You may be wondering, how can a rock be alive? Well, the actual rock is not alive. Live rock started from ocean and is the dead skeletons of corals. The porous structure of the corals becomes a host site for nitrifying bacteria which is necessary for the "nitrogen cycle" which I will go over later. Live rock's purpose in an aquarium is to act as a biological filter, and to act as decoration. The main goal for your live rock is to have it encrusted in coralline algae (good algae). Coralline algae is purple, pink, white, green, and blue. It appears crusty and hard. The most common color for Coralline algae is purple. Once you get your tank "cycled" you may start growing Coralline algae which is a good sign that you are making progress.
Here is an example of live rock with purple coralline algae growing on it.
When you first get your live rock it is suggested that you have 1-2 pounds of live rock per gallon of water. so a 50 gallon tank would need around 50-100 pounds of live rock. Remember your live rock acts as a biological filter, so the more you have the more filtration is built into your tank. Thanks for reading stay tuned and I will show how you can make your own custom live rock.
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