Rock

[blabadie]

I recently was at the LFS and I bought some Lace Rock for 2.29/lb. I thought, heck I'll just throw it in my tank and let it "grow." Good thing is, I haven't done that yet, because I wanted to make sure that it would be alright. My thinking is that, yes, it will be (after I rinse it off and let it sit in water for a couple of hours to get all of the junk out of it). Agree? or other opinions.

Brandon

 

[hixy]

I recently was at the LFS and I bought some Lace Rock for 2.29/lb. I thought, heck I'll just throw it in my tank and let it "grow." Good thing is, I haven't done that yet, because I wanted to make sure that it would be alright. My thinking is that, yes, it will be (after I rinse it off and let it sit in water for a couple of hours to get all of the junk out of it). Agree? or other opinions.

Brandon

hello brandon you dont mean live rock do you

 

[blabadie]

No, it's just rock rock. Very porous, volcanic rock... like from the ocean...

Brandon

 

[rhysiboy]

the trubble with volcanic rock is it can have hamrful gasses trapped inside. Best to go with live rock, ocean rock or base rock.

 

[blabadie]

I was under the impression that live rock is volcanic rock? Isn't the rock in the ocean formed from small, under-water volcanic eruptions? The lava then cools forming rock. Hey I could be totally wrong, but that's what I thought

 

[rhysiboy]

live rock is formed from coral exoskelotens being crushed and compacted, creating a type of sedimentary rock. Then more corals grow on top and ten they die and their skeletons become part of the rock and it all builds up. The rock becomes inahbited with microscopic life and algae, which attracts crustaceans, which attracts fish and lo and behold you have yourself a coral reef. Shame it takes like 10 million yeaars to hapen naturally though. please correct me whenre nesecisary coz i dont think im 100% on the mark

 

[TammyLiz]

I can't claim to know much since I don't even have a reef tank (I'm a freshwater girl just browsing around here), but I do know that you can "make" live rock with concrete. However, you have to really cure and soak it for a long time to leach out minerals that will cause imbalances in the tank.

Maybe you could do something similar with the lava rock. Soak it in a bucket and see what happens? Certainly you'd want someone more experienced than me to advise you, but I thought I'd point out that the live rock doesn't have to be 100% naturally made.

They "make" live rock off the coast of Florida, too.

 

[rhysiboy]

on the coast of florida i think what theyve done is got some dead live rock or coral rock and theyve put it in a piece of the ocean, where the rock will become seeded with life and the rock becomes 'alive'. Also with making your own live rock from scratch you usually mix concrete, aragonite sand and salt together. You then have to constantly have this flushed with freshwater and this needs to happen for a number of months i think close to a year is a good ammount of time for all of the lime to leech out, to make the ph of the water be safe.