Bulk Reef Supply Reef Saver Dry Aquarium Live Rock

Sandcrab3 · Jul 23, 2014

I bought this rock for a new 75 gal tank. I added Ground Coral for sand, a Fluval G6 filter, hang on Ramora Pro skimmer, UV filter and a couple of Fluval circulating pumps along with a Fluval Digital Heater. I then added 4 clowns, a yellow tang, a trigger and 4 yellow tail blue damsels. Well the Brown algae took over the rock and tank after a couple of weeks. I then added 6 Turbo snails and they cleaned the algae right away. I now see some green appearing on the rocks.
What can I expect to grow or develop in this new tank. Will anything good develop on this type of rock besides algae. Do I need to buy coral, etc? What can I expect. I have had FW tanks in the past years and raised Discus when it was almost top secret on how to do it years ago. This is my first SW experience. Any experienced info appreciated.

tigerdragon · Jul 23, 2014

For one i would dump the cannister go to a sump. Need to look at light cycle, how heavy you are feeding, type of lights, flow in tank should be around 20x capacity, filtration around 10x.

Sandcrab3 · Jul 23, 2014

I emailed BRS and just received this rapid reply:
Hey there Neil!
Normally you will encounter a few algae bloom "cycles". The first one will be a brown diatom algae bloom. After that you could expect a green algae bloom which sounds like what you are seeing now. Eventually that hard calcareous green algae will turn into the purple coralline algae all of us are looking for as long as you keep your calcium and alkalinity at the proper levels

Personally I wouldn't add anything except continuing your water change schedule. Over time the rock will purple up. Let me know if you need anything else and have a great day!

915MANG · Jul 23, 2014

Hi,
For sure scrub the heck out of the rock. I soaked it, and put it in my nano. My water was cloudly for a long time, actually it still is. keep in mind I pre rinsed the rock!

Sandcrab3 · Jul 23, 2014

915MANG said:
Hi,
For sure scrub the heck out of the rock. I soaked it, and put it in my nano. My water was cloudly for a long time, actually it still is. keep in mind I pre rinsed the rock!

Yes, mine was cloudy at first.... even after rinsing the coral sand for a long time. Then I remembered this great item that I used on my FW tanks years ago and ordered a Vortex XL Diatom filter. Within 30-45 minutes, the tank was crystal clear. The Diatom filters are well worth the price you will pay for it. You don't need it that often, but when you do......