Marine live rock

Marine live rock, an essential

Marine live rock is one of the most essential of needs when building your aquarium, for the ultimate health and well-being of the marine aquarium fish that will live in it, and its importance can’t be stressed enough.  Put in the simplest terms, live rock placed in your aquarium introduces a mini-marine eco-system which provides your developing marine world with the cleansing, filtering, and processing of waste that is necessary to sustain healthy life within the salt world of your marine reef aquarium. It brings millions of living micro-organisms into your tank, and it is the closest thing to the real sea-world environment in which marine fish more naturally live.  Live rock for sale is probably a misnomer, as the rock isn’t actually living. ‘Dead-rock-with-life-inside-it for sale’ is more of an accurate statement. The rock itself is actually bits of storm-eroded coral, long since dead and skeletonised, collected because it carries millions of live organisms which collectively will make your aquarium a living, breathing world suitable for the marine fish that will depend on its life supporting properties.  Live rock is either found naturally eroded by sea conditions or it is farmed, or ‘seeded’, by harvesters; both forms of live rock are collected from the seabed for supply to the marine aquarium industry.

Many say the more porous its composition the better quality your marine live rock will be, and that is worth taking note of.  However there are good live rock examples which are not as porous which serve just as well and the current advice is that live rock should take up to approximately 20% of your aquarium space for effectiveness. Good live rock will be host to algae, bacteria and invertebrates that will live, multiply and diversify, efficiently attracting and disposing of nitrate, amonia, phosphate and other waste products materialising in your tank world.  It will also balance the acidity of the water, in your aquarium, by its emission of calcium and other elements, essential to life, from the live organisms living within its sponge-like structure.   Marine live rock actually means the difference between a dead tank and a marine reef aquarium that is live and able to sustain the life of the fish within it.

Marine live rock will also enhance the appearance of your aquarium considerably Once it is established over time, it will grow a beautiful covering of algae and other living micro-organisms which attach to its surface and form the pretty coat of many delicate colours that you find on coral reef in the oceans.  It is also a convenient shelter for fishes within the aquarium.   Whilst it is not absolutely necessary,  it is also worth placing aquarium decorations on and around your marine live rock  to enhance  the aquarium as a focal point and to make it pleasing to the eye, it will also be more interesting for the sealife within it, after all they are there for a long time.

Marine Tank have marine live rock available to buy amongst the marine aquarium supplies featured on the products menu on this website.