Live Rock

[dayzofspeed]

i have just spotted some live rock which appears to be an absolute bargain, but not knowing a lot about this stuff yet i wanted to ask for some advice. it appears at present to be in a fowlr set up, now i am planning a reef and my worry is that the rock appears to be very clean would this mean that it doesn't really hold much live other than bacteria as looking at the photos i can see no signs of anything at all, no growths at all and only the faintist hints of purple coraline, should i avoid this as i really wanted rock thats teeming with live, i have asked the seller if they know which type of live rock it is and does it have anything on it but they didnt get back to me yet.......... thanks in advance

 

[Chris_C]

Being fairly new to this myself the only thing i know is that you want pieces which are light (weight wise) this means they are more porous and better for filtering your tank. A big heavy piece of live rock isn't going to do very much. I have some huge pieces of rock but weigh very little.


As for critters they only way to know for sure is the ask the guy what he see's around his tank especially at night when most critters come out to feed.


Hope this helps i'm sure someone with alot more experience will be along to help soon

 

[jaylam]

coraline is a good sign and as Chris has said big light pieces will be better for filtration as they have more holes inside which make a better area for bacteria to multiple which in turn allows water to flow through the rock easier meaning better filtration.

 

[seffieuk]

Can you show us a photo? And where is it being advertised?

Seffie x

 

[dayzofspeed]

its on ebay i will add the link here..... http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380338320557&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT hopefully no one from here will outbid me if i decide to go for it lol

 

[sorgan]

mate i can happily say that looks like crap rock, i would avoid it. it has hardly any algae cover and is the wrong colour, doesnt look to be all that porous either. if it had been in one of my tanks then i could understand the colour but that tank has lights and it has only the tiniest bit of purple on it.
check AC and get some from a reefer breaking down, i think this stuff is low grade at best.

 

[dayzofspeed]

thats what i thought and was what prompted me to ask and my suspicions were confirmed when i got an answer to my email of its origin and they didnt know........... cheers

 

[sorgan]

now worries fella, would hate to see anyone stung with LR, have you checked the 'other forum's classified section?

 

[dayzofspeed]

i'm checking everywhere and everything i spot is tooooooooo far away, maybe i need to go on holiday to fiji. seriously tho i'm in no rush and if worst comes to worst i'll get it from my lfs a bit at a time

 

[ALW]

Just a quick note for you. You dont want rock that is fully covered in coraline algae. As it reduces the filtration capacity of your live rock. Yes it is nice to look at but rock covered in it dosent have much chance to filter tank water. For this reason we buy cuc (clean up crews) consisting of animals that eat all the different types of algae that grow in our tanks. Cuc normally consist of the following: Snails, Crabs, Starfish, Shrimps and Urchins. Hope this helps.

 

[Donya]

and is the wrong colour

Hey now! It's not fair to judge the filtering ability of a rock by it's color. The pic is too low-res for me to tell much about porosity, but it looks to be roughly the color of all the rock in my 20gal and other misc. small tanks and about half the rock in my 55gal, since encrusting algaes come in more colors than purple and other algaes can easily out-compete the purple stuff (I had and still have several very well-lit tanks without a single spec of purple as a result).

 

[sorgan]

but donya you and i can tell if live rock is good with a glance and a sniff, a newbie however cant. i would prefer to steer someone away from a potential dodgy deal on the grounds of no colour then have to try to help someone who has just filled therir tank with manky reef bones and is wondering why their Phosphates have rocketed

most of my rockwork lacks purple and i really wouldnt want someone new to the hobby to get hold of that stuff i can only imagine the stuff that would leach out of it.