one order of "Tonga Deepwater" from Drs. Foster and Smith and one order
of uncured Tonga rock from Premium Aquatics. The "Tonga Deepwater" comes in 30
pound lots. I was (and still am) very pleased with mine. All large pieces, just
as advertised. The stuff from Premium Aquatics was also as advertised, but it
had a few pounds of rubble and more small pieces than the F&S product. I
complained here at the time about the amount of rubble and small pieces, but the
small pieces got chucked in the tank anyway. The PA product also was wrapped in
Asian newspaper, having been shipped to me directly from the dock in California.
I consider that a plus, since there's a better chance of hitchhikers that way.

I just checked their site, and Premium Aquatics is sold out of their Tonga rock.
They've also increased their prices a bit, but they have a discount on shipments
of 40 pounds or more.

I would not hesitate to order from either company again. In fact, if I were
setting up a tank from scratch, I would probably buy all the rock from Premium
Aquatics; it's hard to beat $3.99/lb for Tonga rock.

George Patterson
If you torture the data long enough, eventually it will confess
to anything.