What you want to look for is light weight porous rock with
lots of nooks and crannies. And look at how much life is
growing on it. Instead of getting enough rock to do the
tank, just pick out pieces from time to time slowly get
the pieces you want. That way you will be less likely to
feel you made a bad choice on your purchase of live rock.

Also when you go to the store, ask the person at the store
what to look for in good live rock. Then listen to his
answer and make your judgment on whether he has your best
interest in mind.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Steve wrote on 5/24/2006 5:46 AM:
On Wed, 24 May 2006 00:55:54 GMT, "Noah Body"
wrote:

Hello:

I want to know what to do next. ... I want to know what's the best
route for my live rock, simply because I was told that this is gonna make or
break my nano tank setup.

I have just set up a 15 gal reef, having broken down a large tank I
had some old/clean live rock that I used in it. My own experience of
buying live rock is that more than anything the amount of time it has
spent being "seeded", ie allowed to stabilise in a tank situation, the
better. I guess that is more important than the actual type of the
rock. Dealers obviously want to maximise throughput, and much of what
is sold as "seeded" is poor quality as it's still got things
decomposing on it. The last thing you want in a small tank. The new
rock I have added so far to this tank is very healthly corraline
covered stuff sold as polyp rock, decomposition should not be an
issue. For a small tank I'd go for as much high quality rock like
this as you can get and not the cheapest live rock you can find. Has
the dealer any clean mature pieces that have been in his tanks for a
good while? Maybe being sold as polyp rock, but perhaps with not too
many polyps so that you can negotiate a reasonable price. That's the
sort of rock I'd prefer for a new small tank, rather than the mucky
brown looking stuff.

Steve