Dear MoeDDS,
I have purchased 90 lbs from my LFS and 50 LBS from
Oceanpro Aquatics, Inc. . I was real disapointed with the rocks I received from oceanproaquatics. I especially asked for small pieces and no "bowling ball pieces" as I originally purchased 90 lbs from my LSF, and small pieces would of helped me a lot!!! When i received my rocks, I opened the box, and ended up with 4 bowling bowl size rocks, and 2-3 small pieces. I was pissed off!!! Plus the rocks did not even look that good. the one from my LFS looked way better, plus i got to "hand pick" the ones that i wanted at my lsf. Theones with nice shapes, holes and corraline.... Maybe I just went to a bad place... can not really tell about other online vendors.... As jelleyman said, he had a good experience with liveaquaria.com I originally wanted to purchase my rocks from there but they would not ship live rocks to canada.... So This is my experience on it... If you ask me, lets say you want to buy 100 lbs. I'd order 50 lbs from live aquaria and wait til you receive it. See the type of rocks you have and sizes... And buy the rest from your LFS to complete your aquascape the way you want....Or take the gamble like I did.... and I ended up beeing real disapointed... Especially that i asked for NO BOWLING BALLS size rocks, and that s all i got....
As for the curing process, I just cured 140 lbs of live rocks and it wasn t that bad.... Just make sure you have a good skimmer, and make sure you will clean the collection cup several times a day... Whatever will end up in your collection cup will definetely small like dead bodies!! So just make sure you clean it up and you should be fine....
And you said that you are starting a new tank??? Why clean it in a garbage can??? Why not just cure it in your tank if it is a new tank with no fish in it yet...?? I personally cured it in my tank with 2 skimmers, water heater, and 2 power heads, and everything went really well....
Anyhow, hope this helps!!! Good luck !!:mrgreen: