Never used live rocks

[Phamboo]

This might sound like a stupid question but i've never used LR before, so here it is. Does LR ever "die", and if so, how can you tell?

 

[BillyZ]

what makes LR live is the life ON the rock. bacteria, worms, algaes, etc. Exposed to air (or pure FW I would imagine), many of these organisims will start to die (this is why shipped LR always suffers from die off) If the LR were left in the air for an extended period of time all the life on the rock would eventually die and you would have "base rock"

But... juse because what's on it is dead, does not make it useless. Base rock placed in a tank with other LR can re-establish itself with bacteria and the other life forms.

HTH

 

[goldy]

dead LR looks just like cement or plane stone. ours is dead because we had to treat with copper for a bad outbreak of ick.

 

[fishfreek]

Another way to kill live rock would be to take it out of the tank and leave it exposed to air for a few weeks.

Even with rock thats been exposed to copper it kind of sort of is still alive with bactera. I mean if they sell that bagged sand as live sand when its just covered with bactera (supposedly) then the same could be said for the rock in the tank.

Dieing live rock will smell very foul. It will smell like its dead from all the small lifeforms that are decomposing on the rock.