Growing Coralline Algae, adding life to rock?

I have 80 lbs of dry rock in my tank. The rock is awesome I really like the look of it, (pictures pending tonight). I’d like for the rock to grow some coralline Algae. I want to control what goes into the tank, so I’m reluctant to add live rock with possible hitchhikers to the tank, (aiptasia, flatworms, to name a few).

What can I do to promote coralline growth, or otherwise safely add life to my rock?

Thanks,
DarkHorseMBA

 

It has to have a source to start, with means "something" with coralline. However, if you're adding frags and/or corals in the future, it will be inevitable.

You can also buy a rock with coralline on it, scrape it off, and just use the scrapings to seed your tank.

 

You can obtain scrapings of coralline from a LFS if possible to seed the tank. Or perhaps buy a small rock fragment with coralline on it and scrape it yourself so you don't introduce anything unwanted. After that it's a matter of time.

 

Evo beat me to the punch!! Lol

 

I agree with above posts, if you want your tank to be super sterile... but you'll also be missing the benefits of adding very beneficial microfauna to your tank such as copepods, amphipods, and worms that can help keep your tank clean.

you may want to check out Indo Pacific sea farms, as they have the means to add all of these things individually:

: : : : Indo-Pacific Sea Farms : : : :

: : : : Indo-Pacific Sea Farms : : : :

 

He can always seed the pods though. I would rather have the certainty of a clean, pest free tank and pay the 20 or 30 bucks for live pods to seed it.
There's really never a good way to be sure the live rock you purchase is pest free, IMO.

Or, you can ask a reefer friend to let you drop one of your rocks into his sump/tank if he has pods and get it back a couple of months after that with the pods in it.... providing that your friend has a clean, pest free tank as well

- Mag.

 

I've seen that site, have it book marked because of the coralline Algae plates they sell. IPSF has a bunch of stuff, what would I want to seed my tank, and would I add it before, after or at the same time as a CUC?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

You could add it at any time, really... the sooner the better because the populations will wax and wane over the first few months before they begin to stabilize... Also, understand that everything will need to eat, including the CUC... you may want to consider adding small amounts of food if there is no other food source...

As far as the what, I'll make a list of a few things which I would want in any reef tank:

micro-brittle stars, bristle worms, spaghetti worms, pods (amphipods and copepods), mysid shrimp, stomatella, collonista snails (tiny herbivorous turbo snails), foramiferans, tube worms, and various sponges.

I have all of these things which have traveled in on live rock. I also have never seen a red flatworm and have been able to rid of the very few aiptasia and mojano anemones that I did find. I think that having a diverse micro-ecosystem is important, and I like the excitement of having so many different hitchhiker discoveries, as I think it's part of what reefing is all about...



I like Magnus' idea of dropping a rock in a friend's tank to be seeded as well... assuming they don't have pests, but have lots of microfauna, it could be an ideal and cheap way to go about it...


Also, here is a link to a site created by a fellow 3reefer which describes many of the desirable as well as un-desirable hitchhikers you might find in a reef tank:

http://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhiker/hitchhiker.shtml