Maturing Live Rock

[j0tca]

We all know that live rock needs a few weeks to cure in a tank. It also requires decent light for proper growth and maintenance of microbial systems. But most people (including me) have over 1 lb of LR/g which means alot of it is hidden under other LR. So the light doesn't reach it... This doesn't make sense to me. If LR needs light, then what's the point of putting in LR that isn't on the top of your pile. Wouldn't porous dead rock be just as good.
Thanks in advance.

[h20cooled]

I don't think that LR requires light, the coraline will require some light but most do well under low light. So I don't see why you would need to have light on all of the rock. The coraline will spread to the areas of the rock that have the light that it requires. As far as the micro creatures and such I know most of them prefer no light.

Rich

[DaveC]

I don't know if I would use porous dead rock, but that is the reason some people use a less quality LR as the base, I guess you could use dead rock, but even though over time it will become alive, I don't think it will ever have the bio-diversity of any type of LR...and some people do use light to cycle their rock in hopes of keeping as much alive as possible, but they need to also do quite alot of water changes also...should also be using your skimmer with strong water circulation..

DaveC