[animekid1]

Hi. A bit of a long title to an important question. I keep on reading about cured live rock and all the different coraline algea color that live rock displays after it is cured and you get the rock ( either getting the rock shipped or getting it local is just apples or oranges ) and the question I have is how do you keep those colors? Do you have to add special supplaments for this to continue? Is it just the lighting? Is it a combination of both? I am itching to finish the re-do of my tank and adding more live rock will be the final step but I want to make sure that all that beautiful coraline algea color stays on the rock after I have it in the tank and do my aquascaping.

[jpmwjm]

Even with cured LR you will usually have some die off from the Coraline algae as it adjusts to you tank and lighting. Your lighting is important for Coraline algae growth. You also want to keep your calcium up. Carib Sea has a product called Purple UP that contains ionic calcium, aragonite, and iodine, which should help coralline algae growth especially the pink and purple colors. I use it now and it has help speed up my coraline growth.