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What's the difference between a mineral and a rock?

Whats the difference between Live Rock from a pet store and what i'd find at the beach?

  • hey, i'm setting up a marine fish tank and need to cycle the water over the next few weeks. out of curiousity, is there really any difference, or risks i guess, in using rock ...show more

  • Answer:

    live rock at pet store has small organisms and small tube worm like creatures as well as who knows what living in the small holes...every rock I ever bought, it was a neat mystery to see what poked out after it was settled in my tank. Rocks ON the beach may have been live once....but if there OUT of the water...anything in it..is dead.

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As long as it is legal in your area, and make sure to quarantine anything that goes in the tank, I see nothing wrong with doing this. You could take the water too, that way, you know everything is perfectly in balance :)

Will E Am

Just make sure you don't need permits to collect it from your area. In some places it is illegal to gather live rock without a permit. Otherwise, go for it. Live rock is great, the real stuff. The PetCo stuff is garbage. Not sure what other people are talking about. Rock shouldn't increase your salinity, well maybe rock salt XD. And to the Hawaiian, I though live rock was illegal in Hawaii. I wanted to move there and I was not allowed to import my rock. I was not allowed to bring my rabbitfish or lionfish either. I ended up not moving there for other reasons. Maybe they didn't want to import live rock in case there were critters in it....but I know they are VERY restrictive on gathering anything from the ocean. I hope you get fined.

Tabitha

If it is legal to do so than get the live rock yourself from the ocean, not the beach. The reason pet stores can sell it for so much $$$ is because most of us dont live anywhere near the ocean. Keep in mind that live rock that is "porous" .......light weight with lots of small holes is the best. Sand and shell from the ocean will work also.....if it's legal to take. The only type of risk i see is one that you also have from pet stores, the rock could contain some type of "predatory creature" that later on could eat your fish.

Clint W

Someone answered this well in this thread: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080621153656AA3B4s3

One is free. The other isn't.

O lawd

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