My LFS is selling "live rock" that is supposedly cultured. What is bothering me is that theres seems to be no pods, no actual bugs and fun stuff on the rock, and nothing at all of any interest. Theres a black "sponge" like thing on one that seems to have died out a while ago but nothing else..

Am I expecting the rock to be full of life too early "or at least having some signs" at ten days into the nano?

or....

Do you think they're taking dead rock and making it cured rock w/o any cool bits added???

any other thoughts? options?

Well, one of my LFS' were selling live rock. It was dead rock in a garbage can filled with water. There was absolutely no life on it whatsoever. I am thinking maybe you got the same deal.

you'd be surprised what crawls out of rock when you tank it......I thought the same thing, the rock at my LFS was really not well lit, in a big tank, lots of flow, but nothing exciting.......Within a day or so there were pods, there were dusters, crabs, a brittle star, all sorts of stuff that just doesn't care to come out unless you really look hard

Most LFSs aren't going to spend time getting live rock to look better than they got it. However, even bland rock can look really good with the right water/light conditions. My current rock is from someone who bought from local LFSs and had a tank for at least 2 years, and it is some of the best I've ever seen. Rock from local owners is often very good quality and at lower prices than the LFS.

It definately doesn't have the oodles of goodies I'm used to seeing. Their live rock tank is just a little black pond with a skimmer attached and thats it. Kinda saddening but thats all we have out here in the boonies. I shoulda probably ordered from liveaquaria or something of the such. "Shrug"

Corals decorating the rock and making it happy and possibly I can get a LR thats quite well seeded with fun stuffs in a month or so.

Thank you for your input, I much appreciate it!

i bought a few pieces of rocks from this tank with saltwater, an airstone, and very little light. there was absolutely no coralline on it and two weeks later in my tank i am seeing lots of coralline. most of the rocks around here that are selling 5 dollars per lbs have no coralline but anything 7 dollars per pound and up and covered with it.

I started with dead base,and even after having the rock for 9 months,
adding macro and using real SW I don't have no pod.
Coraline and sponges,but nothing else.

my lfs always has lr that is always covered fully with purple coraline. sometimes though they get lr that looks like it hasnt been cured but they always mix it in with the coraline covered rocks to try to get them to look alot better . i have like 5 pieces that arnt that big fully covered and i love it because i got 25lbs of dry rock from macro rocks and now they are turning really purple too