Noah Body wrote:
Simply put ... this live rock looks like it's had it's day, but I can't tell
what to look for because this is the first rock I have ever purchased? ...

Hi Caper,

Time and patience are your main tools for evaluating the state of your
rock.

When it's pulled out of the ocean a chunk of 'live rock' is home to a
huge variety of flora and fauna; from bacteria to complex inverts
(worms, mollusks, etc.) and plants....

Then most of that stuff dies. In some cases, things can't deal with the
stress of shipping, sometimes it has to do with acclimation shock, but
probably most often it's simply starvation since neither you or the
natural processes in your tank can provide the variety of foods that
are available to these guys in the wild. This die-off is by no means a
totally bad thing since it provides raw materials for the cycling
process, thus removing the need to use 'throw-away' fish for that
purpose.

Eventually, the things that survived the trip from ocean to your tank
will start to grow. Depending on species you'll see some things bloom
quickly (i.e. diatoms or other small types of algae) but most of that
will also die back as they consume whatever nutrient the cycling
process has made available. In time you should start seeing more
persistent forms of life start to appear (coralline algae, various
worms, etc.) but this all takes time, time, and more time. People often
report finding new species a year or more after adding a piece of rock
to their tank.

The main thing you can do is monitor your various water parameters to
make sure things don't get too toxic as your tank cycles - and just
wait.

Festinationally yours,

Alex