Bit of a rant here. Caribsea shouldn’t sell their painted dry rocks as ‘live rock’

[Theulli]

As a newbie here I researched and decided I needed live rock to put into my aquarium. I go the aquarium store and buy ‘Caribsea live rock’. I did wonder how it could be alive without being in water but I just assumed it lay dormant or something lol.

Went to a better aquarium store and quickly came to realise my rock is a dry rock not a live rock.

it’s so misleading! How can they be allowed to do that?!

Don’t they sell it as “life rock” the brand and not “live rock”

Still slightly misleading but I haven’t actually seen a reference to it as literal live rock that I remember

 

[Tonycass12]

Makes me wonder about the bacteria sprayed on the rocks to give the fake coralline colour .
does it eventually break down to cause future issues ?
What is it sprayed with ?

its epoxy. Most of it chips off after a few months under normal conditions.

 

[Koh23]

Good marketing, confusing names and description is the name of the game in this hobby....

And whoever seen and had in person real live rock taken from nature reef knows the difference, that vs anything else, no matter of name and description.....

 

[AquaBiomics]

The claims about bacteria somehow being infused into the rocks are implausible and unproven.

Its simply painted dry rock. Like all dry rock, it offers as much microbial benefit for your tank as a brick or a piece of concrete.

 

[Rmckoy]

When I first started in this adventure (1990’s ) there was 2 kinds of rocks .
live rock from many different geographic regions , and base rock

one was wet and in large tanks base rock was dry white rocks ideally meant to be the base which live rocks were stacked on top of .
The white base rocks become live and the same
Colour after a short time . Most cases the base rock was found in every sump

years later diy or mandarin made rocks which were essentially blobs of Portland concrete mixed with oyster shells with the advantage of being able to mold or shape what ever you wanted .
were they as effective or did they have the same nitrifying capability ? I don’t think so .

 

[A Young reefer]

There is no point of blaming the manufacturer or the brand name. Anyone should know that live rock is not sold on shelves.
If someone sold you a plastic coral structure and labelled it as “life coral” would you still blame him/her, or yourself and the lack of research?
I do understand the inconvenience and I myself have experienced this, but I can only blame myself and the lack of knowledge.

 

[bert236]

Makes me wonder about the bacteria sprayed on the rocks to give the fake coralline colour .
does it eventually break down to cause future issues ?
What is it sprayed with ?

coralline colour is painted on I believe and the bacteria as far as they say is just dormant bacteria.

 

[A Young reefer]

Makes me wonder about the bacteria sprayed on the rocks to give the fake coralline colour .
does it eventually break down to cause future issues ?
What is it sprayed with ?

From my personal experience with caribseas life rock:
No it kept its colour did not break down or cause any issues still having it running for 4 years.

 

[polyppal]

Said it before and I’ll say it again, anyone can make that Caribsea ‘life’ rock at home for free (if they have a cat)

 

[DopamineKata]

It's called "Life Rock", but I see your point. It can be misleading to a new hobbyist.

That's the entire point of the name.

 

[polyppal]

That's the entire point of the name.

Idk what your talking about…

As a side note, I got some sweet Wilt Donsney acros for sale if your interested!

 

[jda]

The epoxy coating also keeps microfauna and bacteria from using the pores and structure of the rock for homes and have anoxic places for bacteria to complete the nitrogen cycle by turning no3 into N gas.

There is no substitute for real live rock. Nothing.

 

[jda]

...and algae, dinos and cyano will grow on the epoxy. They don't grow on live, real coralline.

So real live rock has coralline or corals on the exposed areas and the darker/shaded areas are condominiums for pods, microfauna and bacteria to to do their good work for the tank.

 

[MaxTremors]

Don’t they sell it as “life rock” the brand and not “live rock”

Still slightly misleading but I haven’t actually seen a reference to it as literal live rock that I remember

The problem isn’t necessarily Caribsea’s branding, it’s that LFS’s then sell this to new hobbyists when they ask for live rock without explaining the difference. I think that dry rock, the companies that make it, and individual retailers have intentionally either lied by omission or misled consumers into thinking that dry rock is live rock and that it is functionally similar to real live rock, when it is not. Yes, you can have a successful fish/coral tank with dry rock, to have a successful reef tank, IMO, you need real live rock.

 

[aSaltyKlown]

BRS doesn't help much with their label either.

"Live rock is the most popular material used for natural biological filtration in saltwater aquariums. Aquarium live rock comes in two forms: wet and dry."

Dry rock is well... dry. Live rock is wet and has living bacteria and possibly other organisms living on it.
There cannot be live dry rock. One could argue dormant bac is "live" but it's a thin argument.

It is very confusing and misleading to new hobbyists. Hell, even for some experienced folk it is as there is always debate(not sure why it's pretty cut and dry to me).

When I first got into the hobby in 2010, I remember the discussions of cured vs live.

 

[Chrisv.]

Long time ago, in galaxy far far away.....

I was told that "live rock" reffers to type of rock, not specific rock current state, wich can be dry, wet, cured, fresh......

So, this is like thumb and fingers, all thumbs are fingers, but not all fingers are thumb.....

Same here..... Live refers to tock type....

Beside, 95% of "reef products" are elaborated "scams", and hevy relying om small letter prints, and buyers ignorance or lack of knowledge......

Whoever told you that was full of it.

 

[Lyss]

RE all the folks saying the name is misleading… I purchased Life Rock knowing and understanding full well what it was — a quick read on the marine depot website told me all I needed to know, no deep research needed. So I do think it’s kinda the consumer’s fault if someone doesn’t understand what it is. At that time, I liked the idea of it being infused w/bacteria spores, b/c I was terrified of the idea of getting a mantis shrimp or bobbit worm in the tank from real live rock.

That said, what I didn’t understand as a brand new reefer was just how important the porosity and micro fauna of live rock is. I’ve spent a year trying to make up for that in my system, with some good success, but I probably would’ve chosen differently when shopping for rock had I understood that better.

 

[Jeffcb]

I used it and like it. I did know it wasn't ocean live rock but I like the shapes. They have some new shapes I think that are pretty cool. Its almost the same price as ocean base live rock plus shipping. I have use that also but the shapes are not as good. I have a couple hundred pounds of premium ocean live rock in my fowlr tank but wanted dry rock for my reef tank.

 

[snorklr]

lest we forget "Real Reef Rock"

 

[lancesmith1]

Unique Corals has some really great Aussie Live Rock on sale right now for $20 per lb shipped overnight.