Pest-free live rock?

[cpschult]

Exactly my point. It’s just rock with a bio filter. It’s cycled rock. You can buy it at any LFS that’s doing the exact same thing as OP. It’s in no way shape or form LIVE in my opinion.

Do you not understand what live rock is then?

 

[TnFishwater98]

Live Rock

Cycled Rock

 

[Tired]

Cycled dry rock is technically live, but "live rock" frequently refers to rock that's full of various creatures, not just bacteria. it's a terminology issue from people using the same word to mean different things.

 

[TnFishwater98]

Cycled dry rock is technically live, but "live rock" frequently refers to rock that's full of various creatures, not just bacteria. it's a terminology issue from people using the same word to mean different things.

Part of the confusion comes from marketing strategies thats goal is to blend the two…

 

[HawkeyeDJ]

What you got from your LFS was probably cycled rock. They had pest in their tanks and they got into the rock while it soaked. Your LFS might of had real LR but we would need pics to verify…. Most LFS will label their cycled rock as LR, so this misunderstanding happens a lot. Cycled Rock is very useful for starting tanks and other. So it would be a value for someone to purchase cycled rock clear of pest. It takes along time for real LR to turn cycled rock into “LR”……

The rock they sell as "live" comes from established tanks that they have service contracts with. Sometimes a customer's tank has to be broke down for whatever reason, and this rock is for sale at the store in various sizes. It's all kept in a common tank, probably a hundred gallons or more. So, whatever pests are on one rock are on all rocks in short order.

 

[jabberwock]

1. Real live rock, that which is cultured in the ocean, will have some pests but they are manageable.
2. If it wasn't cultured in the ocean it is not live rock, BUT it will potentially have the same pests or worse.
3. While I think it it is still possibly beneficial, adding a few lbs. of live rock is not an effective way to "seed" a tank full of dry rock.

But to answer, the original question, no, there is no such thing as completely pest free live rock... or pest free frags, or pest free anything else that comes from waters outside your own tank. The Aiptasia, bubble algae, green hair algae and many other pests show up whether you use only dry rock or try to seed it with true live rock. To be honest, you would have less pests over the life of the tank, if you started with 100% real ocean cultured live rock from a good source.

Too many who blame the pests common to starting a tank with dry rock on a couple chunks of wet rock they got from a LFS, a fellow reefer's tank, or even from an ocean live rock supplier. The problem is not the live rock. It is the dry rock.

Bingo! This is the key. Real ocean live rock does not have a bunch of available real estate for baddies to occupy. Dry rock is a blank palette. I noticed a couple aptasia on my ocean live rock. I did nothing. After a couple weeks, they just disappeared. Had there been a lot of available space, they would have taken over. Nature abhors a vacuum.