DarkFin

People have told me that:

1.) you find rocks outside and boil them throughlly
2.) set up your aquarium with nothing in it and everything working with live sand in it
3.) put your boiled rocks anyway you want in the aquarium
4.) let it set for 2 monthes and the beneficial bacteria move up from the sand and up onto the rocks, makeing live rock.

Is that true, because it makes a lot of sense..

carlos413

You can get “dead rock” to become live by adding live rock to dead rock. That said I would get rock that is very porous so that you can get more surface area for you beneficial bacteria’s and critters to hide in. I would place the live rock on the top of all your other rocks. Keep in mind you’re going to have to be very patient, be cause seeding the rocks with all the necessary critters from live rock will take time. Not to mention the very desirable coralline algae. I would not recommend you getting rock’s from out side in the yard and such. I am not sure that its aquarium safe. You could get some base rock from a LFS. It would be safer, and cheaper than live rock. Good luck!

DarkFin

Do you really need live rock, if you just get live sand? or can i get a small chunk of live rock and put fake rocks around it to make live rock. How long would it take befor ei could put fish in it if there are only a little bit of live rock in it?

Slug

I would personally get some live rock. It is true you can "Seed" other rock to make it live rock, but it could take months. I'd put a few good chunks in.

DarkFin

ok... well i have another question then... do you know a site where i can get any cheap or uncured... ??

sirdarksol

There is more to live rock than just the bacteria. There are numerous other critters that come with live rock. That's one reason you want live rock to create other live rock. There's other such stuff in live sand, but some stuff that lives in live sand prefers sand, and some stuff that lives in live rock prefers rock.
You also need to feed the tank while you're growing the live rock. The bacteria needs ammonia (and other trace nutrients) and the critters need food, too.
Not sure about places to get cheap live rock. Sorry.

DarkFin

ok, thanks if any others know a good place, then throw it out there

sgould

Well, in my experience the words "live rock" and "cheap" never go together in a sentence unless "isn't" is stuck between them. That said, I've gotten mine from DFS online as it is less expensive than local stores, even factoring in shipping.

DarkFin

i couldnt find live rock on their website

sirdarksol

Check liveaquaria.com. That's DFS's livestock site.

sgould

Correct.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/a...lies.cfm?c=393