It’s crap. Wouldn’t be the first time that somebody lied about their product. My goodness. Here try this:
I have no problem with that. It wasn’t me who started it. And it wasn’t me who started the name-calling. I simply posted something that I thought was relevant and I was threatened by this individual who doesn’t know me and has never conversed with me before. And then he resorting to name-calling by calling me a twerp. I felt obligated to respond. Thank you for the kind warning.
To the best of my knowledge, this is partly true; nitrifying bacteria are indeed non spore-forming and cannot survive desiccation (and thus couldn't possibly survive on any dry substrate). The product description for Life Rock states that the material is "infused with spored bacteria." Perhaps they use Bacillus? While microbes such as these have a demonstrated positive effect in aquaculture applications as probiotics, they don't fulfill the ecological role of ammonia/nitrite oxidizing chemolithotrophy as do the nitrifiers.
You know what they say. There’s a sucker born every minute.
Oh, right. Manufactured rock that’s been painted purple. My bad.
If it’s not nitrifying bacteria, it’s only usefulness in that application would be to provide dead organic matter. You don’t need to spend all that money to put some dead organic matter into your tank.
That is partly correct. If it's Bacillus (or frankly just about any bacterium), it will play a role in nitrogen cycling through assimilitory processes. But there seems to be a trade-off, as studies point to a possibility that some commonly utilized strains of Bacillus (e.g., B. subtilis) can in some manner restrain autotrophic nitrification. Unfortunately, all we can do is speculate here, since we don't actually know the identity of the microbe included in the aforementioned product; would be much, much more helpful if manufacturers would list all live contents to at least the level of genus. To me, any hesitation to do so is sketchy AF.
So I’ve never used it, but I inquired about it when setting up my 30 gallon. Apparently the purple life rock is painted and it will either scratch off or degrade over time. Also I have heard it doesn’t really help your cycle. I ended up going with dry base rock from the LFS and it is great. It looks awesome when it was pearly white during the cycle and it looks awesome now still even with some diatoms on it. Can’t wait for the coralline to grow in. So I can’t say from expeirence but from what I’ve heard, it’s not the best stuff.
Just take your time and do it right.
My apologies , shouldn't have engaged with the superior on the face of the earth in fact should have avoided them altogether....in saying that I'm out. Be well.
