An observation about algae be dead rock

[DanConnor]

I set up my 200 about 8 months ago, and it went through all the ugly stages. Pristine for a while, then hair algae, then cyano, then dinos. Most of the rock was dry rock, but maybe 1/5 is live rock scattered around.

In every case, the infestation occurred ONLY on the dry rock. The live rock has remained pristine throughout the life of the reef.

 

[DanConnor]

Oops, no way to edit a thread title I guess

 

[Water Dog]

Where'd ya get the dry rock from? Perhaps it is leaching phosphates?

 

[Elementalj]

Where'd ya get the dry rock from? Perhaps it is leaching phosphates?

That was my first impression. I had been using caribsea's coral rubble to mount frags and shortly after I'd have a small Dino outbreak. So, I took the remaining rubble and saturated it in a R/O vinegar solution for a few weeks to chelate the silicate and after a thorough rinse I've had no Dino's.

Cooking dry rock so to speak is the best method of extracting silicate and phosphate from the rock before it goes Into the display. Mark Levin's videos on YouTube help with these situations.

Check him out!

Happy reefing!

 

[DanConnor]

Where'd ya get the dry rock from? Perhaps it is leaching phosphates?

Several different sources- both mined and dry fiji rock. All act the same.

 

[DanConnor]

The last time I had a reef I used the dry rock strictly as a base and it wasn't a problem. If I could do a redo this time I would definitely have let the rock sit in a livestock tank with circulation, and some light and seed rock.

Although, this time I got to spend months rearranging the dry rock on land to get the right aquascape.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

It is much harder for algae to grow on other living organisms (such as coat live rock) than on bare substrates like new dead rock.

 

[brandon429]

agreed and Id say coralline is the best excluder other than direct coral flesh

watching in detail where algae repeatedly selects to grow and not grow sure does help in the battle, nice observation DC. when im lazy on my tank, the glass gets a thick brown stringy algae but never ever the rocks/coralline in sheets.

 

[DanConnor]

Yeah- there's actually patches of coralline starting on the dry rock and that fixing it nicely