Live rock is the heart of any marine aquarium, be it Mediterranean or tropical.
must be porous, calcareous, populated by a multitude of micro-organisms essential for the stability of a closed ecosystem such as an aquarium full of bacteria essential for biological cycles, encrusting calcareous algae, ....
They are relatively light and very rich life, in some cases can also be found juvenile corals, sponges and other organisms on their surface, but what counts most is the microporosity inside, not visible, but that results in a excellent substrate bacteria capable of fostering a complete nitrogen cycle.
in the outer layers of rocks settle aerobic bacteria, which oxidize ammonia to nitrite, nitrite into nitrate, the inner layers, where there is a lower concentration of oxygen are anaerobic bacteria and the facultative anaerobes that reduce nitrate to nitrogen gas.
Among other things are perfect to create a marine environment "natural" and offer better support for the positioning of the corals. The report
live rock / water should be, with some exceptions such as in the presence of DSB, a kilogram of rocks every 5 liters of water, gross, and then in a 200 liter aquarium should include gross about 40 kg of rocks.
