How fast does coralline grow?

[downhillbiker]

I recently started a batch of "dead" live rock, about 40lbs, and have it curing in a trash can with a protein skimmer and light.

I added a couple pieces of heavily encrusted live rock that i picked up from the LFS and was wondering how fast coralline grows. the dead white rocks have purple spots all over them. could this have happend over night?

And the spots are actually attached, they arent just pieces that fell off of the other rock. The other option is that the coralline lasted dried up for over a year, while my buddy had the rock in his garage.

 

[Megalodon]

It depends on how much carbonate, calcium, and magnesium is in the water.

 

[downhillbiker]

ok i am aware of that, but is this even possible? in 12 hours? the calcium and carbonate and mag are probably pretty high since i just put the rocks in new water made with reef crystals.

what is the most likely culprit? was it seeded from other rock? or did some of the coralline last over a year dried out?

 

[mixed_reefer]

It is possible that some coraline retained color once dried out.

 

[minimasterflash]

Who knows, it could be dormant on the rock and needed sufficent conditions and light to come alive, be happy its there!

 

[abulgin]

It's definitely possible given enough minerals in the water and decent lighting. Some days I wake up to find tiny dots of coralline on my glass. It's a slow process to get a lot of coverage, but it can start quickly.

 

[downhillbiker]

oh trust me, i am happy about it. i thought it would take months to show any coralline growth, but if it is starting now in the curing tank, then it should be really doing good after 4 more weeks. If it takes that long for me to cycle it.

 

[46FiatYamaha]

I added a few dried and very white rocks I bought from my LFS to grow into live rock, and around two months they have been completely covered in coralline algae of several colors, and my calcium is 450, and dkh is 8.3

 

[Tajjo]

any pics? thanks

 

[drama07]

I think the best advice is to just let the months go by. Coralline algae will eventually grow like mad once the tank begins to stabilize.

If your tank has stabilized and all the parameters are in check then it hundred percent possible that it'll spread in one night

 

[downhillbiker]

its not in a tank. the display tank has 40 lbs of live rock and has been set up for over 8 months. the rock was from a previous tank of mine set up for 2 years, direct to the new tank.

the rock with the new growth was dead, and from a friend's garage, and i added a couple pieces of coralline COVERED live rock from my LFS. the rock is curing in a garbage can and only has been in there for 2 days with the live rock for 1 day, and the coralline is already showing, that's why i was wondering what happened.

 

[tsr770]

I had the same thing happen when I was building up live rock in a rubbermaid to use in my tank... had a bunch of dry/base rock in there and added 3 very encrusted rocks and went from no coraline at all to lots of 1/8" spots in about 36 hours do its deffinately possible. In my tank coraline growth is sporadic.. one week I get nothing and the next week it goes nuts even though the parameters are very stable it just goes thru spurts

 

[widmer]

somewhere on www.garf.org they list the specific water parameters that encourage fast coralline growth, if I recall correctly they aren't exactly the same parameters as coral prefers.