joefitz
08/31/2003, 04:01 PM
Ok...so if you hadn't already reviewed my previous post about why I hate airlines you may want to refer to that first...I just wanted to have a separate post that details my experience so far with TBS now that I've received my 2nd shipment.
I'll warn you now that I tend to be thorough, so this is going to be a long post.
As an FYI, my previous thread basically details how my shipment sat in NJ for a day (not being loaded onto the 8 flights that could have gotten it to Boston earlier than it did) before continuing its journey to me.
Ok. So, how was the 2nd half of the package? It consisted of four boxes of live rock and one box of critters. The liverock had a few pretty sizeable pieces and a bunch of smaller chunks and maybe a couple pieces of rubble although that could definitely have been caused by the shipping.
The rock was pretty sweet in my opinion. Several pieces had exceptionally cool shapes. A handful of the smaller pieces were kind of of just hunks of rock, but for the most part, I think the rock shapes and whatnot were fantastic.
I have an odd-shaped ~100g tank (very tall, 18" width) and I had already put more rock into the tank that I had recieved from a friend so I now have what I consider to be too much rock. It was everything I could do to get it all into the tanks (I also have a 20g (tall) refugium and a 26g sump (although I'm trying to keep the sump rock free for the time being). I'll probably sell some of the rock or quite possibly start a nano tank or two.
The first shipment contained a mantis that I'm going to have a nightmare of a time catching now that the refugium is so full of rock. I should have gotten him before I put in this shipment because he was very social/out in the open a lot before. I also heard clicking in the main tank now that the new rock is in so I think there is either a mantis or pistol in the new stuff too (there was clicking in the main tank after the first shipment too but it went away -- I hadn't heard it in weeks). I saw a baby pistol (dead) in one of the bags containing live rock so I'm hoping I'll get lucky and have the main tank be a pistol. Personally, I really enjoyed the mantis in the first shipment and I'm hoping to get him his own little tank. He was very cool.
Ok, other comments on the rock...life. It was naturally full of life. The rock wasn't in fantastic condition as it had been in transit for probably in the neighborhood of 36 hours...I'm hoping there isn't a ton of die off. Several of the rocks had large cluster colonies. One of the small pieces had a super-cool baby-blue colored brain that flouresced quite nicely under the actinics after I turned the halides off. Tons of sponges, clams, barnacles EVERYWHERE...pretty much what everyone else has said about TBS rock. Way cool.
My only real concern at this point is that the die off is going to cause a big cycle and potentially kill a bunch of the life on the rock. I'm watching the params closely and hopefully I'll be able to beat it with water changes if necessary. So far so good.
Summy of rock: wide variety of shapes, some exceptional, some rather plain...overall, very satisified with shape and porosity (tons of crevices in almost every piece). Life on rock: good -- would be exceptional but the extended shipping really seemed to have laid the hurt on the rock. Hopefully it will make a strong comeback and the very interesting corals and whatnot will pull through.
Critters. The critter box was the only one to arrive in good shape. The critters were in separate bags: hermits, snails, stars, anenomes, cukes (and a bag of extra shells). I followed the instructions and aclimated them over several hours.
Some of the hermits didn't make it. I didn't count -- looked like there may have been a hundred hermits, tops (I would guess closer to 50-70), but again, I didn't count. There looked to be 25-30 snails. There were 3 sizeable brittle stars and four cucumbers. Plus two anenomes, I haven't figured out what they are yet but I find both of them very cool.
According to the numbers on the package, I feel there weren't as many hermits or snails as advertised and no pistol shrimp. I'm assuming that the anenomes were included to compensate for these discrepencies and I have no problem with that trade off at all. I'm very happy about it actually.
The hermits were of various size...many had come out of their shells or perhaps didn't have one to begin with...there were a bunch that didn't make it but for the most part, they seemed lively and psyched to get in my tank and start demolishing the algae. I did my best to spread them out but they seemed to aggregate in a few areas and fight with each other for the first 8 hours. The next day, they had spread out a bunch and were gorging.
The snails were a similar story...they were all attached to each other at first making it a challenge to get them spread around the tank. There were some DOA but not a ton. They've since spread around the tank reasonably well. I may get more snails as I have a lot of algae but I'll wait and see how these critters do over the next few days -- maybe this crew will get the job done.
The cukes were split into two tanks...3 in the main tank, 1 in the refugium. Two of them were in questionable condition when I put them in but I figured I had to give them a shot at life. When I woke up, one of the ones in the main tank had climbed way up to the top of the glass in one of the corners and has pretty much stayed up there (moved down a little but not a ton). Another one in the main tank has just been laying around but looks healthy. I have no idea where the 3rd one is -- too much rock, too much algae right now...I'm not overly worried about it. The one in the refugium is not where it was when I went to bed last night...I can't find that one either but I'm going to take it as a positive sign that it moved.
The brittle stars all went in the main tank and had disappeared into the rockwork after about an hour or so. I've seen one of them today.
The anenomes...one of them (with kind of shortish white fingers) was placed towards the front of the tank on a "shelf" rock. It had attached to a small piece of a clam shell in its bag and kept holding onto that... When I awoke this morning I found this guy had crawled down and attached underneath and in front of the shelf, immediately in front of the glass running parrallel with the front. He is pretty extended and seems to be doing ok. I pray he makes it as he is cool.
The other anenome has longer, thicker fingers...more like one you traditionally see clownfish living in... It has a tint of color to it...a fairly strong tint...blueish-green. It glows a bit under the actinics. This guy has stayed almost exactly where he "fell" last night. I think he has moved a little bit more under the rockwork -- it is kind of a cave-ish type area. I don't know much about anenomes yet so I have to figure out if this is normal behaviour...what these guys prefer in terms of conditions (flow...). I don't think he is getting much flow down there at the moment and I haven't really seen him move at all so I'm a little concerned. He hasn't seemed to lose color and his fingers are extended so I'm hoping he is ok. I think this is the coolest thing I received from TBS.
I think that covers the critters. In summary, I'm happy with the critters I got. I recieved a goby hidden in the rock from my first shipment but I think the mantis (or the really big gorilla crab) may have gotten to him as he disappeared after about a week. Hopefully all of these guys will make it.
The last thing I'll comment on is TBS itself. I dealt with Mary for all of this stuff. She is nice and pleasant to deal with in all of my experiences. When I first called to get my 2nd half of the package, she told me they could send it but that I'd get a lot better stuff if I was willing to wait. I was appreciative of that honesty and since I wasn't in a rush I decided to wait.
She was a bit over-aggressive in terms of when they'd be able to get it out...what she though would be a day or two turned into about a week, but that really didn't bother me and she never promised anything so I never felt like she wasn't being upfront and honest. Eventually, they had the stuff ready and that's when we ran into scheduling problem with the airlines. They couldn't get it onto Delta in the next few days so we turned to Continental.
If I had known Continental did not have direct flights from Tampa, I would have just said to wait until it could go on Delta. There is a chance Continental does now offer direct flights as TBS seemed to be under the impression they had just started doing that, but the Contintental people up here in Boston didn't think they had direct flights. I'm not blaming TBS, but I do suggest that you make every possible attempt to go with an airline that has direct flights from Tampa. The rock will be in MUCH better condition when it is in transit for < 12 than it is if it is in transit longer. And when cargo is unloaded from a plane before its final destination you have no idea how long it will sit there...
I haven't spoken to TBS about the condition the boxes arrived in (two of five were in pieces, 2 were soaked with the bottom styrofoam basically breaking through the cardboard box, and one was in a-ok shape). The Continental guys knew there was a problem with the shipment -- in fact, it was already in their computer system before it even left Newark, which was where the stop-over was... So, I'm hoping to file a claim and get some money back from Continental. I wouldn't ask TBS for anything as long as everything seems to pull through but hopefully they'll help me (if I need any assistance) in getting some money from Continental.
Thank goodness I was prepared for the worst when I picked the stuff up...the only reason my car isn't a foul-smelling, rank mess is because I had heavy-duty tarps and was able to prevent any leakage from the boxes onto my car's interior.
All in all, I'm happy with my experience so far. I'm disappointed that my shipment took so long to get to me, but other than that, I can't say there was a single bad part of dealing with TBS and even that I don't consider their fault.
I can see why some people prefer rock that doesn't have tons of life on it to start with -- it is hard to figure out where to put the corals and whatnot that I want to buy! :-)
So...big thumbs up, especially if I can get some money back from Continental for damaging several of the boxes (which I have little doubt resulted in pretty severe die-off on the rock in those boxes as they were pretty much dry and stank pretty badly).
Joe
I'll warn you now that I tend to be thorough, so this is going to be a long post.
As an FYI, my previous thread basically details how my shipment sat in NJ for a day (not being loaded onto the 8 flights that could have gotten it to Boston earlier than it did) before continuing its journey to me.
Ok. So, how was the 2nd half of the package? It consisted of four boxes of live rock and one box of critters. The liverock had a few pretty sizeable pieces and a bunch of smaller chunks and maybe a couple pieces of rubble although that could definitely have been caused by the shipping.
The rock was pretty sweet in my opinion. Several pieces had exceptionally cool shapes. A handful of the smaller pieces were kind of of just hunks of rock, but for the most part, I think the rock shapes and whatnot were fantastic.
I have an odd-shaped ~100g tank (very tall, 18" width) and I had already put more rock into the tank that I had recieved from a friend so I now have what I consider to be too much rock. It was everything I could do to get it all into the tanks (I also have a 20g (tall) refugium and a 26g sump (although I'm trying to keep the sump rock free for the time being). I'll probably sell some of the rock or quite possibly start a nano tank or two.
The first shipment contained a mantis that I'm going to have a nightmare of a time catching now that the refugium is so full of rock. I should have gotten him before I put in this shipment because he was very social/out in the open a lot before. I also heard clicking in the main tank now that the new rock is in so I think there is either a mantis or pistol in the new stuff too (there was clicking in the main tank after the first shipment too but it went away -- I hadn't heard it in weeks). I saw a baby pistol (dead) in one of the bags containing live rock so I'm hoping I'll get lucky and have the main tank be a pistol. Personally, I really enjoyed the mantis in the first shipment and I'm hoping to get him his own little tank. He was very cool.
Ok, other comments on the rock...life. It was naturally full of life. The rock wasn't in fantastic condition as it had been in transit for probably in the neighborhood of 36 hours...I'm hoping there isn't a ton of die off. Several of the rocks had large cluster colonies. One of the small pieces had a super-cool baby-blue colored brain that flouresced quite nicely under the actinics after I turned the halides off. Tons of sponges, clams, barnacles EVERYWHERE...pretty much what everyone else has said about TBS rock. Way cool.
My only real concern at this point is that the die off is going to cause a big cycle and potentially kill a bunch of the life on the rock. I'm watching the params closely and hopefully I'll be able to beat it with water changes if necessary. So far so good.
Summy of rock: wide variety of shapes, some exceptional, some rather plain...overall, very satisified with shape and porosity (tons of crevices in almost every piece). Life on rock: good -- would be exceptional but the extended shipping really seemed to have laid the hurt on the rock. Hopefully it will make a strong comeback and the very interesting corals and whatnot will pull through.
Critters. The critter box was the only one to arrive in good shape. The critters were in separate bags: hermits, snails, stars, anenomes, cukes (and a bag of extra shells). I followed the instructions and aclimated them over several hours.
Some of the hermits didn't make it. I didn't count -- looked like there may have been a hundred hermits, tops (I would guess closer to 50-70), but again, I didn't count. There looked to be 25-30 snails. There were 3 sizeable brittle stars and four cucumbers. Plus two anenomes, I haven't figured out what they are yet but I find both of them very cool.
According to the numbers on the package, I feel there weren't as many hermits or snails as advertised and no pistol shrimp. I'm assuming that the anenomes were included to compensate for these discrepencies and I have no problem with that trade off at all. I'm very happy about it actually.
The hermits were of various size...many had come out of their shells or perhaps didn't have one to begin with...there were a bunch that didn't make it but for the most part, they seemed lively and psyched to get in my tank and start demolishing the algae. I did my best to spread them out but they seemed to aggregate in a few areas and fight with each other for the first 8 hours. The next day, they had spread out a bunch and were gorging.
The snails were a similar story...they were all attached to each other at first making it a challenge to get them spread around the tank. There were some DOA but not a ton. They've since spread around the tank reasonably well. I may get more snails as I have a lot of algae but I'll wait and see how these critters do over the next few days -- maybe this crew will get the job done.
The cukes were split into two tanks...3 in the main tank, 1 in the refugium. Two of them were in questionable condition when I put them in but I figured I had to give them a shot at life. When I woke up, one of the ones in the main tank had climbed way up to the top of the glass in one of the corners and has pretty much stayed up there (moved down a little but not a ton). Another one in the main tank has just been laying around but looks healthy. I have no idea where the 3rd one is -- too much rock, too much algae right now...I'm not overly worried about it. The one in the refugium is not where it was when I went to bed last night...I can't find that one either but I'm going to take it as a positive sign that it moved.
The brittle stars all went in the main tank and had disappeared into the rockwork after about an hour or so. I've seen one of them today.
The anenomes...one of them (with kind of shortish white fingers) was placed towards the front of the tank on a "shelf" rock. It had attached to a small piece of a clam shell in its bag and kept holding onto that... When I awoke this morning I found this guy had crawled down and attached underneath and in front of the shelf, immediately in front of the glass running parrallel with the front. He is pretty extended and seems to be doing ok. I pray he makes it as he is cool.
The other anenome has longer, thicker fingers...more like one you traditionally see clownfish living in... It has a tint of color to it...a fairly strong tint...blueish-green. It glows a bit under the actinics. This guy has stayed almost exactly where he "fell" last night. I think he has moved a little bit more under the rockwork -- it is kind of a cave-ish type area. I don't know much about anenomes yet so I have to figure out if this is normal behaviour...what these guys prefer in terms of conditions (flow...). I don't think he is getting much flow down there at the moment and I haven't really seen him move at all so I'm a little concerned. He hasn't seemed to lose color and his fingers are extended so I'm hoping he is ok. I think this is the coolest thing I received from TBS.
I think that covers the critters. In summary, I'm happy with the critters I got. I recieved a goby hidden in the rock from my first shipment but I think the mantis (or the really big gorilla crab) may have gotten to him as he disappeared after about a week. Hopefully all of these guys will make it.
The last thing I'll comment on is TBS itself. I dealt with Mary for all of this stuff. She is nice and pleasant to deal with in all of my experiences. When I first called to get my 2nd half of the package, she told me they could send it but that I'd get a lot better stuff if I was willing to wait. I was appreciative of that honesty and since I wasn't in a rush I decided to wait.
She was a bit over-aggressive in terms of when they'd be able to get it out...what she though would be a day or two turned into about a week, but that really didn't bother me and she never promised anything so I never felt like she wasn't being upfront and honest. Eventually, they had the stuff ready and that's when we ran into scheduling problem with the airlines. They couldn't get it onto Delta in the next few days so we turned to Continental.
If I had known Continental did not have direct flights from Tampa, I would have just said to wait until it could go on Delta. There is a chance Continental does now offer direct flights as TBS seemed to be under the impression they had just started doing that, but the Contintental people up here in Boston didn't think they had direct flights. I'm not blaming TBS, but I do suggest that you make every possible attempt to go with an airline that has direct flights from Tampa. The rock will be in MUCH better condition when it is in transit for < 12 than it is if it is in transit longer. And when cargo is unloaded from a plane before its final destination you have no idea how long it will sit there...
I haven't spoken to TBS about the condition the boxes arrived in (two of five were in pieces, 2 were soaked with the bottom styrofoam basically breaking through the cardboard box, and one was in a-ok shape). The Continental guys knew there was a problem with the shipment -- in fact, it was already in their computer system before it even left Newark, which was where the stop-over was... So, I'm hoping to file a claim and get some money back from Continental. I wouldn't ask TBS for anything as long as everything seems to pull through but hopefully they'll help me (if I need any assistance) in getting some money from Continental.
Thank goodness I was prepared for the worst when I picked the stuff up...the only reason my car isn't a foul-smelling, rank mess is because I had heavy-duty tarps and was able to prevent any leakage from the boxes onto my car's interior.
All in all, I'm happy with my experience so far. I'm disappointed that my shipment took so long to get to me, but other than that, I can't say there was a single bad part of dealing with TBS and even that I don't consider their fault.
I can see why some people prefer rock that doesn't have tons of life on it to start with -- it is hard to figure out where to put the corals and whatnot that I want to buy! :-)
So...big thumbs up, especially if I can get some money back from Continental for damaging several of the boxes (which I have little doubt resulted in pretty severe die-off on the rock in those boxes as they were pretty much dry and stank pretty badly).
Joe