exactly.. he sells it as "aquacultured" rock..

Steve

I didn't think they were allowed to collect any real reef rock, rubble or otherwise, anymore. I thought all live rock from your LFS could be considered aquacultured.

nope they can colect rock if it is rubble only. what they are not allowed to do is blast chunks of the reef to make rubble. they have to let storms do the work now.

Steve

I used "lace rock" from Big Al's. Tufa will work too. Mine cycled in five weeks, and then I added a few chunks of cured live rock from the LFS. Two months later, the tank is healthy and the ex-terrestrial rock is home to amphipods, bristleworms, and now corraline algae.

If your definition of live rock is porous rock covered in nitrifying bacteria, then you can easily start with terrestrial rock and avoid all hitch hikers. If you want algae, crustaceans, worms, etc, then you need something from direct from a reef environment.

d