Our live rock isn’t pulled from a shelf—it’s hand-harvested by divers and prepared fresh for your order. To protect the life on the rock, we ship it fully submerged in seawater, which takes extra time and care compared to typical “damp” shipping.

As a small family business, we’re balancing a high volume of orders with the hands-on work required to deliver healthy, thriving live rock. This process may take a little longer, but it ensures you receive the best quality possible for your aquarium.

We know waiting isn’t easy, and we feel the same way. Our goal is to reduce wait times to about one week, but that takes time, investment, and another set of hands on our team. In the meantime, please know we are already working around the clock to get orders out as quickly as possible—and we truly share in the frustration of long wait times.

Air cargo is a shipping method where your order is flown directly to the airport closest to you. Instead of coming through UPS or FedEx, your live rock is booked as freight on a passenger or cargo airline, then you pick it up at the airline’s cargo facility.

For larger orders, air cargo is the most effective option—it’s usually much cheaper per pound than UPS, much faster for long distances, and the safest way to move big, heavy boxes of live rock. Because the rock spends less time in transit, it arrives healthier and with minimal stress on the marine life.

How does air cargo pickup work?

1. Select a date on the calendar at checkout – When checking out, you’ll need to choose a shipping date from the calendar. The dates available match the next shipping days shown in the blue banner on our website. Because air cargo requires same-day pickup, please only select a date when you know you’ll be available to go to the airport.
   
2. Reply to the confirmation email – Once you place your order, we’ll send you a confirmation email the week before your shipment. You’ll need to reply to that email, so we know you’re ready to receive your rock. We will not ship your order until we receive confirmation.
   
3. We book your shipment – Once confirmed, we schedule it on the best available airline heading to your nearest major airport.
   
4. You receive the details – We’ll send you the flight number, airline, arrival time, cargo office address for pickup and a tracking link.
   
5. Pick up at the cargo office – When the flight lands, you go to the airline’s cargo facility (not the passenger terminal) with a photo ID. The staff will release the boxes to you.
   
6. Pay airline fees (if any) – Some airlines require payment upon arrival, meaning that you pay for the shipping then.
   
7. Bring your rock home – Load up your boxes and head straight to your tank.
   

Air cargo is simple, reliable, and ensures your live rock spends the least amount of time in transit. It’s the best option for large, heavy orders—so long as you’re ready to pick it up right away.

We ship all UPS orders Next Day Air to ensure your live rock arrives as quickly and safely as possible. Because of this, we schedule shipments to avoid weekends and holidays.

It’s important to remember that while UPS delivers straight to your door, this does not mean your order can sit outside. Live rock is a living product that must be unpacked right away.

When your order is on the way, please plan to be home and ready to receive it. Getting it straight into your tank will give you the healthiest, most vibrant live rock possible.

Tracking links are sent by email once your order ships.

Because this is a live product, we send several emails to confirm you’re ready to receive it and to coordinate shipping. With so many updates, the tracking email can sometimes get overlooked.

To find it, look for the email titled “Let’s get Rock’n your tank!” — that’s the one that contains your tracking information. If you don’t see it in your inbox, be sure to check your spam or promotions folder.

In some cases, UPS does not offer guaranteed Next Day Air service to certain areas—usually remote locations or regions with less UPS infrastructure. When this happens, UPS automatically adjusts the shipment to 2nd Day Air, as they cannot guarantee overnight delivery to your address.

Rest assured, your live rock is packaged to handle the transit time safely. As long as you get it into your tank right after delivery, the organisms on your rock will be just fine.

Unfortunately, UPS can be very rough on our shipments, and because we ship live product fully submerged in water, they sometimes struggle to guarantee safe handling. We’re actively working on a “bomb-proof” packaging solution to make sure this doesn’t keep happening.

Please know that we are just as disappointed as you are. UPS does not allow us to make claims for the value of live rock itself, since it is considered a living creature. At best, we can sometimes recover only the cost of the shipping label, though even that is rare. This means that whenever damage occurs, we take the loss ourselves. Even so, your satisfaction comes first, and we will either send you a replacement shipment right away or issue store credit if you prefer.

Our live rock grows completely underwater in the Gulf of America. When it’s harvested, it’s placed directly into barrels of seawater on the boat, then transferred into holding tanks at our warehouse—also full of water. From start to finish, the rock is kept in the environment it thrives in.

It’s self-evident that a rock covered in lifeforms that live underwater should remain underwater until it reaches your aquarium, where it will once again stay fully submerged. Shipping any other way would stress or kill the organisms that make true live rock so valuable.

This is why we take the extra time, cost, and care to ship all our rock fully submerged: so it arrives alive, healthy, and ready to bring your tank to life.

There are over 13 different species of Aiptasia anemones, from various locations with varying characteristics.

The TBS farm has 4 different anemones. Only one of them has been officially identified.

1. The Lightbulb Anemone, Bellactis Lux, comes from the aiptasia family. Its tentacles inflate similar to a bubble tip. LIGHTBULB ANEMONE
2. The Sponge anemone, unidentified, is very similar to Bellactis Lux. However, it's tentacles do not inflate, and it is always a dark brown. SPONGE ANEMONE
3. A rare black anemone, unidentified, and unlike all others. We do not harvest rock with these creatures, as it is not reef safe. PREDATORY ANENOME
4. Unseen during harvests and unseen in the TBS holding system. Occasionally, a customer will report seeing nocturnal small, clear anemones similar shape as an aiptasia. Reports claim they do not reproduce in vast numbers and seem to be reef safe.

Anemones of any kind are not common on TBS Live Rock or Sand.

Hand-harvested means exactly what it sounds like—our divers spend hours underwater carefully selecting each piece of rock. Not every rock is ready to be collected, so many are passed over until they’ve matured with the right growth and life. When a rock is ready, it’s placed into net bags and brought onboard the boat.

From the moment it leaves the water until it arrives at your door, every single rock is handled at least nine times and inspected three separate times to ensure quality and health. This hands-on process is what makes our live rock unique—it’s not machine processed or scooped up in bulk. Each piece is chosen, cared for, and packaged with intention so it arrives alive and thriving for your aquarium.

All of our live rock is hand-harvested by divers. The difference comes down to time. A diver can collect a pound of regular-size rock quickly—each piece is larger, so it doesn’t take long to gather enough weight. But when it comes to nano or rubble, it’s a whole different story.

Think of it like this: collecting a regular piece of live rock is like bending down to pick up a watermelon. It’s one motion, and you’ve got a lot of weight in your hands. Collecting nano or rubble is like bending down over and over to pick up 30 grapes just to equal that same weight. The end result is the same poundage, but it takes much more time and effort to gather the smaller pieces.

That extra time underwater is why nano and rubble rock cost more—it reflects the labor and care required to harvest them by hand, piece by piece.