Aquarium Live Rock

What is Aquarium Live Rock? It is simply rock that was taken from the ocean for sale in the marine aquarium hobby. It is the first choice to marine hobbyists as it is gives a very natural look to the aquarium. The "live" part comes from the abundant life that is commonly found on aquarium live rock. The "life" involved includes the necessary nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria required in a marine aquarium system as well as sponges, corals, tunicates, feather dusters as well as crustaceans such as crabs, pistol shrimp and god forbid, mantis shrimp. On rare occasions you just might get a very special kind of hitchhiker, an octopus.

Before the rock can be used, it must first undergo a "curing" process. This is because a lot of the life on the rock will be dying by the time it reaches us. To prevent fouling of the tank, the aquarium live rock is put in a container of some sort with water circulation. As the sponges, tunicates etc begin dying there will undoubtedly be an ammonia and nitrite spike so this can be considered a period where the aquarium live rock undergoes re-cycling. Not all life will perish however. The curing process is done once ammonia and nitrite levels touch zero. The length of the curing process ultimately depends on the amount of dying organic material that is present on the aquarium live rock.

Not all aquarium live rock is created equal. They differ in structure and density depending of where they were collected from. The dominant type of coralline algae present on the aquarium live rock also differs due to location.

Tonga Branching Live Rock - As the name suggest, this is a branching type of aquarium live rock that is quite popular in the marine aquarium hobby as it is one of the few types of live rock that come in this shape.

Tonga Slab/Shelf Live Tock - Another variant from that region. Perfect for those that enjoy platform (flat) type rock scapes.

Fiji Live Rock - Another popular aquarium live rock. Comes in many types of grades and is priced accordingly. Fiji rock is generally pretty chunky.

Caribbean Live Rock - Commonly available in the trade, this type of aquarium live rock has a more "plated" look. A of open spaces are present due to its structure.

There are many other types such as Bali, Melanesian etc and they all work fine in the marine aquarium depending on the look you are trying to achieve.

Always scape with the end in mind, it will save you a lot of rock swapping in the future. I have found that buying a bunch of aquarium live rock and hoping to make the rock scape work is easier said than done.If you want shelf like structures then stick to tonga slabs or caribbean live rock. If you like the "boulder" look then fiji rock is fine.

Ultimately, if you know what kind of scape you want, life will be much easier come scaping time.