Minimum to keep live rock alive.

[DaveS]

I've been told that LR for the most part sustains itself. I want to know if I can just put it in some appropriate water and it can just sit there till I decide to put in some fish/inverts.

Of course the water will have salt in it, will have movement and there'll be modest lighting.

I've been told that I should also ensure calcium/magnesium is present (is this what they call buffer? Can I make it myself?). I've also been shown "purple up" which is a corraline algae food, I think. Then there's clean up shrimp/worms that are supposed to be OK and will live with no extra feeding?

[Fishguy2727]

Purple Up is mainly a calcium supplement. Depending on your source water and the salt you use this may not be necessary at all.

Most of the worms on live rock are scavengers and their population will go down, but as long as it is not just live rock in the tank for a very long time they should not disappear. It would not hurt to put a little bit of something in every once in a while. The best way to do a tank is to get the live rock in and cycled and let it sit for about a month or more, so you can see how long these things usually last without any special care at all. It also depends on the quality of the rock and what all is on it. Each of the MANY possible live rock inhabitants has its own needs.

[cocoa_pleco]

i use purple up, awesome product. its a coraline fertilizer. youre supposed to test your calcium a hour after dosing to make sure it doesnt get too high.

[DaveS]

If I was going to put in more base rock than live rock, then something would have to give by the time the base rock grew corraline, would'nt it? So I could provide calcium as required.

Is it true that base/dead rock will still grow beneficial bacteria for the purpose of suporting a fish load? If so, I could cycle it and do FOWLR until the corraline comes up.

[Fishguy2727]

Yes, base live rock will grow the beneficial bacteria as well as many other non-photosynthetic organisms. That is the biggest downside of base rock, it is on the bottom of the piles in the wild and lacks the photosynthetic organisms.

[DaveS]

OK. So, what if I were to put sterile rock on the top of the pile beside live rock, will it grow corraline algae over time without any additives or live helpers?

[kaybee]

Yes.

But whether it will grow without any 'additives' depends on water parameters (if water parameters and lighting permit the growth of coralline algae it will spread). Coralline algae will also grow on things other than live rock as well (glass, powerheads, even snail shells and such).

[Fishguy2727]

Any dead rock should go on the bottom and your best live rock should be on top.