Please help! Made a stupid decision.

After researching for months and months, I woke up yesterday thinking it's about time to start the reef tank. Drove to the only decent LFS in my area (50 min. away) and bought ~19 lbs. of cured LR for about $185....yeah i'm a freaking idiot. Got way too impatient

I used to think that was the best LFS in the world but finally realized they are wayy overpriced on 99% of their livestock.
So here's the dilema:

The LR itself is pretty decent, but not anywhere near as nice as the pictures of LR from DrFostersmith. There is some coraline algae growth and a bunch of other goodies slowly emerging...but overall...it's definitely not worth the $$$ i paid.

The catch is that their policy is all returns are for store credit only.

Right now i'm debating on whether to return the LR on tuesday and spend the store credit on a pair of Ocellaris Clowns (which will be overpriced anyway), and a bunch of reef cleaners, etc. etc. and then order the nice LR from DrFosterSmith.

Or should I just suck it up, learn from this insanely stupid mistake and hold on to the LR and order my livestock from LiveAquaria or a similar website?

I would really appreciate some input or advice. (Besides "this is what you get for being impatient")

Thanks guys

btw...sorry for posting this in the ASAP..i know it's not as dire of a situation as other posts here. :-/

 

not sure what you mean not as nice as. the shape, size, structure color? would you get dollar for dollar credit? and thats expensive rock. i know here in the frozen north, get good fiji cured for 5.99 lb.

 

Well I'm sure we have all over paid for something in this hobby. Its not the end of the world. When you check out the price of about 20 lbs of liverock and then add in shipping, you did pay a bit much, but I wouldn't waste the gas and the afternoon to return it. Only to have store credit to spend on something that is also over priced. I'd keep the rock and not compound the loss anymore.

But that's just me, hope it helps.
Jake

Edit: The LFS here does ask for $10/lbs for his rock which is not the nicest rock.

 

At least this way, you got to see and pick out the pieces. I would just chalk it up to experience.

 

Sadly, I would take the hit on this one. It takes a lot of mistakes to get anywhere in this hobby.

 

I'm surprised at how quickly people reply on forums! I appreciate it a lot lol;D

The general consensus from this forum as well as a couple of others is to keep the rock and learn from it lol. Guess it's time to build some character!

Thanks to all who helped.

 

I would keep it and get the remainder from online such as bulkreefsupply.com or reefcleaners.com. Much cheaper and you get more for you money b/c it's base rock and not 'pre cured." I wouldn't waste your money on pre-cured live rock. Just get base rock, it's the same thing except it's dry.

 

Well think about it economically... Which way do u end up loosing less money?
Reefcleaners have good base rock

 

go to ReefCleaners.org | Clean Up Crews and Macro Algae - Home for great base rock at 2.60 a lbs. buy cleanup crew from t hem too. its real cheap and great customer service.

 

I would just keep the rock, learn from the experience, then buy the rest online. Reefcleaners has excellent dry rock, and marco rocks also has a good selection for good price. I would not take out what you have and then put in fish. The tank will not be cycled and you would end up losing money on dead fish. The stores around here charge $8-10 per pound too. Ridiculous.