Lace Rock

Just curious if anyone has any experience with lace rock? I purchased some of it from the LFS. I like the way it looked because I was able to get longer thin slabs that help with making caves. Anyways, the reason I ask is because it does not appear that anything will grow on it. The live rock and lace rock have all been in the tank for the same amount of time. The coralline algae on the live rock is spreading and growing. I even have it growing on the walls, overflow box, and power head. Is there a reason why nothing is growing on the lace rock itself? At first I thought maybe it was growing on the other rocks because they already had coralline present when I purchased them. That does not explain why it's spreading like wild fire on my glass and there is not so much as a speck on the lace rock. Any thoughts?

 

I have seen a lot of it used in over the years. To be honest I do not like it for live rock. It is not very poris for denitrification. For some reason most tanks with much of it in have algae problems long term.

With that said, I have seen lots of it with coralline algae on it. It does take longer to grow than does on the CaCO3 based rocks, but it will grow. Just give it more time.

Kim

 

It will grow on lace rock. Just give it some time. I have lace rock in my tank, some really nice shapes, it tool much longer for coraline to grow on them for some reason about 6 months but they look awesome.

I havent had any problems with them, just gota make sure you clean them well when you buy them.

 

Do either of you know why the algae is so found of glass and plastic?

 

Is it really growing faster on the glass or does it just seem that way? Not trying to be a jerk or anything. At first I thought my coraline was growing faster on the glass because it was an eye sore so i noticed it long before anywhere else.

Coraline does seem to like plastic though I will agree with you there. I'm not sure why. My overflow is acrylic so it doesn't grow real fast there, but it has completely covered my power heads.