Live Rock, is it alive?

kl8n

kl8n

Member
I have moved to two diffrent states in as many months and had to tear down my tank, put the rocks in buckets and filled them up with tank water. I gave the fish to my brother as I didn't think they would survive the trip.

My question is how do I tell if my live rock is alive? I mean it looks the same, does live rock fall apart when its dead or is it really even alive? I thought Live Rock was just a bunch of fish poop that hardened and the term "live", refered to the living organisims on the rock.
Is there a visual or even chemical test i can do to verify the life or lack there of in my rocks?
Thanks for your help.
 
rossim

rossim

Member
Its called "Live" rock due to the bacteria and organisms that live on it. If you've had the rock in saltwater this whole time, you probably still have a lot of living things on it. Either way though, you'd probably want to let the rock sit in a bucket of fresh saltwater to cure.
 
kl8n

kl8n

Member
I assumed the same thing. It's now sitting in a tank full of fresh salt water.
What I really want to know is how I verify that the organisms are still alive. Additionally if the rock is not actually alive wouldn't it stand to reason that you could leave live rock out on the front lawn for a year then put it back in saltwater and eventually organisms would live on it once more? Am I missing something?
More importantly though, how do i verfy life and healthy LR?
Thanks for your help btw!
 
belothsurf

belothsurf

Member
The term "live" rock is a bit misleading. The first time I heard it I said....."huh?" It is considered live, mainly because of the bacteria that colonizes it. But even lava rock will colonize bacteria, but it's not "real" live rock. LR comes from coral reefs, and I vaguely remember reading somewhere that it is mainly made up of extremely old coral. I could be wrong... :D
 
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