Liverock have more porosity and overall surface area internally and externally than all man made bricks or fake rock, specifically the ones from Fiji.
Check out the video below: comparisons of different type of natural live rock vs manmade fakerock vs bricks in terms of porosity, external and internal surface area. Fiji liverock topped them all. Do a quick click 10 minutes into the video to fast forward to the data.
You can tell that they were pretty honest with no biased commercialized agenda, because they actually only sell fake rock, not the natural live rock that won out in the comparison.
I wonder how live rock from the marshall islands would have compared. I bet it could be more porous than fiji. I cut one large piece in half for aquascaping and the amount of interconnected cells within the rock made it look like a solidified sponge with millions of microcells, deep into the live rock. At least I think it was marshall island rock.
It made sense, as natural live rock like this are made up of hundreds, if not thousands of years of dead coral skeletons in layers. There is a reason why the term "liverock" was coined when the reefing hobby started. Real live rock wasn't really rock at all, in the traditional sense. It was the beauty of ancient coral skeletons that allowed a myriad of organisms to live on top and
within these ancient structures, as well.
I chopped a large 50lbs+ manmade "marco fake" rock in half and it was mostly solid with some isolated "bubbles" and a giant hole in the middle with uncured powder. It sprayed all over my face when I cut it open. There is no permeability into the isolated air pockets, nor in the giant hole in the middle of the rock filled with uncured "powder" .
Fake man-made live rock like that are for looks only (complete with purple painted fake coralline!) with just the basics of aerobic nitrite to nitrate conversion on the surface, with
absolutely no capacity to finish the nitrogen cycle via anaerobic denitrification like natural live rock can.
You just can't beat mother nature. I purchased uncured rocks from fiji, vanatu, pukani, tonga, and marshall islands, coinciding with the theme of biodiversity of reekeeping. I still have those rocks 20 years later that have lasted longer than all my equipment and tank upgrades. Sadly, they have eroded alot and I think lost roughly 20% of their original size. Those manmade bricks you throw in the sump completely erode in just a few years. Fake marco manmade rock probably lasts the longest out of natural live rock or bricks, but do nothing to complete the nitrogen cycle.
I really dont understand the fake purple paint on fake rock. Why don't people just be patient and let natural coralline algae grow in time? At the risk of being judgemental, I think people who love the purple paint don't understand the real discipline in our hobby:
PATIENCE . Natural, aged coralline comes in a myriad of hues in purples, reds and pinks. Its not just 1 tone of purple paint. It looks so fake!
You can still find natural live rock in bins of some LFS's when people tear down their tanks and give them away. Dry em and cook em and they are good to go. I'd rather have good ole natural fiji liverock over fake liverock or those nitrogen bricks any day.
Sorry for the thread hijacking attempt. I'm the notorious thread hijacker on reef2reef.
