live rock color???

[dragonfisher33]

hi, i would like to know if the colors on some of the rocks that the lfs sell are natural or artificial. some have a hint of red while others are purple. i was told that they're "aquacultured", so i'm not sure what that means. also certain live rocks, because of their origin, have different colorations to them. i'm looking for red and/or purple live rocks to contrast against the live sand. please advice me please

 

[Daniel Fishy]

Your looking for coralline algae growth which can be purple,red,green and white. The real purple rocks are man made.

 

[aquandrew]

in 1990 the collection of live rock was banned and aqua cultured means that they put dead rock into the ocean to bring it to life, and then take it back out to sell it.

 

[dragonfisher33]

so the redness and the purple are really algae? so if i buy fiji rock vs rock from somewhere else, technically there shouldn't be any difference in look?

 

[carey]

You will get varied shases and amounts of coralline depending on where you get your rock. I didnt really have any purple on my first rocks but it came from several frags and soon took off in my tank. I would look for live rock that is porous and is lighter than it looks. You want all the nooks and crannies for bb and for critters. Stay away from solid dense rock, at least in my experience.