I say “Living Rock” You say “Live Rock”

[WheatToast]

A random question…
In Peter Scott's The Complete Aquarium (1991), “live rock” is always referred to as “living rock.”
Has anyone heard this latter term being used? I am simply curious.

 

[homer1475]

Interesting idea really.

I guess I would say the rock of old, and even rock from the guys in tampa bay, would be considered "living rock". While rock that has no life, but is cycled, would be considered "live rock"?

Could change the way we talk about rock. In the 90's they would have had plentiful access to "living rock".

 

[MaxTremors]

A random question…
In Peter Scott's The Complete Aquarium (1991), “live rock” is always referred to as “living rock.”
Has anyone heard this latter term being used? I am simply curious.

Only in books from around that time. I don’t think the Berlin method really gained traction, especially outside of Germany, until the late 80’s/early 90’s, and live rock wasn’t really used before that, but I think early English speaking reefers, when they first learned about the Berlin method, used the term ‘living rock’, and then over time it colloquially became known as ‘live rock’.

And now we have people and companies calling dead/dry rock ‘live rock’ or ‘life rock’ because it will eventually have bacteria on it. Which isn’t live rock, and IMO constitutes false advertising.

 

[reefwiser]

The problem is that living rock is not available as it once was. As it became illegal to do it. Only a couple rock farmers where granted licenses in Florida. Tampa Bay salt water being one of them.
Living rock was made of thousands of small pieces of dead coral that was bonded together by Coraline algae. This gave a place for the Micro biome of the reef to populate it.
Today people use dead rock and hope to get the same effect. But this never happens.
That is why you see all the crazy algae that people fight now days.

 

[LiverockRocks]

Howdy! Glad to happen upon this thread.

Place a ‘live rock’ pulled from the LFS bin next to a ‘living rock’ pulled from the ocean bottom; they are most definitely not the same visually nor even close to similar in variety or quantity of organisms in/on it.

Merriam-Webster’s definition of ‘live’ is:
1. To be alive
2. To continue to be alive
3. To have a home in a specified place

And the definition of ‘living’ is:
1. Having life (Active/ Functioning)
2. Exhibiting the life or motion of nature
3. Full of life or vigor or suited for living

Ocean aquacultured Living Rock Farmers...
that is a better definition of the product we provide. Going to begin editing today!
Thanks for the discussion @WheatToast.

 

[WheatToast]

Howdy! Glad to happen upon this thread.

Place a ‘live rock’ pulled from the LFS bin next to a ‘living rock’ pulled from the ocean bottom; they are most definitely not the same visually nor even close to similar in variety or quantity of organisms in/on it.

Merriam-Webster’s definition of ‘live’ is:
1. To be alive
2. To continue to be alive
3. To have a home in a specified place

And the definition of ‘living’ is:
1. Having life (Active/ Functioning)
2. Exhibiting the life or motion of nature
3. Full of life or vigor or suited for living

Ocean aquacultured Living Rock Farmers...
that is a better definition of the product we provide. Going to begin editing today!
Thanks for the discussion @WheatToast.

Oh my goodness… it’s the legendary Tampa Bay Saltwater! I am compelled to kneel before your almighty presence! Thanks for the descriptive post!

 

[LiverockRocks]

Oh my goodness… it’s the legendary Tampa Bay Saltwater! I am compelled to kneel before your almighty presence! Thanks for the descriptive post!

Absolutely no kneeling necessary, you started a great thread!

Live rock, Living rock.

LFS cooked rocks or straight from the ocean aquacultured living rocks. There’s really no comparison.

You Rock, @WheatToast !

 

[las]

I actually think just a tank with really nice live rock/fauna is spectacular....... If you dose it with phyto,it absolutely becomes LIVE rock

 

[BeltedCoyote]

Gotta agree. Much respect to Tampa Bay!

I recently got some 32lb of rock from KP. “Premium” as the trade calls it but really just rock that’s had more time in the sea.

no question that there is a difference between it and typical cycled rock from the LFS

here’s some fun pics I recently took of my box o rocks lol

nothing wrong with cycled rock. But if you can get your hands on aquacultured “living rock”…it’s something special

 

[las]

thats very nice rock coyote

 

[BeltedCoyote]

thats very nice rock coyote

thank you!

 

[Eagle_Steve]

@WheatToast great thread.

I have KP and Guif live rock mixed throughout all of my tanks. It helps with success for sure. Even my macro lagoon has some pieces of each. All covered with macros now, but they thrive on it compared to dry or “live” rock. All of the sponges, feathers, bivalves and tunicates are still alive under or around the macros. Amazing how the real stuff support and keeps supporting all the types of life. Plus you can grow out things on the rocks if done right. 2 of those sponges below were tiny nubs that have grown out beautifully.

 

[Subsea]

Uncured diver collected live rock & live sand compared to what industry calls, “clean live rock” is an oxymoron. At most, this rock has nitrification bacteria which is not even biodiversity of bacteria.

Gulf Live Rock.com

gulfliverock.com

This rock is fully blanketed with colorful coralline algae's, these algae's come in multitudes of fascinating shades of purple, reds, oranges, peaches and yellows. Most rocks contain bryzoans,orange leather sponge,gracilaria algae,halimeda, sea grapes, cluster corals, and cup corals. All of our premium decorative live rocks contain seeded plant life,both macro and micro algae.All pieces are hand collected fresh from our gulf lease site by our diving staff and shipped directly to our customers.We do not use any chemicals in our process. The rocks pictured are for example only. All of our premium decorative live rock is as good or better than the rocks pictured.

 

[tharbin]

For me, living rock was always rare. It had to be still in water, not just damp, and with obvious living organism like sponges, etc. on it.

Live rock was expensive but plentiful back in the 80's. It shipped in damp, wrapped in paper usually. Most of the "life" was dead and needed to be removed but there was still plenty of dormant life on the rock that would magically appear over time.

Base rock was live rock that shipped dry. Not much of value on it but it would populate fairly quickly if put in a tub with live or, even better, living rock.

Cured rock was base rock that was cured at the LFS and fell somewhere between base and live depending on the LFS.

Today's various life or real or whatever rock is meant to resemble live rock but has none of the true benefits of live rock.

I've been out of the hobby for a few years and have recently set up a tank using LifeRock. It looks nice but I'm not a fan. Zero diversity. It populates with bacteria easily enough but there's a lot more to a thriving reef than nitrifying bacteria.

 

[Big Smelly fish]

Uncured diver collected live rock & live sand compared to what industry calls, “clean live rock” is an oxymoron. At most, this rock has nitrification bacteria which is not even biodiversity of bacteria.

Gulf Live Rock.com

gulfliverock.com

This rock is fully blanketed with colorful coralline algae's, these algae's come in multitudes of fascinating shades of purple, reds, oranges, peaches and yellows. Most rocks contain bryzoans,orange leather sponge,gracilaria algae,halimeda, sea grapes, cluster corals, and cup corals. All of our premium decorative live rocks contain seeded plant life,both macro and micro algae.All pieces are hand collected fresh from our gulf lease site by our diving staff and shipped directly to our customers.We do not use any chemicals in our process. The rocks pictured are for example only. All of our premium decorative live rock is as good or better than the rocks pictured.

Yes this is great rock, price is right with plenty of life on it.

 

[BeltedCoyote]

I’m pretty sure you can’t go wrong with KP, Tampa bay, or GLR.

I went with KP because they had the “premium” (again, left in the ocean to marinate longer) rock I wanted and it worked out for me to go with them. The experience was as good as you read about.

that said, originally I was going to go with GLR, because Tampa wasn’t able to ship when I was looking to buy. Just happened KP was the best option for me at the time. And I’m more than satisfied.

I still want to convince my fiancé I’m nuts, apparently (lol), because I want to get some rock from GLR and Tampa. Why? More biodiversity and just seems like such rock is worth trying to curate and maintain. That and I’m the new reefer with pipe dreams of working to create the seed bank equivalent of live rock, corals, etc

 

[Big Smelly fish]

Every time I go to kp, site they are out of stock. Not just rock but everything I’m looking for . Just bad luck I don’t know.

 

[Subsea]

Every time I go to kp, site they are out of stock. Not just rock but everything I’m looking for . Just bad luck I don’t know.

Come winter weather, diving is not so good from
Nov - March

 

[las]

I like all live rock. Right now this is my Favorite:

Live Rock From Australia Lands In U.S. -by Coral Magazine

The latest feature in the Coral Magazine Online Forum, by Matt Pedersen Live Rock From Australia Lands In U.S. 03 Nov, 2021 California-based Unique Corals is showing off a rare offering in the reef aquarium hobby: Live Rock from Australia! “Real” life rock was once a cornerstone of the reef...

uniquecorals.com

 

[las]

For me, living rock was always rare. It had to be still in water, not just damp, and with obvious living organism like sponges, etc. on it.

Live rock was expensive but plentiful back in the 80's. It shipped in damp, wrapped in paper usually. Most of the "life" was dead and needed to be removed but there was still plenty of dormant life on the rock that would magically appear over time.

Base rock was live rock that shipped dry. Not much of value on it but it would populate fairly quickly if put in a tub with live or, even better, living rock.

Cured rock was base rock that was cured at the LFS and fell somewhere between base and live depending on the LFS.

Today's various life or real or whatever rock is meant to resemble live rock but has none of the true benefits of live rock.

I've been out of the hobby for a few years and have recently set up a tank using LifeRock. It looks nice but I'm not a fan. Zero diversity. It populates with bacteria easily enough but there's a lot more to a thriving reef than nitrifying bacteria.

Agree- 90% of the fun is watching all the cool little critters living in the rock