Live rock newb ?

[Mil26]

How does live rock turn. In to this nice purple live rock or do you have to buy it like that ?

 

[saltyphish]

Time and good water parameters. You can buy a piece covered in coralline from a lfs and shave pieces off in front of a powerhead and that will help seed it. Regardless in time usually 3-6 months you will see some starting grow whether from liverock seeding it or inverts with it such as snails.

 

[jman9331]

I bought mine like that from liveaquaria.com

 

[saltyphish]

I bought mine from there as well

 

[haleyf1024]

You can buy dry rock painted to look like that, it is called Life Rock or Real Reef Rock. Or, buy a few pieces of LR to seed the rest of the tank. Mine started spreading within 2 months, and now covers even the dry rock and glass. Some urchins eat the coralline, like the purple long spines from Florida. They only eat a small amount of what they scrape off and the rest enters the water column to seed the tank elsewhere. I have 2 purple urchins, so that may be why my coralline spread so quickly.