I Bought 370 POUNDS of Hardscape from LOWE'S - WAS IT WORTH IT?

Is it really possible to get aquascaping supplies from Lowe's?!?
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alexwenchel
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Want to get this stone yourself? Here are the links! Sadly for me, they are not affiliate links, so if you want to support the channel the best way is by sharing this video or signing up for my patreon account.
Dragon Stone: www.lowes.com/pd/LIFEGARD-44-...
Seiryu Stone: www.lowes.com/pd/LIFEGARD-44-...
In this video I unbox a huge shipment of stone from Lowe's. These are hardscaping supplies sold in their garden section. This sale is a real game changer for the US aquascaping market!! Included in my order is dragon stone and seiryu stone, two of the most popular aquascaping rocks out there. I hope you find this video helpful!

[@lukewylde2691]

Oh what this hobby has done to me. I'm getting excited about a rock unboxing.

[@cyndicombs1419]

Same. This hobby has "rocked" my world (and my bank account) Sorry, I had to. I'll just quietly step out now... 😬

[@DP-ym8zf]

Stones! HELL YEAAAH!

[@ryderreptile]

Same

[@ballisticbadger9955]

@@cyndicombs1419 😐😐😐😐....

[@r_k_xp]

I’m not the only person 🥲

[@athatcher85]

and now they are completely sold out. have been since the first person posted a video about lowes having it. glad you got some

[@joshuastover1047]

Yep and a friend that works for Lowe’s says it’ll be some time before stocked and with a decent price increase

[@JfrogVlog]

Geez. Thanks for giving up my secret source for over a year.

[@feralon9570]

It's still sold out. I have heard that fish stores found out and are buying in bulk the moment it hits the website..

[@AquariumCoop]

The reason they are wrapped in plastic is that each rock has to have a label that says product on china on it. It's sold to retail fish stores, where they'll sell it by the pound. You could request that they have 50lb boxes that aren't sold by the pound, in which case only the box would have to have product of china on it. This makes the product into two skus and thus a much bigger burden on the company. It would be nice if at least a natural product didn't have to state product of china on it. Understandable for a product that has been manufactured. Where the stones are processed for cleaning. Seiryu stone sometimes acid washed if requested.

[@TankTested]

Thanks for the context Cory!!

[@maikelosorio4293]

Big fan of your chanel too

[@freshwatermechanic]

It also keeps from making a huge mess when they break. Or else he’d be crying all his rocks are broken little pieces.

[@Bendejo-lm8wo]

When Lowes gets it back in stock it will cost three times as much.

[@ryderreptile]

Yeah once they see it disappear in stalk again they will raise it

[@johnhancock2667]

It is literally twice as much now.

[@dingodyno9016]

@@johnhancock2667 FML so much for that good deal

[@chroniclesofvereor]

this channel is criminally underrated, especially because I, someone not intending to by stone in bulk ever, was very invested in them stone grains

[@keith161]

I started keeping aquariums since the mid-1980's. I've seen the aquarium industry over the years apply the "aquarium" label on many products sold in other markets as a reason for a niche market high price mark up. For example, Seachem sells an expensive Flourish Glue that is essentially plain Super Glue. Fluval sells a $9.00 (US) 3-in-1Waste Remover which is a glorified turkey baster. Truth be told, there's no such thing as "aquascaping stone". That's a marketing label. There are stones that are chemically and physically suitable for aquariums, and there are those which are not. You can creatively find lots of beautiful, chemically-inert stone very cheaply, as you found at Lowes. I live in the greater DC metro region, and I often source many of my materials from gardening and landscaping supply stores.

[@MsLenabean]

I live in the area too. What’s your favorite local fish store? I liked Congressional aquarium in MD

[@keith161]

@@MsLenabean, let me preface my statement with I recognize there's a large bias within the online aquarium community towards independent, local stores, and a lackluster dislike towards corporate pet stores. From my years of experience, I use different metrics for stores I patronize. I evaluate a store based on their management and staff. If there's good management and quality staff, it obviously shows. The livestock (fish and plants) will be healthy. The aquariums will be well-cared for. I will have a good consumer experience. The quality and experience of a store boils down to management and staff. You can have lousy management and poorly trained staff at local, independent stores and great, professionalism at corporate stores, and vice versa. I shop House of Tropicals for robust plants and unusual fish (which is more towards the Baltimore region). I shop Petco in California, MD (southern Maryland) which is a magnet store where the staff know me by name and have a strict cleaning regime of the tanks. Both of these stores are a bit of a drive for me, but those are two which demonstrate good management, in my opinion. Will there be hangups, mistakes, and problems? Sure. Other than livestock, I get many of my supplies from garden centers, hardware stores and outside in nature. Freshwater "aquascaping" is essentially underwater gardening with a bit of mechanical engineering. The biology and ecology of aquarium keeping doesn't care if something has an aquarium marketing label on it.

[@ebybeehoney]

I love the dog in the back! It's like my house. The dog, the cat, the aquariums, the plants. My minimalist sister-in-law once visited and told me "there is so much 'life'" in here". And she meant that literally. Funny that you can find anything online - there's going to be a run on Lowe's aquascaping material.

[@rdred8693]

Oh my goodness your SIL sounds like a pill

[@AccessibleCruises]

Mail carrier - "omg these boxes are heavy, what do have rocks in here?" Alex - with a huge smile "Yes, yes I do" 😜

[@TheVoyagers.]

What do have rocks in here? Is this correct?

[@speechrob4]

They are now double the price because of videos like this, good job!

[@zizouism]

They almost tripled the price now lol

[@letitgrow1846]

Yep. I saw the price in the video and got excited. I was going to order some tonight, but not at that price. It's triple what it was when this video came out. Not the KZbinrs fault, but it sucks.

[@MortonSeinfeld]

Yeah, but for 5 minutes people who were too dumb to realize you could buy landscaping rocks from a hardware store got a good deal. Thanks youtubers!

[@chaoticsofea999]

Theres always "ONE MORE" in this hobby....its a never ending phase and collecting rock and pieces of wood is my fav thing to do

[@natashaosborne2774]

I just got all 4 of my boxes today, only opened one so far. Ups said what’s in here rocks? YES!!!!! Helped the guy get them out lol

[@over9k_eber]

So your the one that bought all the dragon stone before I was able to order a box lol thanks for the info, definitely at least buying one order. And what's even better is the free shipping!! Lol can't wait to see what you do with all of it, thinking of going to check out some landscaping companies around here to see what they carry in bulk.

[@nickkinser39]

The subtitles when your dog is barking 🤣

[@thekingofdiy]

Sweet deal!!!

[@robertforrest7956]

Agreed There King... 😎

[@nc474]

Dad ?

[@graceshvodian2552]

I think Congressional Aquarium sells this exact stone, packaging and all. It's like $3.50/lb there so it looks like you've totally won the lottery here.

[@thefishylife6823]

It's where the stone should be priced to begin with, this just further exposes the greed and price manipulation amongst the aquascaping outlets and lfs it's like 100 percent mark-up in some cases and it exposes these people who have almost created rich man's game with respect to aquascaping and freshwater hardscape just like the saltwater hobby market did in mid 2000s!!!!!! It's sad but money talks and bullshit walks!!!!!

[@graceshvodian2552]

@@thefishylife6823 Possibly true. However, independently owned stores need to make money somehow. I personally don't have a problem paying a higher price to support the store because it's fantastic. Additionally, you can pick and chose what stones you want instead of getting a bunch of random stuff so that's nice.

[@supremeleaderarmy9164]

@@thefishylife6823 100 percent mark up is greed?????????

[@mamag8753]

Thanks for the information. I’m going to check out Lowe’s website!

[@seabuck59]

I just got a box of Dragon Stone from Amazon and I can now say that if you don’t wrap each stone in plastic they can break apart.

[@michaelmoreno7357]

They've added aquascaping pictures and increased prices, I jumped on the train too late 🤣🤣🤣

[@dingodyno9016]

Same here haha GG so much for that good deal XD

[@MridulSinghMusic]

Great deal! Tip: unwrap the stones in a tub of water, dust cloud averted! Thanks for sharing!

[@EbolaxMonkey]

Thank you. I was really worried that I wasn't going to be able to "aquascape" my 20 gallon with 40 gallons of rocks. That being said, I won't buy them because they aren't selling retail stone as bulk. You ROCK.

[@herodblasphemy2023]

Dam you killed the secret. I found and bought a couple weeks ago.

[@klcpca]

What a great find.... the "fish" stores in my area carry very little to no hardscape materials... now to find a good source for some wood pieces..... Beautiful furbaby!!! Don't worry about the pup.... anyone with a dog totally understands!!! LOL

[@russelllewis5935]

I believe the wrapping each rock is a government regulation requiring each piece to be individually wrapped when importing the rocks

[@wingknutt1130]

They're packaged for individual sale. The only reason what you got is "bulk", is because each of those boxes is most likely the minimum size for an order. They don't have to make up, and weigh, each individual stone, to make a "44lb" box just to send out. They grab any unopened box, and ship it. As for the "manufacturer" wrapping each individual stone, that all comes down to money. Is it more economical to have one line to wrap each individual stone and put them in boxes, which is most likely what the majority of their customers want, or have two separate lines, increasing costs and maintenance, just to have a "bulk" line as well. Since the name of the manufacturer you said was something "aquatics", I'm pretty sure they're not focusing on the decorative garden stone market, they're focused on the aquarium hobby, where you're not likely to want an unpicked bunch of rocks. You're going to want to go to your local pet store, and pick out the specific rocks you want instead of buying in bulk and hope you get 2-3 rocks you might like. Don't blame the manufacturer, blame Lowe's for selling something as bulk, that's meant for individual sale.

[@BentleyPascoe]

There was also Pagoda stone if you got in early enough - which I did, I picked up about 350lbs worth of it. I agree on the waste, but that's commonly how it comes when shipping in from China.

[@bluedoggraphics1743]

Since this video was posted, the price for the brown stone has gone from $43.33 to $139.33. The grey stone has gone from $54.28 to $139.34.

[@finnwiggles28]

LOL! Love the dog 'subtitles'!! :)

[@Chris-zg5hw]

You can get Lifegard Dragon stone in "25G kits" on amazon now, others too! Also wrapped the same. Lowe's prices have doubled also, since I bought a box of seiryu, months ago.

[@marypaigeflynn4512]

I'm going to change that old saying into "Smarter than a box of rocks"🤣I would love to get in on this deal, but I'm in the middle of planning a move and only have a few aquariums at the time!! What an awesome deal though!! I first heard of this suggestion from somebody in the comments and then a video on Prime Time Aquatics. I knew of another friend here in the community who got some "brown stones" recently, I wasn't sure where they actually came from until the other day😁😉👍 Words that should never be in a aquascapers vocabulary 🤣🤣 "I have too much dragonstone" 🤣🤣 The Seiryu stone would have been my choice. I actually bought one of those small packs of it at The Big Box Pet store for like $38 last year🤪 Maybe some folks that have extra, will be able to pass on some of the savings to others or help others get into the hobby!! I definitely never want to hurt the LFS's. Unfortunately I do not have any near me that sells hardscape😭 I am looking forward to seeing some great aquascapes in the future from you and a lot of people using these rocks to inspire and teach people like me!! The plastic wrap is the biggest issue🤯 I understand it was used to keep Stones intact for shipping. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and showing us the stones!! The good and the bad 😁 Thanks for helping out Maybe❤️ I hope you're having a wonderful day Alex!!🤗🌿🐟🌿💚

[@Shadow_Arbor]

I wish I had a Lowes in my country. So jealous!

[@Elemental_Shift]

Holy crap, it's already all sold out online!

[@aquahobby1982]

You hit the jackpot....... i didnt even complete your video and started to check Canadaian Lows for dragon stone..... too bad they dont have any in Canada :( :(

[@erikm8372]

Home big box stores are also good sources for stuff like shale, flat rocks (often kept outside in garden section), and as someone else said, lava rock. A one pound mini bag of lava rock at the LFS for $8-10, versus a larger, pillow-sized bag at Home Depot for $3-5. Also anyone looking for pea gravel, river rocks, smooth stones, etc. I would have to say the big box stores are ideal. You get a bag that is big enough for up to a 60-90 gal tank, depending how you use it..,play sand, river sand, I’ve seen black sand at Lowe’s, different finer gravels and other fine substrates are also better priced at big box stores.

[@emmanuelgutierrez8616]

I had also bought 4 10 lbs bags red Lava rock for like $4.50 a bag. Lol aqaurium stores normally sell for $2 a lb,$20-35 a bag. Ofcourse I'm not getting any big pieces, but it also makes it easier to piece together a custom formation. I got it from Walmart

[@Joalse]

Aquascapers: look it’s DrAGoN sToNe! Lowe’s: This old thing?

[@Good13man]

This is an old video, but it seems obvious why they wrapped the stone in plastic. Dragon stone makes a mess. The box I received was not wrapped and leaked stone dust everywhere.

[@Fatjohny100]

I work at a lowes in Mn. We don't stock it here. If I wanted to order it the cost $135-$150 for 44 lbs. ..3-4 bucks a lb. Which is still good if you have a large or multiple aquariums. I just noticed this while looking for something a customer wanted. At most fish shops around here charge 5 to 6 a lb.

[@robertforrest7956]

This will be fun. ... 😊 Interesting what comes packed in all that. 🤔 I'm LMFAO 🤣. SURPRISE🥳 LORDY Alex, the look on your face says it all. 😏 Good tips though. Love the dog too... 😹 My cat turns and looked at TV. 😆 Some of those bigger rocks are handy with reptiles and such. You never know though. 👍👍👍

[@dirtyoldfarmhand3]

Thank you.

[@DolbecAqua]

Man I wish we had deals like that here. Especially for seiryu stone

[@cyuca4348]

Originating from Japan, Seiryu Stones are now ILLEGAL to export from Japan. Most of the Seiryu Stones being sold outside of Japan are typically RYOUH Stone and are just commonly misidentified. Houston, TX : LFS - Seiryu is $4.00 per lb, Petco has it now for $28 for 15lb ($1.87/lb).

[@chrismsimracing]

I wish they would not come in a wasteful cardboard box-they should make the store walk each unwrapped piece from the quarry to my house

[@breakingwind_sailing]

44lbs. cost $104. in Cali. at LOWES. About half price of pet supply stores. I'm perfectly fine taking a drive into the desert to find beautiful types of stones. FREE.

[@Jeffdoeswhat]

Wish the stone would come back in Stock at Lowes. Been waiting for awhile and haven’t seen it lately.

[@pluralsingularity8556]

Agreed. All of that plastic would kill me. Luckily, there seems to be some promising tech/processing being pioneered in the UK and backed by Sir David Attenborough that will recycle all types of plastics. Would be nice to NOT need it, but I am glad to hear there is at least some kind of solution in the works.

[@steven123cactie]

Having worked for both Lowes and Home Depot I can tell you that’s nothing compared to the amount of plastic they throw away. It’s very sad

[@idkman7483]

Can you do a top 10 or atleast 5 aqua soil and their pros and cons much appreciated :)

[@colinmartinez4977]

Price on these is way up! Going for $135 now

[@kerrypitt9789]

First and foremost, please let your dog participate a little. Barking shouldn't bother us as long as it's not because your house is burning down! My dog Jazz is a very practical dog, he gets bored easily but he will come and sit beside me and watch the aquariums just because I do. Dogs are awesome. I collect most of my rock scape, from a rock pile that is leftover from a reclaimed gravel pit. There are some very nice pieces there that I can just load into my grandkids wagon and haul them two kilometers back to the car. That being said I will be checking out Lowe's here in Canada, as well as Home Depot, for larger scaping rocks. I mean if I can save some time and money and buy good stones for less, I may look at it. This was a good video, I love this kind of show, discussing alternative sources, well done!

[@C_on_my_C]

The plastic definitely sucks, but they do that to keep the dust down. Especially since dragon stone generally comes with a bunch of dried clay still on it.

[@JustDave76]

Guess they caught on. Lowes now wants $139 for a 44lb box 😮

[@NateK-MN]

The monopoly on rock prices from the aquarium industry is insane, this will be a good thing. Seriously you pay x3-x4 more for the same rock at an LFS just because Lowe's might not carry it. For example, I tried to find large pieces of lava rock for a carnivorous bog garden. Nowhere near me carried any, except my lfs. So instead of paying $3-4 for an entire bag of lava rock (10lbs?), I paid $15 for one, large, unsmashed rock.

[@SparklingLemon430]

This would cost $1000 in Australia 🥺

[@Evil_Genius_888]

I can no longer find stones from Lifeguard in stock at Lowes online.

[@marcelric]

For the rocks I or you wouldn't buy, I would break them down and use them to superglue Epiphytes plants on them.

[@nickjp4152]

I’m trying to get my hands on some dragon stone

[@mvhpets]

i would love to see a montage of you blinking for 8 hours on your second channel😅

[@sobiaq]

Can you make a video showing how you clean the dragon stone. It took me days to clean my small bag of dragon rocks and I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to dig out all the visible clay or not. Ended up breaking my biggest piece.

[@TankTested]

Great suggestion!

[@mitchboynunn]

Love how if you check the price now its 100 dollars for 44 pounds

[@cichlidkeep4]

It's 139 dollars for 22 pounds now at Lowe's

[@jenniferbunker2757]

Sorry if you said it and i missed it. How much did you get and how much did it cost ?

[@SoFishtry]

If the batches were slightly smaller this would be incredible. Don't think I have the size or number of tanks to buy a whole batch.

[@-longboardswordstyle701]

Welp looks like im picking up that supplementary job at lowes to see if i can get a further discount lol

[@ryderreptile]

Me going to the Lowe’s website: Lowe’s: *out of stalk*

[@dingodyno9016]

Annnnnnnnnnnnd Lowes is sold out of Dragon stone and its $54.34 now, rofl always finding out about these videos/deals at the last minute.

[@nc474]

5:55 got a little dust on your face from the rocks lol

[@Covid--be6pi]

Hi I am Very New to this Aquarium Hobby So I really Need Your Help So I Got a 6 Gallon Tank Recently and a Good Internal Filter and the Temperatures are also All right as I Live in India my Water Temperature is around 26-28Celcius. And I Wanna Buy A Beautiful Looking And Hardy Fish. So can you suggest me some please Many Suggested Me Bettas But still I am not sure If I should get bettas or anything else. Which Fish do you Suggest Me? And Thx a Lot😃 For Making this Video it helped me a Lottttt

[@herodblasphemy2023]

Ok it’s been a week since you destroyed my source before I bought enough. Now it’s time for you to show off your aquascapping skills. Make it worth it!

[@ThePriceIsRising]

$139.00 now for 44lbs. I may try a landscaping yard for rock.

[@TheZombieRebel]

I tried to buy these a few weeks ago and they’ve been sold out.😕

[@MakoTaco]

Whoever delivered to your house will forever avoid you now

[@markthomas3730]

did i miss the part where you told us the total amount you paid for all the rock ?

[@Aquascape_Dreaming]

Audio is not so great with this video. A bit tinny and distorted. Not your typical high standard, Alex. Some good information about the rocks, although I don't really agree with you about the rocks that you considered to be unusable. I would totally use those rocks as a background wall. I guess I just see potential where others possibly don't. It was great that you didn't decide to cut and reshoot the video when your dog decided to pay a visit, and instead just rolled with it 😂

[@lesleyannehall8040]

See you next year....after you’ve cleaned that lot😂

[@thefishylife6823]

Bad news for our local aquascaping store.....no it just further exposes the ridiculous mark-up prices that we see all over the hobby and greed and ludicrously priced markups like 100 percent and so on the standard of 50 percent mark-up days are long gone!!!! I hope home Depot continues to sell this stone and I think it's awesome to show everyone this great deal because it's almost highway robbery when regular hard working people can't even afford to get into this hobby it's unfortunate and I always wanted to create a outlet of massive supply of driftwood and hardscape plants too so our hobby can grow and not turn into this rich man's game like the saltwater hobby has and with popularity of aquascaping around the globe it's like they are trying to turn it into rich man's game too!!!! Sry for rant ....lol Im very passionate

[@annalee7403]

Preach.

[@davcar872]

Wow. Sorry, you feel that way, but we live in a capitalist nation where goods are sold at a profit and priced according to the market, supply and demand. Your local fish stores don't have the buying power of the big box chain stores so some products will be more expensive. 50% mark-up days? Do you really believe the products you buy are only marked up at 50 and 100%? Try several times that. You'd be surprised between the wholesale and retail markets. The markups may seem ludicrous and greedy to you, but it isn't all profit. The cost of doing business ( legal, shipping, taxes, administrative, labor, rent, insurance, real estate, marketing, utilities, etc.) can be expensive by some and can quickly eat away at the profit margin. PETsMART is now selling CaribSea Exotica Dragon Stone @ $50.99 per 25 lb box. Beautiful Ohko stone by CaribSea. Best price now that Lowes is all sold out.

[@johnhancock2667]

These now cost about twice as much.

[@joshisms2pesosonaquascapin164]

My wife asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I told her that I wanted aquarium rocks. She gave me a dirty look and said, "No. I'll just go outside and pick one out for you for free. A rock is not worth $50."

[@zachofalltrades6116]

so how much did this cost you?

[@ricodegallo3060]

👍

[@cyndicombs1419]

There's no such thing as TOO MUCH DRAGON STONE. Lol 🤣 Now you have an excellent excuse to set up more tanks. 😉 Multi tank syndrome...nah 😁 Thanks for the awesome video! I L💙VE your channel! 🌱🐟🌱🐟🌱🐟🌱🐟🌱 Edit: 12:05 OMG 🤣 your dog was literally trying to tell you that you lost your mind with all those rocks! "You wanna head off now?" Dog: "Um... Noooo, we need to talk dad" I'm dying here! 🤣 And I have a dog that looks just like yours except for a white stripe down his face and snout. 😍🐕

[@dustinshoemake2545]

What part of the country do you live in? I cant pick it up within 500 miles of me, and they don't deliver.

[@josephposada1830]

Great! Now the price will go up 50%

[@ezaquatics8399]

No such thing as too much also lows isn’t in Ireland 🇮🇪 so if you have too much you can happily send on some🤣🤣

[@andaleebhassan5766]

Damn

[@TableTopBiker]

And you bought it all. Good job. Lmao

[@redwingblackbird8306]

who says the flat side of a rock is no good, what if I'm trying to encourage Bolivian Rams to lay down some eggs. To each their own though.

[@marccfox]

Petsmart had 25 pound boxes for 50 bucks so they got Lowe’s beat

[@plants5743]

It’s double price now

[@josecerda4605]

That’s why it’s all sold out and double the price now. Thanks

[@TankTested]

Are you implying I bought out the US supply of hardscape? 😝

[@jmaquascaping]

Get to scaping people!

[@istephen8147]

Is it just me or did they double the price :(

[@dingodyno9016]

Yup its 54 something now and its sold out, GG so much for that good deal

[@unusualaquariumecosystems5805]

That's a lot of hard scape.

[@emmanuelgutierrez8616]

What was the price?

[@TankTested]

All in, about $380.00

[@emmanuelgutierrez8616]

@@TankTested per pound? So we can compare aquarium store prices

[@TankTested]

The dragon stone end up being less than $1 a pound. The seiryu came out to just over $1 a pound.

[@firefighter9901]

3 years later there 150 a box, not really worth it now

[@DRaquascapes]

Aaaand they're out of stock ..you bought it all .. thanks -_- Lol

[@MrFuckingRandom]

Well now you told everybody and they will never be in stock again... :(

[@newpain01]

"The prices for these rocks are pretty low" - Well, not anymore. Maybe they saw your video and almost tripled the prices.

[@dingodyno9016]

Yup, GG so much for that good deal now FML to those finding out late about this

[@Silvertarian]

Too late, prices are like 3.5x higher now.

[@greenthumbaquariums1185]

Nothing to do with the stones... As a professional videographer, can you explain why KZbinrs set up a secondary camera off to the side? That is, what is the expected impact on a viewer of having the video switch to a side view of you talking rather than sticking with the straight-on view? Just curious :-)

[@TankTested]

The second angle allows me to cut out uninteresting or confusing bits without introducing jump cuts to the video. The original recording of this was about 40 minutes, but I cut out a lot of overly details or repetitive content. I don’t think the second angle worked perfectly in this video, but since I shoot these videos alone I don’t really know how I’ll come across on camera until I’m editing (case in point: if I could see myself I would have fixed my hair rather than having the mess you see in this video.)

[@mrchumly720]

Up to $140 for 44 lbs