Real coralline?

[Keithb22]

Hey all,

Have had this tank up and running a couple months now. Ended up buying some rock at the lfs and found some decent live and mixed it with some dry. Have left lights off until a few days ago and now just running a radion xr15 gen 5 on the glass at 20%. One of the pieces I got looks to be some old Tonga so I’m not sure how many times it’s exchanged hands if at all. It looks like it might have some coralline growing on it already and that’s why I tossed the light on to see if it would grow/ enlarge. Is this actual coralline or is it the painted stuff? I guess I can test to see if it starts eating alk at some point but figured that might take time and in a 60B might not show right away.

Here’s a picture with no flash and flash.

 

[Llyod276]

Was that rock one of the live ones? Or dry rock. If it was dry then prolly not. Usually coraline takes time to grow and is random when starting out.

And before it comes the gha/algea bloom happens. And your tank looks like it's barely starting the algea bloom.

Normally when coraline starts it starts randomly everywhere. Little blobs everywhere. And for some reason it always hit the plastics first then went to the rocks and glass last. So whatever isn't cleaned as much.

It is usually introduced via frags and crustaceans from other tanks/lfs etc. You can buy bottled coraline as well, but idk how that works.

This tank is ~5 months old. That's new coraline on the rocks. on the bottom of the toadstool, is old growth coraline from a previous tank...

 

[Keithb22]

Hey thanks for chirping in, I appreciate some extra set of eye and expertise! I’ve ran my tank without lighting so the bio can develop prior to cranking the lights and without coral I’ll likely keep it low. Hoping It works like the last tank, skipped the ugly phase all together. Plus adding some pods and phyto, again see if this bumps up the overall diversity.
The rock was old LR from Tonga that came in with a tank break down and was still in the vats at the lfs, so that’s why I was curious if it looked like coralline or paint was hoping it had a kick start from the years of use.

But I do have rock that was painted and it looks different and was sold as dry rock but again some of the rock was left out by other customers so it might of been wet earlier on in the day idk. Wanted to go lr but shipping has gotten much more intense since the last time I ordered lol.

 

[Llyod276]

Don't worry bout buying live rock with coraline. Focus on getting frags that have the coraline on it, dip them first though.

Let the clean up crew handle spreading your coraline around if any. They are kinda like bumble and that's how you get the random placement. Also your snails. I'm assuming that's how it gets on the glass to begin with...

 

[Llyod276]

My wife's nano, has 0 coraline growing anywhere, except for the frags, and a rock I put in from my tank. And hers has been running longer. But I am by no means an expert. Especially for nano tanks and hers is a swamp tank and just maybe coraline free...

 

[Liquid361]

This stuff works incredibly well….

Pink & Purple Live Coralline Algae Kit

There is No Faster Way To Turn Bare Rock Into Beautiful Pink & Purple Coralline Encrusted Live Rock! ARC Reef's Bottled Purple & Pink Coralline Algae is a truly unique product that contains multiple species of live coralline algae spores and nitrifying bacteria in a single solution. Unlike many...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

 

[Lavey29]

As already mentioned coralline will show up on plastic parts like powerheads long before rocks. Your rocks will get lots of different colors to them as you turn lights up, purple, pink, green and finally brown too. It's not coralline just part of the rock maturing.

 

[Keithb22]

Thank you very much, yeah I had no plan on running coral this time around but my wife loves it so I might try something simple and encrusting like a cyphastrea. But phos is a bit high but i may try anyways. The fragrance idea is a good one and I’ll just have to add (more) a CUC, the puffer tends to get bored after a while lol. I’ll check out the bottle stuff if it doesn’t take off .
Can’t say I’ve heard of a swamp tank but it sounds pretty cool though

 

[Keithb22]

As already mentioned coralline will show up on plastic parts like powerheads long before rocks. Your rocks will get lots of different colors to them as you turn lights up, purple, pink, green and finally brown too. It's not coralline just part of the rock maturing.

That looks pretty stellar, like I said I’m not to worried about coral or coralline yet but also if it’s already there then I figured I might as well get some type of light in the tank and try to let it do its thing. I’m waiting on some light bars from quanta so right now it’s just a radion sitting on the glass for now.

 

[Llyod276]

Thank you very much, yeah I had no plan on running coral this time around but my wife loves it so I might try something simple and encrusting like a cyphastrea. But phos is a bit high but i may try anyways. The fragrance idea is a good one and I’ll just have to add (more) a CUC, the puffer tends to get bored after a while lol. I’ll check out the bottle stuff if it doesn’t take off .
Can’t say I’ve heard of a swamp tank but it sounds pretty cool though

A swamp tank, is a tank that is ignored not maintained or for whatever reason becomes an experiment in darwinism. Not recommened...
I just say that cause I'm scared shirtless of putting anything in there that I don't want to see die.

 

[Lavey29]

That looks pretty stellar, like I said I’m not to worried about coral or coralline yet but also if it’s already there then I figured I might as well get some type of light in the tank and try to let it do its thing. I’m waiting on some light bars from quanta so right now it’s just a radion sitting on the glass for now.

If you're starting a new tank with dead rock you are better to leave lights off the first 3 months and let your tank develop biodiversity and microfauna first then when you turn lights on and add corals your ugly phases will be much more manageable. If starting with real live wet ocean rock then you can light from the start.

 

[Keithb22]

So the rock was mostly live and I grabbed a piece or two of dry rock. Technically only one end is lit up since i don’t have the lights yet. Do you think leaving it off further?

 

[Llyod276]

Ima disagree! My tank cycled in a month, tops. Ugly phase for a week and not even half as bad as I predicted. I did add some seeder chunks from my old tank and then moved a rock with a toadstool on it. Then added a few damsels, 1 died. Then I was GOING to add a couple of fish a week, but then just dumped all at once 7 fish and yeah the tank is great. Just do routine waterchanges....

Do what you feel is comfortable. Unless that tank is in a windowless room light will get in. And it only takes a bit for **** to grow....hey now that I think about it my tank is next to a giant window!!!!!! So guess it got light for 8hrs a day minimum....

 

[Lavey29]

So the rock was mostly live and I grabbed a piece or two of dry rock. Technically only one end is lit up since i don’t have the lights yet. Do you think leaving it off further?

If it was live wet ocean rock you can do either. If fake rock of dried out live rock if you wait a few months things go smoother. I'd always recommend adding some live wet ocean rock though even just a couple pieces to Jumpstart your biome.

 

[Keithb22]

lol it’s right next to a gigantic window as well so danged if I do danged if I don’t I guess.