What is Live Rock, Anyway?

[leebca]

Basically, the fresh part is accurate. Picking rock of course must be in accordance with any national or local laws that may apply, so be careful about what is or isn't allowed.

The rock you speak of I assume would be offshore to Mexico. Those waters are not at the temperatures we usually run a tropical aquarium. Thus I would expect die-off from those lifeforms that can't handle the increase in temperature. Next would be the die-off of lifeforms that can't handle captivity for one or more reasons (e.g., the lighting is not to their liking). Then next may be lifeforms that can't be exposed to air (like some sponges) that will die off when you take the rock out of water. Lastly, you are correct, there may be inhabitants you just don't want in your aquarium.

I think a quarantine of the rock in bucket(s), doing daily water changes, with an air stone for circulation would be advisable to deal with all the above issues. You'll be doing a kind of rock curing to allow things to die off. If the bucket becomes polluted (smelling, foamy, etc.) transfer to clean salt water. Continue this until the water it's in remains 'sweet.' Provide similar lighting as you would as if the rock was in your display tank.

Just take time! and be patient!

[agroservicios]

Hi Lee,
Thank you very much for this answer. Clears up a lot. I will start doing some trials with this to see if I can get my denitrifaction process boosted in my tank so I can stop using vodka to help get my readings on 0.

What do you think of adding some real live sand to get some copepod and other lifeforms in there, should I also let this in a bucket for some time?
Hugo

[leebca]

They (pods, etc.) will naturally come along with the rock and if suitable for captive marine life, will survive along with other inhabitants of the rock. Really nothing special to do in the way of sand. I would buy new substrate and wash it well, rather than risk any unwanted lifeforms finding their way in.

[agroservicios]

Hi,
I was rethinking the whole live rock issue, and whether or not I have enough of it. The biggest part of my rocks I harvested here at the coast. It is very porous, seemingly all tubes made by animals over time. When I got it home, according to the LFS, I had to do the following, and I did.

Take the rocks and clean them as much as possible and put them in fresh water for a few days, change the water after a few days, change the water after a few days, etc. Between these changes, once in a while I would leave the rock to dry in the sun for a week and the ants would help to eat "stuff" from the inside, and back into the water, until the water does not smell foul anymore. I think the whole process took 6 to 8 weeks. What was left was dry rock. This I could shape as I wanted, I even have a piece around my wateroutlet, so you do not see the plumbing.

When I started to cycle the tankI put in a few live ?? rocks (all they had) and one month later I added the homemade dry rock. (Would this be base rock, cured rock, or......) My reason I am thinking that it is not enough LIVE rock, is the fact, that it is very hard to get my nitrates to 0. It has mainly been between 12.5 till 25 mg/l. Remember that my tank is has only been running for 10 months. With Vodka I could get Nitrates to 0, but after reading more on the subject, I stopped this practice again. (I used to feed very sparingly, but have been feeding more lately to get my Foxface Rabbitfish stopping to nibble and eat my Sacrophyton.)

As I said before, what I could do, is cure some new rock from the ocean here the way described earlier in this thread and change this with the former dry rock (which is starting to get some nice colors around), but only if necessary.

Any thoughts on this?
HUGO

[leebca]

Use of fresh water was a major 'error.' That killed all the salt water life which is what makes live rock, live.

You may want to get proper information into the curing of live rock. The Internet has many sites with the procedure.

If you treat the rock such that everything has been killed off, it becomes decoration rock or base rock as noted above.

[petspibe]

uhm,Thanks so much 4 sharing with us,bros :-)

[agroservicios]

Yeah, this is what I thought. Will have to put more live rock in there and take some base out of there. Will do trials shortly and will keep you informed.
Thanks for all the help,
HUGO

[berkdog]

Thank you Leebca! Re-reading this now makes a lot more sense (than when I started a few months ago)! I wish there was a trusted place to purchase live rock from. Do you have any suggestions or favorite places? Anyway, thank you!

[leebca]

I can provide no recommendations. Just buyer beware.