Live Rock

[unleashed]

Just though I would write something up on Live Rock as we have had a few 'newbies' show up lately.

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Live Rock is an essential part of all aspects of marine aquariums - Whether it is a reef set up, FO (Fish only) or FOWLR (Fish Only With Live Rock).

Generally, live rock is the base structure for reef and FOWLR aquariums, providing a food source and shelter for your organisms and to provide a porous environment for essential bacteria. In fish only aquariums, live rock is generally found in the sump.

Live rock can come from four sources:

Dead base rock - dead coral rock placed into an aquarium with added ammonia to build up the essential bacteria

Oceanic Rock - 'Live' rock taken straight from a reef environment. This will contain the greatest quantity of higher life forms and the essential bacteria

Aqua-culture - Dead base rock which has been added to an aquarium with Live rock. This rock will have different marine algaes and some life forms such as copepods, in addition to bacteria

Mari-culture - Dead base rock which has been placed in the ocean. This rock contains the essential bacteria, and has an abundance of higher life forms. In essence, similar to oceanic live rock.

All of these different sources of Live Rock have different environmental and economic implications, as well as a cost factor for the average hobbyists. I will not go into these implications simply due to the fact that I feel that it is not my place to encourage or discourage people from buying from certain sources.

When people talk about live rock, they generally talk about the calcium skeletons of thousands of generations of SPS and LPS corals, covered in an abundance of life from copepods and amphipods, to worms, corals and even the occasional fish or octopus.

However, it is imperative to understand that the term Live Rock does not refer to different algaes or critters, but simply to the essential bacterial life contained within. For example, dead base rock placed into an aquarium and left to cycle with added ammonia, will become 'Live' but will not have any higher life forms than bacteria or lower algaes such as diatoms, cyano or possibly hair algae. However, it is fundamentally 'live' rock.

Rock taken out of the ocean is 'live' in the sense that it contains the essential bacterial life, but also has the added benefit of higher life forms such a copepods, worms and snails etc and different algaes such as coralline.

What people need to understand, is the importance of live rock to marine aquariums. The various species of bacteria which shelters within the rock eliminates dangerous ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. The rock also provided shelter for detritivores so that they are not predated on by your fish. These detritivores consume fish waste and are very beneficial to your aquarium. In essence, your rock is the 'filter' of your aquarium. Any any money which your would spend on a canister filter, should instead be invested in live rock.

As you can see, I have only discussed the basic principles of live rock. However, one must do their own research into what would work best for their aquarium. What so-called 'newbies' must understand, is that live rock is the basis on which your aquarium survives. It is also the filter which means that there is no need for expensive filtration equipment - EXCEPT FOR PROTEIN SKIMMERS

[coachfraley]

Nice post unleashed! Another thing that complicates this issue is that LR vendors have not agreed on the nomenclature. So different vendors would probably call the same batch of rock by a different name.

Great Job on the post though!

[SW Addict]

Great post unleashed. Very helpful and informative for those endeavoring to begin a marine aquarium.

[oldhead]

Nice write up, should be very helpfut for the hobby newcomers. :c3:

[priebjm]

Not sure if this is the best place to post this question but since you mentioned live rock.........My 55g has been up and running for 8 months and seems stable for now. I have 3 fish - Maroon Clown, Green Chromis and Coral Beauty. I have never had any live rock but would like to add some if possible. What type and how much and how fast ?

[cocoa_pleco]

type is up to you, most common is fiji but theres plenty of others, Jakarta is well liked also
if its cured rock, you could add the full amount, which should be about 55lbs-150lbs all at once. if its uncured rock, you have to let it sit in a spare tank or buckets for a month

[coachfraley]

I would follow Cocoas advice, and keep it in a bucket with SW and a powerhead for at least 2 weeks. The only exception would be if you TOTALLY trusted your LFS, and they were able to give you a precise timetable for the amount of time the rock had been curing.

Also, (if possible) make sure and transport the rock in a bucket of SW to minimize exposure to air.

[priebjm]

I went to a local shop and spoke to a very helpful and knowledgeable guy about live rock. He suggested that I could add live rock to my tank with no concern for negative effects. His suggestion for my 55 gal. was 25 pounds which differs from what I had heard by about half. He also suggested removing my Penguin 330 hang on filter saying it probably does more harm than good in saltwater. He even stated that without live rock he would remove the hang on and just add more powerhead for water movement. Does this advice make sense to you ?

[SW Addict]

Half of his advice makes sense, the second half. First of all, if you add live rock to a tank that is already running, it needs to be fully cured when added and it should be kept submerged from the time of purchase to the time it is introduced to the tank to prevent die-off. The Die-off would produce ammonia in your tank and if you already have fish that would be a bad thing. The second problem I see is the recommended amount. 25 pounds isn't even half of what you should have. To recommend anything less than 1 pound per gallon is just plain bad advice. Your 55 should have at least 55 pounds and 75 would be more like it. The removal of the HOB filter is smart and the addition of powerheads is a good idea. The HOB is contributing to evaporation, and with the addition of live rock it would lead to a excessive of nitrates.

[priebjm]

Thanks so much. I've read numerous postings here from you and you are extremely helpful. At $8-10 per pound I would need to add rock slowly. I have 3 fish and the tank has been running for 8 months. I won't add anymore fish until I settle this filtration decision. Since it will take me awhile to add the required amount of rock, what do you think of his suggestion to still remove the filter and just have the powerheads ? I do have a protein skimmer also.

[SW Addict]

It all depends on how fast you add live rock and what those three fish are. Without knowing those 2 things it would be difficult to properly advise you.

[cocoa_pleco]

Tip for getting cheap cured live rock is post a local ad, lots of people tearing down large reefs will sell live rock for $2-$5/lb

[priebjm]

Thanks for the advice. The 3 fish are:
Maroon Clown
Coral Beauty
Green Chromis

Wouldn't the rock from craigslist or classifieds be a pretty high risk ?

It sounds like just the powerheads and skimmer would not be sufficient without the rock.

[jpesce]

I'm one of the newbies that you are referring to, and I appreciate all the good feedback i got to my post. I'm not trying to be a pest by any means, just trying to get some good information. It just seems like everyone I have spoken to has a different outlook on how i should setup my tank. I have Dead Base Rock, quite a bit of it. I got my setup from a friend of mine, he gave me pretty much what he said would be enough to start up an aquarium. I have a bunch of dead coral, how could i convert this into active live rock?

[deep_blu]

i'm no expert, but i add pieces of LR to my system with no problem. all i do before hand is rince it thoroughly with SW. i have 2 clowns, 4 chromis, 2 goby's, a bunch of hermits, a newly added blue star, a bubble anemone & some small frags of coral. also u can add your dead coral & in about 4-6 weeks it will be seeded & it will be 'Live' but as it was said before, it will not have some of the little "noonoos" as we call it that your 'ocean live rock' would have, but it's almost as good as.
i think the bottom line is there are so many different ways of doing things that you have to find the best way for you. just keep watching your levels and when u do add things - do it slowly!

[oldhead]

i think the bottom line is there are so many different ways of doing things that you have to find the best way for you. just keep watching your levels and when u do add things - do it slowly!


Very well put! I agree 100%

[deep_blu]

But on the topic of LR, does anyone have a good "recipe" for DIY LR? quite keen to try it!

[cocoa_pleco]

But on the topic of LR, does anyone have a good "recipe" for DIY LR? quite keen to try it!

the member jimpierce tried making his own

[tim k]

Very interesting article on live rock .

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Tim K

[Researcher]

An aspect of live rick which is often overlooking its that of internal bioeroders. Small to medium sized sesile or mobile organisms that actually feed of the live rock itself or the algae and bacteria contained within.

They do this primarily by either dissolving the CaCO3 or rasping its away forming very small CaCO3 chips, as small as 0.9 microns. It is surprising how much of this actually happens daily, even tho from the outside the rock doesnt look diminished at all, it simply becomes more porous.

Ongoing research shows that the action of these organisms can significantly raise alkalinity and calcium levels. The amount of this calcium released that is available to calcifying organisms is debatable since it is largely oxidized.A UV sterilizer can quickly fix this though.

This function of live rock acts as a brilliant buffer to changes in water parameters and other than phosphates released is non-threatening to your coral (although there are spp of sponges which do feed on live coral tissue, these are rare in an aquarium sense). So the internal bioeroders, being mainly sponges, bivalves and polychaete worms are great to have. BUT difficult to get, you need oceanic live rock that has been transported VERY carefully. Exposure to air, even for seconds leads to massive sponge die-off, which then rots and can quickly contaminate your tank with disastrous results! Live rock we collect (having permits of course) is transported back to the lab completely submerged in temp controlled and filtered water and then cycled for 60 days before being introduced into the tanks. It is wonderful to see the amount of life that comes with the rock, anemones, amphipods, feather stars, brittle stars (many many), fanworms, ext, ext.

If possible, get yourself some true live rock, it is worth the expense!