From Marine Aquariums of South Africa - wiki

Contents 1 Live Rock in a Marine Aquarium 1.1 Filtration 1.2 Life on the rock 1.3 Unwanted Hitchhikers 2 Types of Live Rock 2.1 Fiji 2.2 Tonga 2.3 Kenyan 2.4 Malaysian 2.5 Local Rock 2.6 Artificial rock 2.7 DIY rock 2.8 Bio Rock

[edit] Live Rock in a Marine Aquarium

[edit] Filtration

Much like a Deep Sand Bed Live rock contains aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, that aids in the denitrification of the water in the system. Because of the shapes there is a large surface area of aerobic bacteria.

[edit] Life on the rock

There are many small crustaceans etc that live on and in the rock, spaghetti worms, copepods.

[edit] Unwanted Hitchhikers

Sometimes unwanted critters can hitchike along with the rocks such as crabs, worms, nudibrances etc.

[edit] Types of Live Rock

[edit] Fiji

[edit] Tonga

[edit] Kenyan

[edit] Malaysian

[edit] Local Rock

It is illegal for local stores to sell rock collected in local South African waters and MASA discourages this practise.

[edit] Artificial rock

There is cheaper options to the normal rock however these have to be seeded and take much longer to become "live"

[edit] DIY rock

It is possible to make rock from crushed coral and cement however these must be cured in fresh water to remove all impuruties

[edit] Bio Rock

Bio rock is made from ceramics can be purchased from aquarium stores. It is a good cheaper alternative, and although it does not have to be cured in fresh water it still needs to be seeded and become live, resulting in a much longer cycle