# Live Rock



## Tikifish (Jul 17, 2006)

Hey Fellow Fish Lovers!
Quick Question:
I have one piece of live rock in my tank, I heard it's really important for the biological filtration... is this true? If it is, and I do need more, does anyone know what colors or varieties live rock comes in? I saw purple one time--I'm a big fan of anything pretty... 

I'll be on soon to check out your responses!

~Tikifish :thankyou:


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## usmc121581 (Jul 31, 2006)

The live rock comes in greens, pinks, and purples. When buying live rock look for black spots or fool smell coming from it. If there are black spots you need to take a wire brush and scrap it off or it will polute the water.


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## zeb_nz (Aug 30, 2006)

you nead 1 and 1/2 pound of LR to the gallon.


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## Guest (Sep 14, 2006)

I had no idea live rock came in different colors.


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## usmc121581 (Jul 31, 2006)

Remember it's not the rock, it's the coralline algea that has the color.


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## Guest (Sep 18, 2006)

usmc121581 said:


> Remember it's not the rock, it's the coralline algea that has the color.


AH! makes more sense now, thanx usmc for clearing that up.


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## White98SVT (Nov 18, 2006)

You can see the color on the rock I bought....that's the coralline algea.


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## caferacermike (Oct 3, 2006)

I'm going to give away the best tip ever...;. This is my secret.


Zoas, mushrooms, and soft polyps always come attached to a nice piece of rock. Look around your LFS and you'll notice that you can spend $25 for a 3 lb rock or you can spend $25-30 for the same size rock with lots of stuff growing on it.


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## White98SVT (Nov 18, 2006)

I have a hard time finding any coral attached to a 3# piece of rock. I guess my stores just aren't worth a darn :greenyay:


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## bettababy (Oct 12, 2006)

Mike,
You have a unique LFS if that's the rock you're purchasing/finding. Most LFS's will term that as "coral frag" and charge much more for the coral, some will even add the charge of the rock to the price of the coral.
Around here, to buy a mushroom, typically, you get either just a mushroom, no rock, or a mushroom on a very very small piece of rock. If there is more than one mushroom on a larger rock, it is termed "mushroom cluster" and the prices goes WAY up to account for the number of mushrooms.
This tends to apply with all of the rock/corals we have available around here in the LFS's. When we buy our live rock from the LFS there are tanks of "just rock" and it doesn't tend to be there long enough to grow anything yet. Sometimes it will have coraline growth on it, but that tends to be minimal from the sales tank. The rock in the sales tanks is usually shipped in as "bulk rock" that may or may not have been cured yet.
Something else to look for when selecting good rock is density. If the rock is very heavy, it is more dense, and thus less "quality" for biological filtration purposes. The lighter weight to the rock, the better job it will do, and the better it tends to grow. 
The best approach is to call around to local LFS's and find out what types of rock they have available, as not all types are easily found everywhere.
Another option is to work with tufa rock, cure it yourself, and create your own "live rock", but this can take a great deal of time. The easiest approach to doing this is to start with cured live rock and add tufa rock a few pieces at a time to the established tank. Do not, by any means, rely on uncured rock or plain tufa to work as filtration in the tank until it has been established for a minimum of 6 months - 1 yr. Cured rock is safe from the start, but always expect some kind of die off to happen, and for ammonia to spike at least slightly when adding it. In an established tank, sometimes it is useful to add it a few pieces at a time, and to let things settle between additions. In a new tank, it's best to add it all at once and let the tank cycle with just sand and rock for at least 2 - 4 wks, while watching water quality.


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## caferacermike (Oct 3, 2006)

Well then everybody should move to Austin. A colony rock of zoas, mushrooms, GSP, Xenia, it doesn't matter, sells for $24-35 here in ATX. Single mushrooms sell for $3 if they've left a rock and single Rics sell for $8. A colony rock of Rics sells for $30-40.


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## usmc121581 (Jul 31, 2006)

Hopefully you never move from there because everywere I have lived was the way Bettababy descriped. I move living things that are on the live rock the more the higher the price goes. You may get lucky every now and then. I plan on moving to texas to but some where between dallas and fort worth.


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## Melissa (Nov 28, 2006)

when we lived in south carolina corals were way cheaper than they are here in maryland. the fish were cheaper also. the price i think depends on the distance the product has to travel. the closer you are the less it will likely be. but i know that this is not always true. live rock doesnt seem like there is any difference.


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## bettababy (Oct 12, 2006)

I'm curious now about the prices for live rock in different parts of the country and world.... 
Here most live rock averages $7.99 - $8.99 per pound.


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## Melissa (Nov 28, 2006)

the prices are about the same here also. i naver thought about the prices in other parts of the world, although i would assume they might be cheaper they closer they are to the source. but i may be wrong.


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## squiggles (Nov 13, 2006)

when i got my lr there was some old stuff for 10 per lb (canadian) and there was some aquacultered stuff for 13, that was what i got. i got featherdusters, rock anenome, bubble-tipped anenomes, and the hitchhiker stometella, bristle worms, a whole forest of little orange bushy tubes and all kinds of other stuff. I haven't seen rock like that again so i was lucky it was there. one piece that was to big for me had little orange corals on it.unfortunatly i got a couple apastasia i think they're calld. there's also these worms that stick out of one of the rocks that are about 1 cm long and white with black stripes, they also have very faint bristles. they dont crawl or anything they just stick out of the rock, at first there was 2 now there's 4.


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## Melissa (Nov 28, 2006)

the only thing i can think of is that they are tiny star fish. either the serpent of the brittle star


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## squiggles (Nov 13, 2006)

i never thought it could be a starfish, thanx. i lookd up some stuff on brittl stars and it does look lie the arms on a couple pics of Ophiomatstix variabilis, the only thing is i've never seen a body. there are 5 arms and the stick out from the rock, though usually 2 are sticking out of the top and three are sticking out about 1/2 cm down tho they do stick farther out on closer look so maybe if it is a brittlestar fish, his body is in the rock just closer to where the 3 stick out. Mind you sometimes there's more sticking out at the top and less down. if it is a brittle starfish do u have any suggestions on how to care for it?


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## Melissa (Nov 28, 2006)

well the body would be inside the rock hiding. we have many of these in our tank. Seems how it is so small and hides alot there is no real way to care for it right now, at least not to my knowledge. As it grows with time it will eventually get to big to be inside the rock, and therfore will find another place to hide.


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## caferacermike (Oct 3, 2006)

Brittles and serpents spend there time hiding like that. They can regenerate their armms if snipped off by a passing fish. You may have micro brittles. they never get larger than the size of a quarter. A great addition to the tank.


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## drderm (Jan 12, 2007)

*location of LFS in austin????*

Where is the LFS in Austin that you go to cafe? I've been looking for a good place to get some decent rock and that place sounds great.


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## caferacermike (Oct 3, 2006)

Aquatek, River City, and Aquadome. the Dome has great $30 prices on large pieces of LR covered in mushrooms.


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## black&amp;whiteclowns (Apr 15, 2007)

10 to 13 a pound in maryland ,,, i wish 8$ a pound


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## Age of Aquariums (Apr 13, 2007)

I just but from the local fish store.... at $7.99 a pound!!!!!!!! anyways you are lucky to have starfish and nice LR. You definitely want to keep you tank running in good condition.


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## Ramirezi160 (Oct 10, 2006)

Lancaster, PA you can get LR anywhere from $4.99 to $6.99 a pound. Bulk discounts too. Pretty sweet.


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## mbender04 (Oct 8, 2006)

It's true I picked this up for 5.99/lb at my lfs...of course I have no idea what it is though


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## jdecorse25 (Feb 13, 2007)

*LR*

You can buy live rock in the Virginia Beach area for $799/lb and $899/lb, notthing good either. Teh majority of their rock are huge bolder pieces though.


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## FishFan (Jun 24, 2007)

When I was setting my tank up I purchased a large piece of LR at "The Coral Reef" in Knoxville TN (I live about 2 hrs. and 20 minutes North in KY). I purchased a large quantity of stuff and I was lucky enough to get an 11 lb. piece covered in coraline (sp?) algae, purple and bright red specks abound w/small starfish and other critters for $40.00. The regular price on this stuff (and it was the "premium blend" so to speak) was $9.99 per lb. So this piece was close to $110.00, but I got it for $40.00, but ended up spending $350.00 before it was all over. Going to get a smaller 3-5 lb. piece next time I'm there (hopefully in the early Winter).

I thought I did rather nicely myself.


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## crystalclear83 (Oct 13, 2007)

I remember when I first started working at the fish store, I asked that question about the color of live rock. And everyone who worked there looked at me like I was crazy and stated that live rock only is one color "purple" if it's white it's dead, and green and pink means it's on it's way to being white! So you want healthy purple coraline algee and you need strong lights to ensure that it grows and stays healty. You can keep it alive for some what of a time with fluorescent lighting. Also purple-up is a supplement that can help as well.


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## jcarter (Oct 15, 2007)

7.99 at the LFS in Iowa City. but they offer bulk discounts so if you buy 20lb or more its only 5.99


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