The Puffer Forum

So I got some Fiji live rock. So far I am not impressed with the looks of it being $8 a pound here. When i got it there were very small amounts of purple/red coraline algae. Very small like tiny chunks. My biggest area of it is like 1/4 inch. There are some green/yellow/pink areas on the rock but I want to make the rocks look good and thrive with color like this rock.
http://www.getahugetank.com/images/Fiji ... a_Rock.jpg

Whats your favorite type of additive that you use that helps your tank thrive with color?
Any suggestions and Links to the product are very much appreciated!

Also looking for a good vitamin to soak my porc puffers food in to make him thrive!

I feel ya I just got some for 2.50 a pound(dead) and its got mineral deposits but Isee what you saying I want mine like that too. mines dead rock cuz it BW still but soon to be Ful Marine. good luck

You know what I am wondering why cant you go the the LFS or call and ask them to scrape some off the glass of there tanks I wonder if you can use than to colonize your tank with It. As far as I knew you just waited for it to grow or spread. I think that might work.

Because even though I have spent a grand there since Christmas they still wanna make money off everything

Dont add anything you can't test for. Soak the food in selcon.

Read parts 1-4 here, it explains all the needed chemistry for a successful reef tank. (you can find the other parts by looking through past issues, 2007)

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-04/rhf/index.php

I use kalk daily, and if changes are needed I use two part to increase what if any is low, also a little mag is needed every now and then, but always test first and if a large change is needed, do it over a few days.

If its a FOWLR, just do water changes and be patient.

Dont add anything you can't test for.

Except vitamin C.

and vodka!

LOL

Youtube has some great tutorials to gettin bright purple/red coraline algae. They are usually scraping it of a rock with it already and in to the tank. They let it settle on the rocks with powerheads off for 1 hour. Then you should see so growth.

I was disappointed in my live rocks' blandness as well. I picked cleaner crabs and snails that had shells covered in coraline, and a couple of frags that also came covered in the purple stuff. After 2-3 weeks I was disappointed that I couldn't see any evidence of coraline spreading. Less than two weeks ago I switched to Reef Crystals for my salt mix, and now I am seeing coraline growth everywhere: live rocks, lace rock, overflow, powerhead, cords, and even glass.
While I can't say reef crystals is what did it, I can say that coraline needs calcium and alkalinity to put down new growth and reef crystals provides these things in much greater abundance than the salt mix I was using, and I went from constantly being disappointed in the lack of growth to constantly surprised at how much new growth there is. good luck.

taricha wrote:I was disappointed in my live rocks' blandness as well. I picked cleaner crabs and snails that had shells covered in coraline, and a couple of frags that also came covered in the purple stuff. After 2-3 weeks I was disappointed that I couldn't see any evidence of coraline spreading. Less than two weeks ago I switched to Reef Crystals for my salt mix, and now I am seeing coraline growth everywhere: live rocks, lace rock, overflow, powerhead, cords, and even glass.
While I can't say reef crystals is what did it, I can say that coraline needs calcium and alkalinity to put down new growth and reef crystals provides these things in much greater abundance than the salt mix I was using, and I went from constantly being disappointed in the lack of growth to constantly surprised at how much new growth there is. good luck.

Did you read the articles I posted above?

Coraline and any calcifying life needs calcium and bicarbonate (alkalinity) and magnesium. If you are really concerned with coraline growth, you need to test for those three and supplement accordingly.

+1

purple up helped big time for me, and my tank way immature.
http://www.caribsea.com/pages/buy_it/ad ... le-up.html
should note tho your water will look like milk for bout hour er 2 depending on dosing size