Quality of LR

I purchased 15 lbS of fiji rock from one of my many LFS. The reason I choose this LFS is the price of course. The LR I purchased here was going @ a whopping 4.99 a Lb which is just unheard of in NY. However I was concerned as to the quality of this rock. The guys at the store told me it was cured, however it was sorta "muddy looking" and greenish without any algae really. Now lets talk about the other fish store around my area this one has more selection of rock however not only is the LR more expensive so is everything else in the store. For example IO filter at this one would cost 80 compared to 50 with the other one. Anyways back to my point. This store has what I would say a higher quality of rock. The reason I say so is there is evidence of purple algae growth on some of their rock. Their rock is also cleaner, its more of a white rock look. Which i was debating wheather or not to purchase more frags form there or the cheaper fish store. Right now I have 60 Lbs of base rock in my 30 gallon tank and 15 Lbs of live my main objective is to seed my base rock As fast as possible. SO which would do the job faster or better. I really do prefer purple algae to any other. I also have relaized LR from fish store is only considered live because of the bacteria and algae on it, there are no critters like shrimpe star fish clams etc

 

The color of live rock does not really matter, although the purple you refer to is coralline algea. It also occurs in other colors like green, orange, red and white among others. There are differences in live rock and sometimes you get what you pay for. If your lucky some rock will have visible life on it, but most of the time you have to wait weeks to months for things to pop up. The biggest thing is to check if it is cured or not. Uncured rock will have a fishy ammonia smell and you will have to cure it at home or don't buy it. In my experience you get better quality rock with more life on it from mail order. 75lbs of live rock is quite alot for a 30g tank. You only really need 1-2lbs per gallon.

 

Even if your live rock has little visible growth it will be chock full of helpful bacteria; and the gorgeous corraline algae and other things will grow in time.