Coralline algae behavior

ahiggins · Jun 20, 2019

hello all,
I’ve never started with dry everything within a tank and will be doing so this time. Is it true that coralline will not grow within a system unless introduced? It makes sense because it doesn’t appear from nothing lol
Thoughts?

Aquaman102 · Jun 20, 2019

Yes, it needs to be introduced. Usually it sneaks in on coral frags or snail shells.

I'm sure your LFS would be willing to scrape some off for you to seed your tank.

ahiggins · Jun 20, 2019

thanks

TMB · Jun 20, 2019

Yeah, I've heard this too but all of my tanks have been started from dry rock, and nothing living when new. I have coraline growing wall to wall in each of them. If you can find a local reefer I'm sure they would be willing to scrape some off if you wanted to introduce it. Not sure this is necessary though, as @Aquaman102 said, it will come in on snails and stuff.

ahiggins · Jun 20, 2019

That was the question though, with everything dry and cycling-it won’t appear unless introduced. Which seems right.

TMB · Jun 20, 2019

It's a really good question, and would be a fun experiment. Logic tells me that nothing would show up, if you didn't put it in there.
So the question is - will algae show up? or Cyano? or Dinos? This makes me want to start a small tank everything dry, put lights on it, no fish or inverts, and see what happens over like 6 - 8 months.
We know bacteria will show up in there, because it can be airborne (at least I think that's right). But what else will?
I'm very curious - especially since I haven't started a new tank in like 10 years.