limestone reef growth cycling 3 weeks

[ghosty3]

Hi,

I have used dry limestone as live rock, I have high alkalinity (11.4), and pH about 7.5, my salinity is also a bit high and Mg readings are ok. The thing I need to know is if my reef salt will start propagating organisms on the limestone after 12 weeks I read by just the reef salt mix ? Or do I need live rocks with organisms on them. I can buy corals on pieces of live rock, I read about beginner corals online.

I am unsure as how to proceed except for using a KH/pH buffer but since I have high readings corals can proliferate. I do have algae growth (green and brown.)

Thanks for any help.

 

[mcgyvr]

Which salt mix?
I'm not sure I understand the question..

But in general.. NO salt mix does not contain any corals embryos/ bacterial strains/snail eggs/ fish eggs or anything like that..
It may contain little space aliens but they rarely grow large enough to climb out of the tank on their own..

However as you have noticed algae spores and bacteria are in the air and will make their way into the tank and may have come in on the rock itself and will grow/spread.

If you purchase coral frags then you can certainly get "hitchhikers" like pods, brittle star fish, worms and various other critters that come in on that..

In general its certainly possible to start and maintain a system started with dry rock only.. No one needs to start with or introduce "live rock"

 

[ghosty3]

In general its certainly possible to start and maintain a system started with dry rock only.. No one needs to start with or introduce "live rock"

Thanks again, that was what I needed to know.

 

[sde1500]

Sounds like you are adding a buffer to increase PH? Stop it. All it does is temporarily bump your PH higher, and that is now why you have super high Alkalinity.

 

[ghosty3]

Fantastic, my pH changed to 8 and my dKH to 10.5 overnight, all because of lots of limestone to start out with. I can start looking for live stock. I am so happy, I only just started out, everything was ok with the rocks after 3 weeks :beer:

 

[ghosty3]

Sounds like you are adding a buffer to increase PH? Stop it. All it does is temporarily bump your PH higher, and that is now why you have super high Alkalinity.

I didn't add it, I do not have that product I used limestone, see my post above.