Is this Good Stuff or Bad Stuff?

[Hamsnacks]

Local seller is selling his Live Rock and posted a few pictures, says it has a lot of purple algae and he's paid a lot for everything.

Based on these pictures, is all the green and purple stuff good, or does that mean a bad system going on? I'm not too fond of the look but it may just be his lighting as well

Thank you

 

[Billdogg]

I see a little coraline algae (good IMO) and some green algae (not necessarily bad). Otherwise all I see is liverock. I wouldn't give more than a couple 3 dollars/pound if it were me. It also appears to be pretty solidly stacked together so there could be some excess nutrient issues you get with them.

 

[BeejReef]

His system isn't perfect. A little cyano in the sand, a little algae on the rocks. Probably to be expected in a system that is coming down.

Those wouldn't be huge concerns. The rock will come out of the water. At that point, you can scrub it up with a brush, spray it with peroxide... whatever you like.

It's clearly not 3yo rock that is caked in coraline, so don't pay a ransom for it. Still, it will fast forward your new tank considerably. The real concern is if you spot anything truly undesirable like bryopsis or a horde of aptasia.