Does live rock need light?

taulgrl

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I just purchased 20 lbs of rock from Gulf Live Rock. It’s in a bin cycling separate from my 75g DT (with live sand, dry rock and a few fish). The rock came with some very nice coralline that I want to keep alive esp since all of the clams died within 3 days and fouled the water up pretty good (so much for 3 day ship). Do I need to keep a specific type of light on it while it cycles to preserve the awesome coralline? I have an LED “shop light” on it now but one of my NICREW lights just came and I could set it up w blues On. I’ve been keeping the lights off my 1 month old DT to minimize algae outbreaks. Thanks for the help!

5DF9A403-39C9-4A6E-AA19-EEE131428AE7.jpeg 8907675E-8709-402B-8DBB-A2E2CCC1060F.jpeg
 

vetteguy53081

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Having macro algae on it- light and water flow will be beneficial
 

Azedenkae

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I just purchased 20 lbs of rock from Gulf Live Rock. It’s in a bin cycling separate from my 75g DT (with live sand, dry rock and a few fish). The rock came with some very nice coralline that I want to keep alive esp since all of the clams died within 3 days and fouled the water up pretty good (so much for 3 day ship). Do I need to keep a specific type of light on it while it cycles to preserve the awesome coralline? I have an LED “shop light” on it now but one of my NICREW lights just came and I could set it up w blues On. I’ve been keeping the lights off my 1 month old DT to minimize algae outbreaks. Thanks for the help!

5DF9A403-39C9-4A6E-AA19-EEE131428AE7.jpeg 8907675E-8709-402B-8DBB-A2E2CCC1060F.jpeg
Live rock per se does not need light, but if you want to keep any organism that are photosynthetic then yes, you'd need light.
 
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taulgrl

taulgrl

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Having macro algae on it- light and water flow will be beneficial
Thanks for the quick reply! Most of the macro algae died but the big, green fern-like one in the pic is hanging on. Is the LED shop light adequate (I think I have it on ~12 hrs) or should I rig up the NICREW which can do more blue light? The rocks don't seem as vibrant as when I first got them ~4 days ago (pics are from day 1). It may be from all of the die-off I've had but I also worried it was because of the lighting.
 

vetteguy53081

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Thanks for the quick reply! Most of the macro algae died but the big, green fern-like one in the pic is hanging on. Is the LED shop light adequate (I think I have it on ~12 hrs) or should I rig up the NICREW which can do more blue light? The rocks don't seem as vibrant as when I first got them ~4 days ago (pics are from day 1). It may be from all of the die-off I've had but I also worried it was because of the lighting.
Shop inadequate. Blue and white acceptable but not the required type in the long run for tank
 

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Yeah I just pulled a bunch of gulf rock out of sump after a year. Only had 2 x 24 watt daylight cfls on it. Really wish I had gotten a cheap black box and put it over rock. Even after a year with no real light I have clove polyps and all kinds of stuff popping up. Cant imagine what I lost though.
 
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taulgrl

taulgrl

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Yeah I just pulled a bunch of gulf rock out of sump after a year. Only had 2 x 24 watt daylight cfls on it. Really wish I had gotten a cheap black box and put it over rock. Even after a year with no real light I have clove polyps and all kinds of stuff popping up. Cant imagine what I lost though.
good to know. I'm going to put my black box over them when I get home. Hoping that (and another big water change) perks them up some more.
 

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