If you are looking for a natural way to filter the water in your marine aquarium, while increasing the overall natural beauty of your setup, consider installing live rock in your aquarium ecosystem.
What is Live Rock?
Contrary to what the name suggests, living rock isn’t really alive, but the creatures that make porous rock their homes are definitely alive. When large ocean storms hit tropical reefs in places like the Caribbean or the South Pacific, small parts of the reef are broken by wave action. These semi-fossil reef pieces, along with all the organisms that live in and on this reef material, are collected for the saltwater marine aquarium trade. Organisms that may be present in rock include algae, saltwater worms, bacteria, sponges, and corals.
What are the benefits of using Live Rock in your aquarium?
The key reason for installing live rock in your saltwater aquarium is the rock’s ability to help naturally filter the water and process the waste produced by all the other organisms in the aquarium. Because it is very porous, there is room for anaerobic bacteria (bacteria that do not need oxygen to survive) and aerobic (bacteria that need oxygen to survive).
Both types of bacteria process the raw ammonia in fish waste, along with fish food scraps, and convert this waste into nitrite first and then nitrate. Once nitrate is formed, anaerobic bacteria exclusively take over and convert nitrate to nitrogen, a harmless gas that is released from the water into the air. When enough rock is added to a saltwater aquarium, the end result is a much cleaner environment for your marine fish.
In addition to adding to your aquarium’s natural ecosystem, there are other benefits to introducing fiji or other types of rock into your aquarium. First, the live rock adds to the beauty of your aquarium. As you look at the different organisms around the rock, you can almost feel like you are diving in the warm waters of the Caribbean. Also, if you want to add corals to a reef aquarium, it gives you a suitable base for cementing corals. Finally, your fish and other creatures that live in your aquarium can use the organisms that grow in and on the rock for food, and the rock itself can become a refuge for them.
What should you know about Live Rock before buying?
The general rule of thumb is to buy enough to match the size and situation of your aquarium system. If your saltwater aquarium contains only fish, a pound of live rock or more per gallon of water is a good idea. If you own a marine reef aquarium, you will need at least two pounds per gallon of water.
Another factor to consider when buying live rock is whether or not it has been treated to remove marine animals from the rock, which can die along the way and cause the water to break down. If the rock has been roughly treated, it may not have all the marine life it needs to act as the biological filter you want. If possible, use live rock that has not been over-treated and is as fresh as possible.
A critical factor for filtration is the constant movement of water over and through the rock. If there are a large number of marine animals living on your live rock, their movement as they go through their lives provides enough water movement for the biological filter to work. A large population of small organisms can give your rock more water-moving capabilities than a few larger organisms, such as the movement of a large colony of small marine worms versus a few larger marine worms. Without constant movement of the water, the pores of the rock fill with algae, which alone is not enough to filter the water, and its death can increase the load of organic material that your aquarium already has with the presence of other organisms. marine.
IF you pay $ 5 or more per pound, take a good look at your acreage. It really should appear to be alive with the movement of multitudes of organisms. If you see a lot of plants and animals moving around on the outside of the live rock, chances are good that the organisms you need inside the rock are also in place. We suggest lower cost live rock that will get more alive over time.
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