Doug, I've read too many stories of huge algae issues during the early stages. And for me, the LIVE rock is live, having all the bacteria and microorganisms I want in my tank. I've used real rock from the real ocean on 5 separate builds, and only once got any real pests, which took me about 20 minutes to deal with and was kinda fun!
This is where the worms and the pods and the weird little critters come from. And really, the mainstream pests, aptaisia, algae, etc, will eventually get in anyway on frags or as spores in water.
My current tank is in it's 4th year, no pests, no algae, no problems whatsoever. Yes, I have a crab in the tank. So what? He's been there the whole time and I've seen it twice. No damage to anything.
The only real reason that I can see in using pretend live rock is price. It's cheaper, and that is important to some people.
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Brad
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