September 29, 2003:
Back at it. I went to Columbia, SC for a weekend trip this past weekend, and due to multiple positive recommendations I chose to purchase my Live Rock from Palmetto Reefs in Columbia. I planned the trip to be able to pick up the rock before the 3 hour drive back home. I was happy to be able to meet Darren and his wife when I picked up the rock and was able to get a tour of their operation...very impressive. If anyone has a spouse that thinks they are a little crazy with the reef stuff definitely needs to go by Palmetto Reefs, you will be in the clear (heh). Darren has a 2000+ gallon setup for processing his live rock shipments, and has an incredible selection to chose from. Take a look at Palmetto Reef if you are in the market for Live Rock. I have nothing but good things to say about the service from them, excellent email communication, and very accomadating about allowing me to pick up the rock myself. I bought 150 pounds of live rock and 20 pounds of live sand (to seed the deep sand bed in the refugium) and lugged it home in two 40 gallon Rubbermaid totes. The rock was from several different batches, some being in Darren's system for about 2 weeks, and some in there for much longer, so I ended up with some "partially cured" and some "fully cured" rock. The pieces were incredible...tons of corraline and lots of life on the rocks...I even got a piece with a small coral head on it. Enough talking, lets see the pics right? First picture is right hand side of the tank.
The pictures don't do it justice, some of the individual rocks weighed 25 pounds, huge, impressive pieces. This is day #1 after the sand settled. Next is Next pic shows the remainder of the left side of the tank with some nice acropora rock...
Close up of the left side showing the huge acropora rock. Tons of crevices and caves for futur critters!
