Dry Rock Coralline Seeding Experiment

[Red_Beard]

This week's update:
Not much

There are some small brownish spots developing, hair algea is growing pretty ok, and i think a sponge is starting to grow. It is kinda paleish green. Hard to tell though it is pretty small:

And a side view for good measure. It is about time to clean the glass...

 

[ClownSchool]

My question to all the commenters is what was/is the ph of the tanks? Gotta keep it up there

I’m actually struggling with low pH.
And, for the past week I’ve decided to introduce a coralline accelerator in an attempt to raise pH during the photo cycle. And, though it’s been minimal at this early stage, it is gradually climbing higher during its peak each day.
And, additionally, it had been bottoming out at 7.72-7.74 by morning. But, the last two days, it’s bottomed out at 7.8 and 7.81, so fingers crossed!

Disclaimer:
I’ve also added a couple air stones to the sump at the start of the experiment.
I also used Kalkwasser during the day in previous weeks, but the nightly drop in pH just dropped faster and went lower. One night, it fell to 7.6.

 

[Red_Beard]

This week's update is much the same. A lot more growth on the glass, and the hair algea has grown a bit.

(That media bag just has a little rox carbon in it.)

 

[Red_Beard]

Sorry i missed a week! There wasnt much, last weeks update was much the same as the week before.
This week however... there are some pink spots!

Kinda faint, but hopefully they take hold!

Full tank shot:

 

[Spicy Reef]

Interesting, thanks for sharing.

 

[Red_Beard]

This weeks update on- The Pinkening:
Looks like they are starting to spread!
This week is also up for a waterchange and toothbrushing of the hair algae.

 

[Makara23]

@Red_Beard Any idea what the PAR value is from your AI Blade light? I know it's your experiment, but just a suggestion: after you're done cleaning the hair algae, perhaps greatly reduce your light intensity so it doesn't grow back.

I inadvertently grew more coralline while killing of all nuisance algae in my QT tank. The tank has been up for about 2 months with no light other than ambient light in the room. It was started with a rock with some coralline and hair algae, and now the rock has triple the coralline and zero hair or film algae anywhere in the tank. Notice coralline is now spreading on the plastic container as well.

It seems coralline can still thrive in very little light, unlike nuisance algae.

 

[Red_Beard]

@Red_Beard Any idea what the PAR value is from your AI Blade light? I know it's your experiment, but just a suggestion: after you're done cleaning the hair algae, perhaps greatly reduce your light intensity so it doesn't grow back.

I inadvertently grew more coralline while killing of all nuisance algae in my QT tank. The tank has been up for about 2 months with no light other than ambient light in the room. It was started with a rock with some coralline and hair algae, and now the rock has triple the coralline and zero hair or film algae anywhere in the tank. Notice coralline is now spreading on the plastic container as well.

It seems coralline can still thrive in very little light, unlike nuisance algae.

That is a good suggestion, i have the blade at 100 royal 60 cyan and 60 white. Not sure what the PAR at that level would be, i dont have a meter. I still havent toothbrushed the algae, but i did take a powerhead and blow everything off. Most of it cleaned right up surprisingly. Just a couple little patches of hair algea still to clean.

 

[Red_Beard]

Picture time, not much new 'cept these sweet patches of a bluish coraline starting to take hold. It is really pretty and i really hope it spreads!

Top- down fts(still dirty, had a busy week and this was de-prioritised):

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Picture time, not much new 'cept these sweet patches of a bluish coraline starting to take hold. It is really pretty and i really hope it spreads!

Top- down fts(still dirty, had a busy week and this was de-prioritised):

Hoping that it spreads for you as well!

 

[Red_Beard]

This tank has always been phosphate limited, but i think i went a little heavy handed this week in dosing. Every time ive tested it has read 0ppm, so instead of once a week i dosed a little bit every other day. That caused a bacterial mulm to coat the whole of everything. I was able to blow it all off with juat a power head, but not sure what that has done to the growth of coralline. Still there though, not much change.

 

[Red_Beard]

Not much change still. The splotches of pink and the ones of blue look pretty well the same as 3 weeks ago. I think i am going to call this experiment plausible, as that bottled coralline did get the tank seeded as evidenced by the small beginnings of coralline. But, with a sterile tank, nutritient management is difficult and it may be missing some of the more accessible forms of nitrogen, ie ammonia. Not sure if that or some manner of bacterial instability or a combination of those or something else entirely is the root of the slow growth, but, the bottles definitely introduced viable coralline spores. I am intending to add a cleanup crew, copepods, and maybe a fish. Let that all stew a month or two to make sure that doesnt kick off an algea explosion and transfer this all to my main display.
Let me know if you all want any pics or have any questions/ comments. Thanks for following!

 

[taricha]

Thanks!
Take the best white light pics of the different coralline spots that you can. If you pull rock out and transfer that would be a good opportunity.

 

[Red_Beard]

@taricha think this went a little long unattended. It has been a busy. All the splotches were covered with film algae and i just moved it as is to feed the pods and tangs in my display. This is what it looks like pretty well all over

And an fts too. This is with all moved except the little nem island, it is still in the seed tank.

 

[Red_Beard]

Conclusions: i think all in all this worked extremely well to get the rock started through benthic layer cycling, but not as great with a bare tank for coralline growth. Were i to do this again strictly for coralline growth, i would not attempt it in a bare system with no higher life forms. I would have clean up crews and a few fish to keep nutrient levels adequate for growth. As it was i had to dose waaaay more phosphate than anticipated and i think it bottomed out a few times before i caught it.

 

[Skunk Shrimp]

Updates?

 

[Red_Beard]

Updates?

I moved those rocks to my main display, the urchin gobbled down all the coralline off the rock before it really got a good foothold. But, i do get great growth in my skimmer neck of all places, so coralline is definitely present.

 

[Skunk Shrimp]

I moved those rocks to my main display, the urchin gobbled down all the coralline off the rock before it really got a good foothold. But, i do get great growth in my skimmer neck of all places, so coralline is definitely present.

Cool I have been watching this thread to see if it was worth buying!

 

[Red_Beard]

Cool I have been watching this thread to see if it was worth buying!

I personally like it. I used it before this also on a 30 gallon tank. That time it got some cool orange and a teal blueish strain of coralline that did pretty good for a few months, but that was my first tank and parameters were a little loose, i think i killed it. The standard pink stuff did really well though and colonised most of the tank.
If you do get it, make sure to turn you flow off for a bit when you add it, brush out the bottle good and rinse it into your tank.