Live Rock/Sand...wearing out?

[freestone]

I recently heard from a friend that the live sand can 'wear out' and need to be replaced. Is this true? If so how lond does it last. Is this also true for live rock? My figi live rock seems to be slowly 'disolving'. Please help.

[Travis L. Stevens]

That all depends. Most of this "wear out" is because of improper maintenance on a sand bed. When they say this, they are usually talking about nutrient build up that eventually will leech back into the system thus causing a tank crash. This is where the concept of bare bottom comes into play. As far as the rock go, they could be. You could have something like a Rock Boring Urchin or a Mantis Shrimp slowly knocking the rock down. Also, with Aragonite Sand and Live Rock, if you don't have the proper pH, it can eventually dissolve. But for significant signs of dissolving, your pH would need to be anywhere from 7.0-7.4 to see anything major. If your tank is aat 7.8-8.0 it would take a LONG time to see anything significant if anything at all.