Coralline or something bad?

[Theaviator]

Hey all. I just restarted my tank about 7 months ago from the great freeze of texas in Feb. everything has been going great. Slowly adding livestock. I recently added some turbo snails with coralline on the shell in hopes of seeding my tank. I’m now starting to see speckles or purple and green all over my rock. It looks to me like coralline but I want to make sure this isn’t something more sinister that I need to attack quickly. What do you all think?

 

[ihavecrabs]

This early, my guess is a bacteria. Typically coralline doesn’t show up until after your rock is getting past the ugly phase.

 

[Pistondog]

If you can brush it off, it's not coralline.

 

[Saltyreef]

Coralline after 7 months is pretty common....
Looks like you have some green coming in too.

But to echo Pistondog & ihavecrabs if it brushes off its just cyano spots.

 

[Theaviator]

I just took out a small rock. Tried to scrub it off. It’s pretty stuck on there. Seems pretty crusty.

 

[Saltyreef]

I just took out a small rock. Tried to scrub it off. It’s pretty stuck on there. Seems pretty crusty.

Likely is coralline.
Watch for it to turn fluorescent hot pink and then white on the rock you removed and scrubbed.

 

[Pistondog]

The growth pattern, dots, does look more like coralline

 

[ihavecrabs]

I just took out a small rock. Tried to scrub it off. It’s pretty stuck on there. Seems pretty crusty.

Teach me your ways! Skipped the ugly phase?! Pretty awesome!

 

[Saltyreef]

Teach me your ways! Skipped the ugly phase?! Pretty awesome!

The tank is 7 months old he said. Ugly phase doesnt last very long if you set it up correctly.
Even with dry rock.

 

[Theaviator]

Teach me your ways! Skipped the ugly phase?! Pretty awesome!

I’m due for a break! I’ve had this tank for two years only to watch it get destroyed when I lost power for a week. This time when I rebuilt, I concentrated heavily on parameters. I’m checking and correcting Things more often than I did the last time. This seems to be working for me! But I know all to well things can go badly quickly.

 

[ihavecrabs]

The tank is 7 months old he said. Ugly phase doesnt last very long if you set it up correctly.
Even with dry rock.

But that rock is white! By 7 months my rock was anything but hah.

 

[Theaviator]

But that rock is white! By 7 months my rock was anything but hah.

I do think the turbos make a huge difference. They’ve been keeping the tank pretty clean.

I also came up with my own technique to try an diagnose issues that may arise on rocks like this. I have small chunks of rock that I placed all around my tank. That way if something pops up I can remove a small rock as a sample and scrape stuff off without harming the bigger rocks in my tank. Times like this, it came in handy.

 

[Saltyreef]

But that rock is white! By 7 months my rock was anything but hah.

My dry rock is still white and its 1.5 years wet.
I anticipate no ugly phase when i go to start up

 

[elorablue]

Wow that really is white rock still! Pretty interesting how tanks progress so differently.
Here’s my dry Marco rock at just over 5 months. Crazy difference.