feeding fiji live rock

[brennickfish]

I just got in 160lbs of fiji live rock. It is cureing in two 30 gal barrels. My question is can, or should I feed the rock purpleup while it is cureing. trying to save as much of the coralline as posible.The directions for the rock say the cure will take 3 weeks but the rock does not seem that rotten.

 

[JohnK]

Save your money and skip the purple up. (It's basically sand in a bottle).

You don't need to feed the rock at all. Just give it time.

 

[Doherty]

The best way to save the coraline is to do frequent water changes, you can expect there will be some die off, by keeping the ammonia levels as low as you can during the curing process there will be less damage to you LR.

 

[emzee]

IME you want to minimize the exposure to air. Try to keep submerged even during water changes.
When I was storing some rock, one piece had parts of it exposed above the water surface. Those
were the sections where coralline coverage was lost.

 

[afboundguy]

Not worth it to dose anything IMO while curing rock. It will eventually grow back with coraline when you put it in your tank... And +1 on purple up being a waste normally...

 

[Behrmon]

Agreed on all of the above, if you are running MH lighting you may never really experience much Purple coraline on your rock.

 

[brennickfish]

what kind of light makes the purple coraline grow? I like the look of it.

 

[jojo1n2]

coraline will grow in moderate light. I have a halide and I find it grows in the darker parts of the tank

 

[JohnK]

Yup, coralline will grow under MH, but when it's SUPER bright the coralline may not be as happy.

IME I had surprisingly low coralline growth under my (pretty strong MH) lighting for a few yrs. I was also dealing with chronically dropping mg levels durning that time. When I got the Mg up, the coralline did start to take off, but I still see less in my MH lit display than in my T5 grow out tank (lesser light, same water).

I suspect that good Mg levels, and or moderate light, is ideal for most coralline algaes. Low mg and or high light may be less than optimal for encouraging coralline growth.