Live rock.

[Joey17]

Why is it so expensive?

 

[melosu58]

Because someone has to go diving in some ocean or sea to get it. and also because of the life that is in it. Lot of LR is mostly expensive because of shipping also

 

[Brenden]

Divers time, boat fuel and boat, handling, storage tanks, packaging, shipping. It adds up fast.

 

[Joey17]

How do you use it when you're starting a salt water tank?

 

[Brenden]

Not sure I understand your question but you can use it to start your cycle. It houses the bacteria needed to keep your water parameters in check. Also looks good.

 

[mykpoz]

another cost factor is the limited amount of LR around the world, some gets stripped from the floor, some only gets collected after storms, some is farmed in designated areas...

For decent pieces you will pay more, for rubble you will pay less....

LR has many uses, the main being added filtration from the bacteria/critters that live within and on the LR.

If you are tryign to control cost do www.hirocks.com and buy a few pieces from your LFS to seed it, and over the course of a few weeks/months you will have LR

 

[Joey17]

All i would need to cycle a salt water tank would be live rock then?

 

[lando]

"Cycling" a tank simply means you are building up a population of beneficial bacteria to help control toxins in the water produced by waste. Using fully cured LR can speed the process up as the bacteria is already present on the rock. You will still likely need to add a "food" for the cycle to build up the bacteria bed in the substrate. If you order LR over the internet it will show up with some die-off on it. This should be plenty to start your cycle.