Ok so lfs says "yeah, that rock will turn to live rock in no time, especially if you put lots of live rock in there with it!" So of course i believe them. Only thing is, whats there "no time"? I probably have 10lbs of skeleton with appr 25lbs of lr, about how long should it take the skele to start growing things? and is there anything i could do to speed up this process?
Skeleton to lr?
- Thread starter Hotrod324
- Start date
Kennyboy1984
Member
Stick with live rock. Who likes waiting?
fishes2889
In Memoriam
It should take a couple of months before you see any growth.
Steve
Steve
fishes2889
In Memoriam
I dont know about that. all i know is hat it takes TIME to seed rock.
Steve
Steve
mister crabs
New member
time is really the only answer.... I have seen a local reefer seed 200 lbs of base rock with just 10lbs of LR!! of course....it took 9 months!! lol
reefnetworth
Premium Member
your base rock will take about 3 months. youll need LR that has coralline already on it to seed. the best way is to have alot of flow directed on the LR with coralline. it will seed the water and it will attach itself to the BR. photo period of at least 10 hours a day. keep Calcium level between 425-475, keep the Alkalinity level at 2.4-4.0 MEQ/L. you should be starting to see it in about 1.5-2.0 months. then it will begin to spread. REEF-ON!!!
Zero-2-Sixty
New member
you can use purple-up, it has disolved calcium and coralline spores. ive heard good things about it, but havent needed it myself. anyway it should speed up the overall coraline growth for your tank
philagothos
New member
Just a thought, live rock is not special and great because it is covered with purple algae. What makes it "live" and beneficial for the tank is the bacteria that grows inside of it. It would be possible to have a rock completely covered with coraline and still not have an effective amount of bacteria inside the rock.
In fact, some argue that although pretty, coraline is actually a bad thing because it covers the pores of the rock making it less effective as a biological filter.
The question of how long from base rock to live rock really depends on how you define your rock as "live". Coraline can be induced to grow rather quickly (month or two), but the bacteria will take longer (up to a year). One way that might help speed this up would be to pulverize a pound or two or live rock and poor it over the base rock. This would directly introduce the bacteria to the base rock instead of having to wait for it to migrate.
Just my thoughts, hope it helps.
-Kevin
In fact, some argue that although pretty, coraline is actually a bad thing because it covers the pores of the rock making it less effective as a biological filter.
The question of how long from base rock to live rock really depends on how you define your rock as "live". Coraline can be induced to grow rather quickly (month or two), but the bacteria will take longer (up to a year). One way that might help speed this up would be to pulverize a pound or two or live rock and poor it over the base rock. This would directly introduce the bacteria to the base rock instead of having to wait for it to migrate.
Just my thoughts, hope it helps.
-Kevin
Steven0000
New member
thank you
finally someone who knows the facts
