How does Live Rock evolve

[rajfish]

Hey Guys,

I have a cycled tank (I have been posting like mad on all kinds of topics so everyone should know me by now) 29g with 30lbs of live rock. Assuming I don't have ich and I PRAY I do not, how does live rock evolve over time?

That is, when does coralline start to take over, do other organisms emerge from live rock?

 

[skriz]

If your Ca and Alk levels are good, (Ca 400-450, Alk 10-12 DKH), ph about 8.2-8.3, the coralline will spread quickly! it will spread at lower levels, but just much much slower.

Feather dusters and such will show up if they're there. Nothing will simply appear if it's not already there.

Your tank is too young for coralline to have taken over yet anyway. I also doubt that your levels are high enough to have an accelarated growth.

Ich won't make a difference to corraline.

 

[sammy33]

Living things can/will survive on live rock through the collection and import process until housed in an aquarium. Over time you will see small feather dusters and other life "appear" on the rocks.

With all the tanks I have kept life seems to "appear" especially when new corals and other livestock are added to the tank. These additions also can import other life to your aquarium.

 

[sammy33]

To clarify the second part of what I was saying above, seeding your tank is important part of encouraging your reef to evolve. If you do not have much coralline on your rock try to get a couple smaller seed peices of live rock that have lots of coraline to add to your tank. Place these peices on bare peices of rock to promote spreading.

 

[dakota9]

It takes a while, but I've found critters such as Christmas tree worms, small white feather dusters, micro star fish, small white star fish, calcerous algae, sponges, macro algae, and kelp all in my tank months after adding live rock.... It just takes time.

Doing regular water changes during the cycling period helps insure these critters survival.....

 

[dakota]

There are a few species of macroalgae that can lie dormant in your rock for up to two years before starting to regrow.

Time will tell.

 

[roundman]

My tank has been up about four months and saturday flying army came by and found a clam attached to a rock that I had never seen before, so it very cool to watch your rock and see what evolves.