Suppliers sometimes make false claims about the condition and quality of their live rock.
Let us tell you what these terms mean and how Aquarium Arts cures live rock. Parts of the shallow reef are broken to pieces by powerful storms and washed into shallow, tropical waters by the surf. Here the pieces are colonized by a wide variety of marine organisms, including encrustations of coralline algae, sponges, tube worms, soft and hard corals, anemones, and molluscs, as well as more mobile species such as crabs, shrimp, starfish, worms, and snails. Although the aquarium industry is frequently blamed for decimating tropical reefs, more reef damage is done by pollution from oil spills, waste discharges into the ocean from coastal cities and ship bilges, and runoff of coastal waters containing fertilizers, heavy metals, pesticides and naturally-occurring minerals leached out of the soil. Some suppliers wrap the pieces of coral in wet newspaper, pack them in wax coated cardboard boxes, and air freight them to wholesalers in coastal cities.