questionable live rock inhabitants

[ReefFan]

White tube worm and cotton ball like structures on the underbelly of rock

 

[zooid]

Tubes are probably just tube worms. They are good things to have in my opinion.
The cotton ball things may be sponges. Wouldn't worry too much.

 

[ReefFan]

This hobby is beginning to piss me off for the first time. Things take soooo longggg to happen in there. I knew there would be lots of change in coralline growth in both location and color, based on the way the light and water flow strikes it. But its frustrating to watch all your dark maroon growth recede and the new bright pink stuff takes longer to grow. I hope at some point, perhaps a year or two from now, all the rock will be covered in at least some shade of purple. How do so many people get the stuff to grow like crazy on the glass? Is it because of their intensity of lighting more so than their water quality? My phosphates continue to hover at around .1 ppm and my nitrates have been zero ever since the first ATS harvest. I'm actually beginning to think my nitrate tests are bad. With zero nitrates I would think coralline would thrive and be growin on the glass n everything. I know my phosphates could be a lil lower, maybe thats why. Calcium is a 420, ph 8.3 have a good amount of MG. If i add a halide in there, will there be faster coralline growth? Will the addition of more light cause another shift where for months certain shades will recede and others will grow? IF that were to happen so what i suppose. The fish are happy as hell and the few inverts I have are opened up and appear to be lovin it. I just dont get why i dont have coralline growin on the glass!

 

[MartinE]

It takes time and stability, more than anything. Once it gets going it will become the new PITA for ya, scrape scrape scrape because you cant see in the tank.

 

[ReefFan]

yea everything looks fine in there, rare moment of frustration. Heh. I'm surprised to see how fast the green button polyps are spreading. Thats gotta be a good thing.. its been less than a week since i bought this frag of about 10 polyps, there is easily 15 in the colony now. I moved the return output away from the new mushrooms and theyve opened up nicely in calmer waters. I've had a purple tip anenome for about a month, two weeks ago it moved itself into a high flow area and basically blewup to 3 times its size. So evidently some things in a reef do happen pretty fast.

Since the tank got clearer there is also deep purple coralline apearing in small dots across the face of the left half of the tank. It is cool to watch the differnent shades move around the tank. I can make out 3 distinct colors, pink, deep purple and maroon. But they do seem to be growing as fast as they are fading ) Tiny patches of the maroon kind showing up on non-living surfaces( Glass where rock touches, pvc pipe bleached coral skeletons) but very few. Is it when phosphates reach zero that you get it growing all over the glass? Or when you blast your tank with blinding light?

 

[Anonymous]

Actually, IIRC, coralline algae can get bleached with too much light...

 

[Anonymous]

Actually, IIRC, coralline algae can get bleached with too much light...

Ayup, some types don't like certain lighting. But, others do to in time it levels out

 

[ReefFan]

I'm seeing that happen, its a cool process to watch. I think another factor inhibiting fast coralline growth is the lack of live rock I have compared to tank space. Its a 75 and i barely have half what i should have. I think i have about 60lbs live rock and 40lbs of bleached base rock/bleached coral skeleton. I think once i get that last 40 lbs of live stuff in there, I'll see faster growth. This imbalanced ratio seems to favor microalgae and my remote scrubber was just helping to keep it under control in the DT. Tomorrow i'll buy $80 worth of rock, hopefully that'll do it for rock.

My Nanostream 6025ncame today. Between its 600 g/hr and the Koralia 3, there seems to be a good amount of circulation in there. I'll try to take some pics tomorrow before and after the new rock.