Florida Live Rock is known for some of the most colorful living reef organisms. Including feather dusters, polyps, marine algae and sponges. This live rock can come from Florida, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, but is usually lumped together as Florida Live Rock. There is still a healthy abundance of this rock available because many companies are aquaculturing this rock in the ocean. This means that they take dried up live rock that washes up on the shore or create artificial live rock from cement and then return it to the ocean for several months to turn into live rock.
Florida Live Rock Pests
During the aquaculturing process many different bacteria, algae and small critters begin to colonize on the rock. Some of these critters like sponges, clams and tube worms are the best features of Florida Live Rock. Although some not so good live rock hitchhikers like gorilla crabs and mantis shrimp can tag along. When the live rock is collected, good vendors will attempt to remove many of these pests through various methods. Unfortunately, some of the life will not survive the curing process in your saltwater aquarium, but those that do will add a great deal of color to your reef tank. Florida live rock is heavier than other types of aquarium live rock so you may require one to one and half pounds per gallon to fill your tank. It is recommended that you mix it with other varieties to help form arches and bases.
