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My poor live rock color

9K views 13 replies 3 participants last post by  Ocarius 
#1 ·
I bought cured live rock from the fish store and its beige in color, its very unique in the holes and shape of it, but there is no purple coloring to it.. right now its got a rusty looking color "stuff" growing on it, but what i was wondering is if the rock will never change its colors and be boring to look at. I wasn't familar with live rock when i got it, and was told it will change.

I went later and got a 3rd rock, this one is got some grey,beige in it also.. lots of holes its almost like a spong.. but it also has some purple on it too.. and some of the purple since putting it into the tank seems to have lighten up and looks diffrent than the rock just being purple.

My question is, will i have to replace that rock, or give it more than three weeks in my tank to make some changes.

Thanks Guys
 
#3 ·
Im getting the rust color stuff now, and its all over the rocks, the live sand, and now on the lower walls of the aquarium. The tank has 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites, 10 nitrates. I was told to wait a week and retest the water.. with it being a new tank the nitrates should drop.

I also have a move coming up, taking this stuff out of my 46 bow and putting it in my 55, so not sure what that will do.. i plan to keep as much water as i can or at least half.
 
#8 ·
sounds like its time for snails/clean up crew

i would not add to many at once but a mixture of kinds is always nice.
some snails include:
turbo snails (aglae)
nerite (aglae)
cerith (aglae)
nassarious (left over meaty foods)
stomatalla (algae)
mexican turbo (algae)

i personally would start with 5 turbos, 5 nerites, 5 ceriths, 5 nassarious and 1 mexican turbo snail.
 
#9 ·
It's odd that your LR isn't purple to begin with. It kinda sounds like it may have just become live and it used to be base rock. I don't recomment buying rock that looks like that. You don't really have a good idea about anything in rock like that and LR is way to expensive to get some that isn't going to do any filtration for the tank.

The coloration of the rocks will come in time. If the rock they sold you is indeed LR that's been established for a long while, then it'll color more quickly if it's LR that just started to become LR, as i'm suspecting.

It's time for a CUC, i might add that you may want to get some hermits or crabs too. The hermits will stir up the sandbed surface and will aid in puting the stuff into the water column.
 
#10 ·
IMO i hate hermit crabs. yes i have some, but theyre in the sump for a reason. i have plenty of different size empty shells around my tank yet they still kill snails.
research the different cleaners. def. avoid harlequiun shrimp as their only diet is starfish, green brittle stars, choclate chip stars as they are predatory and linkia stars as theyre more difficult to keep. im sure there are a few more to avoid from the start but thats why research before you buy.
and CUC = clean up crew
 
#11 ·
Again that's why i said hermits, or crabs. I know some love them and i know other don't. It's all down to preferance. I buy my snails at $.36 a piece so i'm not hurt over losing a few. i have 60 in my tank now and i'll get more if i need to.
 
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