OP
OP
Chee-tomorpha
Active Member
Providing an update to the experiment I've been doing with sealing this tank's rock scape.
The sealed rock scape has prevented any algae from getting established, from my observations. There were times with diatoms and red slime but no algae has taken hold at anytime. Aside from that the typical coating on the glass has been the only things I've had to worry about so far.
At first it appeared that coralline algae was also prevented from growing on the sealed rock. That has changed completely and now appears that the sealed surface is ideal for one type of coralline algae, specifically the purple kind.
There are sections where the rock isn't sealed, typically the bottoms of the rocks, have developed the brown and green variety but the sealed sections are only the purple coralline type. I seeded the tank from the coralline in my R250 which includes brown, green, purple, pink, and red.
This tank has been running since August, so 5 months. In that time I've not experienced any algae bloom or had any algae growth.
Also, the sealed rock does not appear to have any adverse affects on nitrifying bacteria colonization - this is anecdotal evidence from my observations only. My tank is overstocked and appears to be fine for the inhabitants. I have added a couple LPS to test and they appear to be doing okay - most certainly they're not thriving yet.
I don't know why this is happening or if there will be future issues that hasn't presented itself yet, but it appears to me that sealing the rock has prevented a lot of headaches with the ugly phase and algae control, and possibly completely eliminating algae altogether as the tank continues to mature.
The sealed rock scape has prevented any algae from getting established, from my observations. There were times with diatoms and red slime but no algae has taken hold at anytime. Aside from that the typical coating on the glass has been the only things I've had to worry about so far.
At first it appeared that coralline algae was also prevented from growing on the sealed rock. That has changed completely and now appears that the sealed surface is ideal for one type of coralline algae, specifically the purple kind.
There are sections where the rock isn't sealed, typically the bottoms of the rocks, have developed the brown and green variety but the sealed sections are only the purple coralline type. I seeded the tank from the coralline in my R250 which includes brown, green, purple, pink, and red.
This tank has been running since August, so 5 months. In that time I've not experienced any algae bloom or had any algae growth.
Also, the sealed rock does not appear to have any adverse affects on nitrifying bacteria colonization - this is anecdotal evidence from my observations only. My tank is overstocked and appears to be fine for the inhabitants. I have added a couple LPS to test and they appear to be doing okay - most certainly they're not thriving yet.
I don't know why this is happening or if there will be future issues that hasn't presented itself yet, but it appears to me that sealing the rock has prevented a lot of headaches with the ugly phase and algae control, and possibly completely eliminating algae altogether as the tank continues to mature.
