Dry Rock Coralline Seeding Experiment

[averagesteve]

I seeded my tank, started with dry rock, with the pink and purple around mid Jan, and currently have spots all over live rock and glass, and larger spots on my overflow. I think the stuff works, although I also had a few snails that I received from reefcleaners that had coralline on them, so who knows... Interested in your more controlled experiment.

 

[paragrouper]

Following

 

[X-37B]

Scraped coralline or a couple of live rocks with coralline is really the way to go. I turn dead rock into live in my 45's sump.
I just setup a 20g with rock from the sump. All were dead rock 6-9 months ago.

I will be following this though.
I expect the uglies will dominate before any coralline shows.

My 20g, was started with said rock 24 days ago. The powerhead is already showing coralline growth
Really no need to reinvent the wheel.

Good luck! I am interested in your results.
My current 24 day old 20g aio.

 

[NkSde]

Curious as well let’s follow

 

[schooncw]

I tried this on my mature tank but did not see any results. I cannot criticize the product, however, as my phosphate is too high and stunts/prevents coralline growth.

 

[Red_Beard]

Progress report:
Still no coralline growth... LOL
But really. The light is mounted and the ATO is rigged and ready. Just about ready to settle in for the long haul.

This is the lighting schedule:

It is currently in acclamation mode though, so it is 50% of that and will ramp up over the next few weeks.

 

[Rennurdoar]

This is similar to how I started our 65g that we just transferred over to a 90g. I started it with only water, salt, and pink and purple corraline algae. About 8 bottles within 8 weeks of starting the tank. Had two clowns in the tank the first week I had water in it. Added 2 bottles of MB7 also, never looked back. Had corraline starting within 10 weeks of tank startup.

Tank is still going strong, and I've had acros in since month 3. Lost some due to a stray voltage incident, but all current ones have been going well for a couple of months now, and encrusting/growing.

I also added in maybe 12 jars of Galaxy/ecopods the first 12 weeks as well.

 

[Red_Beard]

This is similar to how I started our 65g that we just transferred over to a 90g. I started it with only water, salt, and pink and purple corraline algae. About 8 bottles within 8 weeks of starting the tank. Had two clowns in the tank the first week I had water in it. Added 2 bottles of MB7 also, never looked back. Had corraline starting within 10 weeks of tank startup.

Tank is still going strong, and I've had acros in since month 3. Lost some due to a stray voltage incident, but all current ones have been going well for a couple of months now, and encrusting/growing.

I also added in maybe 12 jars of Galaxy/ecopods the first 12 weeks as well.

That is good to know. That was kinda the whole point of this, is if i seeded it and water it regularly if we get good crops before the weeds smother the land. You really put 8 bottles in a 65? dang!
Sorry to hear about the acro. i had an ATO loose it's mind in a power bump and the resulting salinity swing killed my favorite one.

 

[fredward]

I am going to try and keep this between the recommend 8.0 - 8.3. I got some kalkwasser to bump it should the need arise.

I meant the people commenting they have zero or very sow coralline growth. Wonder if their ph is low

 

[ectoaesthetics]

I’ve started two tanks while using this stuff. It did work. From what I can tell is ground up or scraped spores of coralline. With either of those methods you would also get bacteria that would help seed the tank. You will not avoid the uglies. Both of my tanks went through those.

The second round I did let a biofilm form on the rocks and dark cured them while running my fuge light. It seemed to help to have some film on the rocks and for them to be a bit more mature/further along before adding helix. It helps avoid putting the new coralline starts through the spikes from the cycle.

 

[Rennurdoar]

That is good to know. That was kinda the whole point of this, is if i seeded it and water it regularly if we get good crops before the weeds smother the land. You really put 8 bottles in a 65? dang!
Sorry to hear about the acro. i had an ATO loose it's mind in a power bump and the resulting salinity swing killed my favorite one.

Sure did! 2 bottles, a pink and purple, every other week. 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th week. First 2 weeks I slowly added in 1 MB7, 3rd week I just dumped the whole new MB7 bottle in.

I added two corals in the tank on the 3rd week also. A frammer and a trumpet coral. They're both still doing great!

Dang, that sucks when equipment malfunctions for sure! I still need to invest in an ATO, just been topping off manually around 8am and 10pm. Hopefully everything works out well for you with this new setup!

 

[Red_Beard]

Sure did! 2 bottles, a pink and purple, every other week. 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th week. First 2 weeks I slowly added in 1 MB7, 3rd week I just dumped the whole new MB7 bottle in.

I added two corals in the tank on the 3rd week also. A frammer and a trumpet coral. They're both still doing great!

Dang, that sucks when equipment malfunctions for sure! I still need to invest in an ATO, just been topping off manually around 8am and 10pm. Hopefully everything works out well for you with this new setup!

Dang brother! That is awesome!
Totally agree on the malfunction stuff. I cant help but feel mostly responsible though as it was another one i built. I used an $8 el cheepo hoby relay board. To be fair though it lasted 3 years which is probably hundreds of thousands of cycles. I replaced the controller and upgraded to solid state relays so hopefully that doesn't happen again. No more moving parts!
Once you go ATO though, you will wonder why it took so long to start! It is hands down the most useful thing on the tank, when it comes to reducing time sensitive work.

 

[Red_Beard]

Update:
I doesed up the Ca in the tank to 440 ppm as mesured with salifert. I also matched the Ca dose in Mg to get that elevated a bit also, and in lieu of actually being able to tell where it was it just brought both elements up in parallel.
Now, we wait.

 

[Makara23]

Just curious, if everything is started sterile, no fish/coral/inverts are introduced, how would nuisance algae even grow if there were no spores to begin with?

Following a long also!

 

[Rusty_L_Shackleford]

Not my particular cup of tea, but im following along out of curiosity. I seeded my dry rock with some nice live rock from an established tank and 2 months later im already having to scrape some coralline off the glass and i can see it starting to take off on the preciously dry rock. Plus all the other microfauna.

 

[Red_Beard]

Checking pH the last couple days, it is holding steady at 8.2. Everything else is testing stabile too. Not much to report yet, other than that.

 

[Red_Beard]

Got a new Mag test kit, salifert, showed up today. It is sitting at 1350 ppm. I also got another reagent kit for my checker. This one is reading 11.3 dKh. pH is a steady 8.2 as well as Ca at 440. Didnt test No3 or Po4 tonight though.

New development:

Something is starting to take hold! Dunno how easy it is to see, but there are little rust colored specks all over the higher points in the scape. Hopefully it isnt algae or diatomes, but based on color i am not holding my breath. Time will tell though and i am sure another week or so will make that clear.

 

[Makara23]

You poured in pink and purple coralline, so shouldn't it be that color? Brown tells me it's diatoms, but for experimental sake, I hope it's not.

 

[Red_Beard]

Yep. Those were my thoughts exactly.

 

[taricha]

Dunno how easy it is to see, but there are little rust colored specks all over the higher points in the scape. Hopefully it isnt algae or diatomes, but based on color i am not holding my breath.

You poured in pink and purple coralline, so shouldn't it be that color? Brown tells me it's diatoms, but for experimental sake, I hope it's not.

The bottles are not pure coralline - there is other algae in those systems that they bottle. I think ARC mentions that coralline shows up after a green or brown phase fades.