10 years old dry rock surviror ?

[gloup81]

how long can the color of coraline algae stay on dry rock ? my rock stayed bone dry for 10 years today i finished a 10 week cycle , cycle in "brute" style container, the thing is that some of the rocks have still both green and pink coraline algae , a bit duller but still there , although i can see clearly the patches that had grown as i was tending them and now they are bone white , that didnt happened in all the rocks and/or on all the surface , especially a beautifull redish pink/fuscia was as bright as live from the day i washed the rock prior cycling , the rock was exposed to air from 21/8/2006 till 1/1/16 can it be ??

 

[Sk8r]

Bacteria and algaes can survive really extreme conditions, including, they think, outer space. Dunno if it's still live, but even if it isn't, those areas will contain nutrient chemicals the living stuff will like.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

I would love to see some pictures of your rock!

 

[MichelleMas]

I purchased rock that had been dry for 3 years and it has awesome colors on it. I've only had it for 3 weeks but I'm excited to see how it does.

 

[Pigpen17]

Interesting. So if you have live rock with plenty of coralline. but you have some nasty hickhikers like GHA or glass anemone, you could dry it out for a year to kill off all the sea life and still possibly have living coralline?

 

[gloup81]

Hey guys i have an old cellphone and had to w8 for some descent lens to take some pics of the on the make aquarium which is located at my workarea , in the 1st pic the left 12g bucket the rocks which are shown in the other pics passed a good 8 week in pitch darkness , the last 4 days or so are chilling out in the 9gal barrel

the color of the coraline is now a bit more fader , especially the classic green n pink but both are far from dead white , the fuscia seems quite fine although a bit recessed