Dry rock

Will coraline algae grow on dry rock without ever introducing it into the aquarium from a piece of liverock? If so, how long does it normally take before it starts to develop?

 

No it will not. It must be introduced some how. If you do get it to grow this would be immaculate conception, please let me know cause I need to run some lotto numbers past ya =P

 

I thought it would need to be seeded but have recently changed my mind. I had 100 lbs of Marshall island rock I bought when I had my first tank. I moved to the earth's armpit and lost everything in my tank and decided i would not be able to maintain my aquarium from this location and eventually moved out of the armpit.

So my rock was dry for 5 years and i thought I lost the beautiful lavender of the marshall island rock and would end up with the purpley pink that is everywhere. My tank has been up since Nov13 and my old dry rock is starting to regain that lavender color it had before.

So I am not sold on the thought that coralline algae can't lay dormant.

 

mdbostwick, that's kind of what I thought.. but I think it just takes a much longer time. I thought as long as its got light and everything else right it would eventually start.. maybe I am wrong? I had a bad experience with aptasia a few years ago, so I am going ONLY dry rock this time.. I may buy a piece of liverock with Coraline and keep it in a separate bucket and just scrape the coraline off into the tank to start it up if I need to.

 

Coralline can come in on just about anything. I bought all dry rock, scraped some coralline off the glass at work and brought it home in a bag with me.

That being said, I'm a firm believer it can lie dormant as can many other algaes. (how do you think we get hair algae during a cycle with completely "dry" rock?)

 

My thoughts exactly.