torch coral

its opend up and is looking good now i have lace rockin the tank and thinking about geting live rock what is the pourpous of live rock

 

Sorry for length....but question indicates its needed...Delbeek says it best.

From:

Your First Reef aquarium: How to Create a Miniature Coral Reef System at Home.

by J. Charles Delbeek B.Sc., B.Ed., M.Sc.



Live Rock


Live rock consists of the calcium carbonate skeletons of long dead
corals, or other calcareous organisms. Therefore the name "live rock"
is really a misnomer as the rock itself is not actually "alive" but it
does contain a multitude of life both inside and out. Most live rock
are NOT collected from coral reefs themselves, but from adjacent areas
known as a "rubble zones". These are areas where natural decay
processes and storms have deposited large amounts of dead coral
fragments that have become overgrown with numerous organisms. The vast
majority of these pieces are eventually eroded with time or buried
under sediments. These rubble areas are continuously buried, exposed
and reburied by natural processes such as storms and currents,
therefore any life on them is transient at best. Collection of live
rock from reefs may be carried out by unscrupulous individuals and
should definitely not be encouraged. Do not purchase any live rock
that has sea fans and/or live stony corals attached, as these were
probably illegally collected and transported.

The use of live rock immediately introduces into the aquarium numerous
algae, bacteria and small invertebrates all of which contribute to the
overall quality of the aquarium water. Live rock has just as much, if
not more, surface area for bacteria than a trickle filter. Since live
rock in the aquarium contains various types of bacteria, algae and
corals, waste products such as ammonia, nitrate and phosphate can have
a number of fates. Ammonia, nitrate and phosphate are readily
assimilated by algae and photosynthetic corals growing on and in the
rock. Ammonia can also be quickly converted into nitrate by the
bacteria on and in the rock. This nitrate can be either absorbed by
the algae and corals, or it can be denitrified by bacteria in close
proximity to the nitrate producing bacteria.

In reef aquariums that are heavily loaded with fish or where
overfeeding occurs, the production of nitrate may overcome the rock's
ability to handle it and you will get a build-up of nitrate in the
system. This is where additional protein skimming (foam fractionation)
becomes important. For more information on this topic I urge you to
read Sprung and Delbeek (1990) and Sprung (1992c).

There are various methods employed today in setting up reef systems,
many of which are successful; some more than others though (Sprung and
Delbeek, 1990). However, I feel that the most important ingredient,
the one that will ultimately determine the appearance of the system
and the time taken to achieve that state, is the quality and amount of
live rock used. The reason for this is that it takes time for any
system to reach a balanced state and the key to achieving this balance
is the condition of the live rock. The better conditioned the live
rock, the more stable the system. One method used to improve the
condition of fresh live rock is to let it sit in a _unlit_, well-
filtered aquarium for at least a month (this is called "seeding" the
rock). The rock is of course first stripped of all sponges and algae
that could die-off and pollute the system. After about a month of
seeding, the rock is placed into the intended reef tank. By seeding
the rock in this way, any fouling organisms will have died off and the
rock will have begun to develop significant encrusting red, pink and
purple coralline algae growths. This rock is then used to build-up the
basic structure of the reef. Specialized rock such as plant rock or
anemone rock are not used until much latter, if at all.

Seeding the rock in this way is not always practical for the hobbyist
and we are often forced to place freshly collected rock into our
systems. The removal of potentially fouling organisms becomes even
more important in this case as the reef tank becomes the seeding tank.
The amount of time required to seed live rock depends entirely on the
state the rock is in when it first arrives. In some cases there is
very little die-off on the rock and the seeding period can be as short
as a week. In other cases in may take much longer. Seeded rock is also
commercially available. If live rock is purchased from a collector,
depending on how long the rock is in transit, then some additional
seeding time may still be required when it arrives. A complete
description of the process of setting up a reef tank using seeded and
unseeded live rock is given in Sprung and Delbeek (1990).

The source of rock is another factor that should be taken into
consideration. I prefer to use "reef rock", that is, rock that has
been collected from outer reef areas. These consist basically of
pieces of coral and coral rock that have been broken off of the reef
during a storm or through natural decay processes, and have fallen to
the bottom, where they are then covered by numerous encrusting
organisms such as sponges and coralline algae. To my mind this type of
rock makes the most beautiful and successful reef tank. It also cycles
very quickly and stabilizes the tank rapidly. Inshore rock tends to be
denser and is usually covered with numerous growths of macroalgae,
clams, mussels, crabs, shrimps and other unwanted organisms; in my
view less desirable.

Although it is possible to start a reef tank using dead base rock and
only a veneer of live rock, this takes much longer to mature and the
possibility of algal outbreaks is much greater. Yet, in some
aquariums, the dead base rock eventually becomes so encrusted with
purple coralline algae that it is indistinguishable from live rock. In
the not too distant future aquacultured live rock will be available
but it will require long term experience with this type of rock before
it can be determined how suitable it will be for reef aquariums.

The way the live rock is arranged in the aquarium can also have a
profound influence on the long term success and maintenance of a reef
tank. What one sees in many reef aquariums is a haphazard
conglomeration of rock piled into a brick-like wall, with very little
regard given to water circulation and detritus build-up and its
removal. When arranging live rock it is much better to construct a
loose arrangement of rock, with many overhangs and bridges between the
rock. Try and couple this with as few contact points between the
rocks, and between the rocks and the substrate as possible. Do not
pile the rock up against the back of the aquarium, leave enough space
behind the rock for water circulation and for detritus removal. Some
aquarists suspend their live rock above the bottom of the tank with
sheets of acrylic light diffusor material or feet of acrylic. This
allows detritus to accumulate below the rock for easy removal by
siphoning. The same effect, however, can be obtained by the judicious
placement of live rock.

Of course arranging the rock in such a manner is not easy to do when
most of the live rock offered for sale are smallish, rounded pieces.
The ideal shape for this type of arrangement are elongated flattened
pieces that can be easily arranged to form platforms and bridges. By
arranging the rock in this manner, organism placement is easier, water
circulates freely around the rock on _all_ sides and detritus is
quickly carried away from the rock and collects either in the
prefilter or on the bottom of the tank where it can be easily removed.

The amount of live rock required in a system is difficult to assess.
The general rule of thumb is to place the rock such that it takes up
about 1/3 of the visual volume of the aquarium. Using estimates of
mass to determine how much rock is required are crude guidelines at
best. The reason for this is that live rock can vary greatly in
density. To fill a 65 gallon tank 1/3 full of a dense type of rock may
require 200 lbs., but if a very low density rock were used only 100
lbs. may be required.

I cannot stress enough the importance of the quality and placement of
live rock in having a successful reef tank. Whether you use a trickle
filter and a skimmer or only skimmers to filter your tank is
irrelevant, if you have good quality rock with very little die-off,
this will have a much greater affect on water quality than the
filtration system. I feel that the importance of the filtering
capacity of live rock has been greatly down played, and that of some
filtration systems has been, perhaps, overrated.

 

i just bought a new torch coral

i just bought a torch 2 days ago and it seems alright to just a glance but the tenticals are not out to far and the color looks a little dull my anenome seems to be just fine fish just fine is it just because its a new tank and it needs time or how long should his tenticals strech

 

Torches shouldn't ever be directly in the flow of a powerhead. That's your problem.

 

i wouldnt say its in the direct flow of the power head its at the other end power head points tord center of the tanks and the torch is behind some rocks i can post a pic

 

medium flow for torches is good, so they "wave" in the current, def nothing more than that. I've had one for about a month, it's gotten enormous & is doing well, looks like this:

 

mine doesnt look nearly as long i will post a pic

 

hee hee, acclimate corals!??? I don't. I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 species. When I took my live rock home from the LFS wrapped in wet newspaper and a day later had corals popping up I realized how hardy these things are and have never acclimated one. Fish and inverts......definitely.

 

Er, newtosalt, why did you hijack a 3-month-old thread to ask this question on....?

 

dont know how to post my own lmfao