Review on South Sea Base Rock Aquarium Substrate, 40-Pound, Carib Sea ACS00370 by Amy Peterson

DISCLAIMER: I purchased this item for $83.23 and NEVER received anything free (or off) in exchange for a review. There are so many bad reviews on Revain right now that I've started adding this disclaimer to my 4/5 star reviews to let people know I'm a regular paying consumer. Didn't you know that a week after I received my stone the price dropped to over $6, that's a whopping 15 cents a pound! But for that I gave the skirt 4 stars. I really like this breed and now that the price is lower it is on par with the most popular source (another online store used by many reefers) to buy the base breed. It is very porous, has large shapes (tubes, holes, bends) and sticks together well. The photo taken at the time of my purchase doesn't really do this stone justice. I would have given 4.5 stars if that was an option but basically I was missing about 2 pounds of stone. It might seem like a small thing, but 5 stars in my book means perfect, and it's not. You can see in one of my photos where I have listed the weight of the stones (in pounds). I also show in another picture how much was actually left in the box after large pieces (less than 1/2 lb) were removed; The inner box was undamaged (it was double) so nothing leaked. To my surprise, there was very little dust/dirt. I may have been lucky (delivery via UPS) but some of the other reviews sounded like there was too much waste. smaller than a football to the size of a baseball. The stone fits together really well (I already talked about it). I chipped off a few edges (very little) with a hammer to make them a little tighter. I've gone too far to hit a rock. I was trying to build a bridge and it collapsed on me. All of that dust you see in my dry stone painting is from me when I'm chopping rocks, it's not just falling from rocks. However, they are dusty and need to be washed well. I rinsed them with tap water and then dunked them in a bucket of RO/DI several times before placing them in the aquarium. I run a 29 gallon biocube and it was almost the perfect amount of rock. I had a pound or two in small pieces that I put in my swamp/refuge. I still have a good chunk (about 6 pounds). I could disassemble it and use it in a swamp, but it has some nice features and I might use it in the future (capsule/quarantine tank?). My aquarium cleared up fairly quickly. 4 to 5 hours, not days as others have stated; and this after adding over 30 pounds of live sand. My return pump does about 280 gph and I only used a filter sock and an 800 gph circulation pump at the time. So your mileage may vary. The edges can be sharp and scratch the glass/acrylic so I would suggest putting down an egg crate (diffusion blinds) or other material before setting the stone in place. I used an egg crate and it really helps hold the rocks in place. The last picture shows stones in a water tank and 2 live/hardened stones (sorry for the dirty glass). I hope this review helps someone.