Live Rock Good Or Bad

[Silverado]

A while back I had received 90 pounds of live rock that was branches. I have had this in a tank cycling the branch pieces.

I see no sign of life on this rock at all. No colors at all.

I was going to try and use this branch for a refugium, but I see no life at all.

Should I just give up on the branches and get more live rock.

 

[bertoni]

Hmm, hard to say. It should function as habitat for some animals. Have you checked after lights out for any signs of life? That doesn't sound like a very good load of live rock to me. You might be able to use or sell it as base rock, if nothing else.

 

[Sk8r]

The 'life' in live rock tends to be microscopic bacteria. It should be fine, and will probably always be brown until or if lighted. If you can get a reefing friend to give you even a tiny bit of coralline encrusted rock or shell, it will hasten the coralline in your display tank, imho. When you start up, you will probably have more green (hair algae) than you ever wanted: the stuff is everywhere. When that calms down, you'll have a functioning tank, and your 'live rock' below will help the process.

 

[Silverado]

I already have a main tank that is running, I was going to use this as a filter only.

I have checked with the lights off and have found no life at all.

 

[bertoni]

Well, it should work well enough as a filter, I guess. I'd be disappointed, though. I guess I'd contact the vendor.