Added dry base rock today?

[brittanysmith18]

I added dry base rock today to my reef tank. It's been dry for a couple months at least. How long will it take to start becoming live rock? I have a couple pieces of already live rock in the tank, and one rock I added caused an outbreak of the purple coralline algae, which I'm happy I about. I hope it spreads to the base rock soon (as it has spread to the air stone and artificial items in my tank). I added Biozyme to the tank. Is there anything else I should add? I periodically add reef calcium to the tank, but just want to make sure I'm on the right track. I currently have a bubble tip anemone, 3 small fan corals, a mushroom coral, and a green soft coral (don't know what kind it is).

 

[biggles]

Your LR already in the tank will seed the new dry rock so there's no need to add anything else. The surface of your new rock will quickly become 'live' with bacteria - weeks not months but it will take much longer for the deeper dwelling organisms to propagate. In my experience i would feel safe to add more livestock ie another fish after waiting about 4 weeks. Hopefully others will chime in with opinions to help answer your questions. Coralline means your on the right track

 

[Mr. Bill]

+1

All you need to give it now is time.

 

[brittanysmith18]

Thanks! The coralline algae spread to artificial things in the tank within days of adding a piece of rock that had it on there, so hopefully it spreads really quick! I just don't like it all over the glass.

 

[biggles]

That doesn't sound like coralline spreading, it is way to fast. Are you sure it isn't cyno - i don't mean to infer you don't know what your doing btw i just think something isn't right re the coralline. Can you get a pic of it as that would be helpful. If i am totally wrong and barking up the wrong tree please don't take offense

 

[rovster]

It will probably take 6-8 months before it looks like the other rock. As far as it becoming live, as soon as its inhabited by bacteria, technically it's live.

 

[SweetTang]

I agree with biggles....it is probably cyano bacteria....coraline takes much longer to grow. You probably are seeing a small spike in nutrients (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates) from the new rock, which in return is feeding the cyano outbreak. No worries though, as it should eventually work itself out as your tank balances out!

 

[brittanysmith18]

I know for sure a lot of it's coralline algae. I did have some red algae for a little while that went away on it's own.

 

[biggles]

Glad to hear it is coralline and not something else It can be a pain to control at times when it really goes nuts especially having to razor blade it off the glass.

 

[Mr. Bill]

Typically, coralline doesn't spread that fast; however, it can depend on the system. In my current tank which I started with all dry rock, everything was covered in coralline just one month after adding a few snails with it on their shells.

 

[brittanysmith18]

I've had some red colonies that I had to pick off the glass. It was almost impossible. There's red all on my filter that I couldn't get off, but my turbo snails seem to be able to get it off mostly! The red slime algae I just wipe away with my hand, and my snails love it, and it usually goes away when the tank balances out. I added all the base rock and a sea anemone, then the red algae appeared. But the red algae appeared in only one corner of my tank where my hermit crabs hoarded a bunch of krill and buried it. My snails and one of my hermit crabs has coralline on their shells, and I have a whole live rock where one side is completely covered with coralline.

 

[Mr. Bill]

If you want to speed the process further, you can shave some coralline off the rock and let your powerheads spread the particles around your tank. Just turn off any filters first and leave off for about 30 minutes after.

 

[brittanysmith18]

Will the instant ocean bio-spiro stuff help??

 

[don_chuwish]

Don't bother with bottled bacteria at this point. Dr. Tim's is good stuff but you already have live bacteria in the system. Just take it slow with stocking. If you don't have any fish yet you can try fishless cycling. How long has the tank been going?

-D

 

[brittanysmith18]

My tank has been up for 3 years, but did a complete cleaning about 3 months ago. It has fish and corals already because there's already live rock, I just wanted to add more so I could add more corals later.