I got my first load of live rock today.  LFSs here sell Fiji rock for $5 to $7 per pound.  Generally, their rock is turned over fairly quickly so it isn't fully cured in their tanks.  They have done the initial scraping and surface cleaning but it will still require several weeks of curing before it is ready to use in a marine tank.  The general recommendation is to use between and 1 and 1.5 pounds of Fiji live rock per gallon of tank capacity...that means I will need somewhere around 200 pounds.  Even at $5 per pound, that's a thousand bucks!  I ended up ordering my first batch online.

Curing live rock presented a small challenge for me.  With a brand new tank, the most convenient way to cure rock is to set it up in the new tank and cure it there...when the ammonia and nitrite levels fall, you're done and you can just do a complete water change and begin adding animals.  I didn't want to wait, though, for the new tanks to arrive and get set up.  So, I got the old 115 gal tank out of storage and spent the day cleaning it.  Luckily it didn't leak after 11 years of storage!  I mixed up about 80 gallons of salt water (using Instant Ocean mix...the cheap end of quality salt mixes) and got a pump and heater going.  After the temperature stabilized at 75 degrees, I placed the order for the first batch of live rock.

This first online order (from LiveAquaria.com) was for 45 pounds at $3.39/pound (including shipping) for premium Fiji.  A few observations--

• The rock was well packed for shipping with wet newspapers, plastic bag, insulated styrofoam box inside a cardboard box. 
  
• There was minimal rubble from being banged around in the box.  I'm not sure whether all dealers are as good about selecting only full-sized pieces (mine were all 6" to 12" in longest dimension) but I was very happy to see that at least LiveAquaria didn't send a bunch of scrap.
  
• The total box (including all the packaging) was 45 pounds, so there's a little fudge factor on the pricing.  The actual rock weight (saturated) was only 39 pounds so the actual cost per pound (including shipping) was $3.73 versus the advertised $3.39.  The online sales are really by the box and the weight they show on their website is what a box "normally" holds.  If you buy locally, the rock will be directly weighed and you will be able to pick specific pieces.  For your top layer of "show" pieces picking may be worth the extra cost.  For the majority of your rock the possible weight difference is probably much less than the price differential.
  
• The rock looks about the same as what I've seen in the local shops--but looks don't tell you much about how "live" the rock will turn out to be...only time will tell
• I had to do a fair amount of surface scraping/brushing/cleaning myself even though this particular rock was advertised as partially cured.  (Lesson:  count on whatever rock you buy online to require full curing)
• 45 pounds (or a few less...) makes a very small pile of rock...(pic)
• the cost of shipping live rock or sand is the same for a large batch or a small one...there's no real disadvantage in making several separate orders.  Being able to see the first 45 pounds increased my confidence about ordering more rock this way.
• Some of the online dealers ship airport to airport (which means you have to drive out there to pick it up); the rest generally ship two day air freight and some offer overnight delivery for an extra charge.  I went with the standard two day.
• Even though the box was well insulated, I'm not sure that having it spend an entire night and day in freezing weather (December in Colorado) was wise.  I think I'll opt for overnight delivery next time I order in winter.
  

All in all, I think the online ordering was a reasonable choice in order to save at least 30% of the cost.  I plan to order more in a week or so.  I will probably, though, pay the local premium pricing for some of the final pieces.  Once the tank is established and the rock is filtering, I'd like a few decorative pieces that are well encrusted with living caulerpa algae, small sponges, tube worms, etc.

Some second thoughts about these two tanks--not about doing them (though the mounting credit card charges have kept me awake at night!) but about what to stock them with.  I am still a bit concerned about the amount of daily care needed by a reef tank, the more reading I do, the more convinced I am that it would be the way to go.  My current leaning is to move slowly and carefully with the 140 gal toward a reef featuring corals and other invertebrates and only a few compatible fishes.  The large Hawaiians (eels, angels, triggers) that I originally envisioned would consume such inverts overnight.  I think I'll take the 37 gal (originally destined for a quarantine tank) and make it home for one or two of these carnivores.  Of course, I still need the isolation tank, so I think I'll resurrect one more of the old 29 gal tanks for this purpose.  Of course, that will involve another purchase of even more hardware...  (Lesson:  this hobby is a slippery slope and you're running around in banana peel shoes, blindfolded with an overflowing tub of oil...)

If I do decide to go reef, I'll regret having spent the extra money for the 140 rather than the 120 gal tank from Oceanic.  The extra 4" of depth will make it even harder to get enough lights to penetrate to the bottom.  (Of course the extra weight and cost are also secondary factors.)

Ever since I started the basement finishing project 6 years ago, I had very loose plans for the utility room that houses the water heater and furnace.  The home computer network is hubbed in one corner and another 8' wall was reserved for an aquarium work area.  Today I started cleaning out the boxes that have been stored along that wall ever since the wall was built.  Now I have an almost empty area to begin assembling cabinets, counter top and sink to give me a dedicated work space without fear of household chemicals and soaps contaminating my fish gear.  I will be adding a reverse osmosis water filter as well to provide purified water for the saltwater and freshwater planted tanks.  Here's the very bare starting point (pic).

Good news!  The Oceanic special order arrived today.  I drove out to Sherman Tank to pick up the 140 and 37 plus the large sump, stands and canopy.  The only bad news is that the stand for the 37 didn't get shipped for some reason.  They've reordered it, but it won't arrive until sometime in early to mid January.  Ouch!  On the other hand, my Suburban wasn't big enough to carry everything in one trip anyway...

In the past two weeks, while waiting for the tanks and stands to arrive, I planned out all of the additional hardware and accessories that I needed to set up the two tanks.  (Lesson:  it is a long list!)  I took my time and compared prices from both local fish stores (LFSs) and internet/mail-order shops.  I included tax and shipping into all of my calculations.  I went a little nuts obsessing over this, but it's okay since I had nearly three weeks to kill while waiting for the tanks.

I ended up buying hardware/accessories from four online dealers, two LFSs and the local hardware store.  I'll probably go over the list in more detail as I set things up, but these extras cost more than the initial order of the tanks, oak stands and canopy.  Yikes!  (Lesson:  even with careful shopping, the initial cost of the tank/stand/canopy will be less than half the total cost.)  Based on this I would strongly recommend buying the best tank and stand available.  Saving $100 to get a cheaper brand (or even the E series from Oceanic) is a small drop in a very large bucket.  The extra reassurance of the thicker glass, better warranty, etc. makes the best quality a good investment.

In my shopping for equipment I followed a very similar thought pattern.  I tried, wherever possible, to buy the best quality within the hobbyist range.  I believe that spending 20% or 30% more initially will be better than replacing mediocre equipment later.  The only difficulty I had was in trying to make judgments about equipment that I'd never before used.  As a prime example, I found three protein skimmers that were all about the same price and seemed to be similar in capacity, etc. (Berlin turbo, Turboflotor 1000, Nautilus TE)  All of the web research I did failed to turn up any real comparisons.  Lots of sites mentioned one of them in a positive light, but nobody seems to have published a head-to-head comparison.  So, I had to roll the dice and choose one.  I had a similar blind choice for the skimmer for the 37.  Selecting the large external pumps for returning water from the sump to the main tank was another area without much information to go on.  Heaters, lights, powerheads, etc. were a bit easier. 

The online retailers generally offer several alternatives but no useful guidance.  Some LFSs are knowledgeable and can be of great help, but they usually offer fewer choices and will talk only about them.  (Lesson: getting recommendations from one or more hardcore marine aquarists would have been welcome.  Although they might not agree, I would have welcomed the lessons from their experience.  When in doubt, use a lifeline to phone a friend!)

Well, more bad news today on the 37 gal tank.  In addition to not sending the stand, Oceanic packed the wrong top in with the tank.  It appears that the single top for the "37 special" is very close in size to the two tops shipped with their 75 gallon tank.  Guess which one I got.  It is about 3/16" too wide for the tank.  The box it came in has boxes for both of these tanks and the 75 gal is clearly checked, so whoever bundled them together at the factory screwed up <sigh> so I'll have to talk to the dealer after the holiday and see about getting that corrected along with the missing stand.

I've spent a lot of the past three weeks reading and re-reading on the saltwater/reef aquarium.  Some of the books I found most helpful are listed back on the main fish page.  I am getting more convinced that I want to use the 140 for a mini-reef and the 37 to house one or two "reef-wreckers".  I'm starting work on getting the 29 gal isolation tank out of mothballs and re-equipped.

The pictures of the tanks at this point aren't very exciting.  The 140 stand and canopy have been occupying the front hall (pic) of the house for 6 days now (my wife is thrilled!) waiting for the Christmas decorations to be taken down to make room.  The actual tank and sump are still locked in the back of the Suburban (pic) to avoid even more clutter in the house during the holidays.  The 37 sits without its stand and with the wrong size top...at least the CustomSeaLife moonlight/power compact fixture fits...(pic).  What a depressing state of affairs...all of this equipment and nothing ready to set up...

The rock has been curing for nearly two weeks.  I haven't been checking the water chemistry regularly (no rush since there's no place to move the rock anyway) but I checked it today and the ammonia level has fallen to zero.  Nitrites are still high, but this first batch of rock is getting close to being cured.  Hooray!  I'll probably order the next load for delivery next week.

Today yielded a new dreaded crisis...or what appears to be a giant pain in the online shopping cart...  I have always been apprehensive about using an online retailer (for any type of product) that I wasn't familiar with.  There have been too many anecdotal reports about websites that were more about harvesting credit card numbers or email addresses than in actually selling products.  My defense has generally been to observe a site online for a period of time before actually placing an order.  Does the site content (news items, special sales, etc.) actually get changed regularly?  Has the site been "open for business" for at least a few months?  I frequently place a phone call to ask a question about some item offered on the site to see if they actually seem knowledgeable about their offered products.

One of the sites that I've looked at for several months, www.ereeftank.com, appeared to be on the up-and-up.  They had the best price on some CO₂ equipment that I've been wanting for my freshwater plant tanks and also had good (though not absurdly low) prices on a couple of items that I needed for the new saltwater tanks.  Their website was updated with a "holiday 2003" promotion that cut the price of shipping an entire order down to under $3.  I even called with my "just one question before I place my order" ploy.  It seemed like a good time to try them out. 

So, on December 13^th I placed a moderate order ($350) for five items...one of which (protein skimmer) was on the critical path to setting up the 140 gal tank.  They sent an automated email confirming the receipt of the order.  On December 14^th my credit card was charged for the full amount.  On December 15^th I received another email confirming the successful processing of my order and promising another email as soon as shipping info was available.  That was the final word. 

After all of the orders placed with other online retailers around the same time arrived before Christmas I started to wonder a bit.  On Christmas Eve I tried to check on order status via their website, but the site was "temporarily closed".  No worry, I thought, getting a programmer to fix a problem on Christmas Eve or even Christmas day would be a lot to expect.  This evening I checked and the site is still down.  I sent an email and left a voice message.  If I don't have merchandise or some very good explanation by next Monday, I'm mailing the letter to the credit card company requesting reversal for the charge.

Perhaps they'll be back on Monday and all will be well.  Maybe they are just a small (but honest) operation.  We will see.  In the meantime, I've had absolutely great experience with two separate orders with MarineDepot.com.  If I do have to reorder the stuff that didn't get shipped by eReefTank, MarineDepot will get my business.

(Lesson:  you can't be too careful about knowing who you're dealing with.  When you find a good vendor (local fish store or online) stick with them and help make them successful.  Price is definitely not the main factor in choosing a partner!)