[animekid1]

Hi everyone. I took a ride to the local LFS instead of buying live rock online. I had bought some rock that I believe was cured, but the rock ( a few pieces of branch and what I thought was Marshall Island ) and the rock was " White ", no coraline on this rock what so ever. Now, I am seeing green algea growing on the rock. I also purchased " Purple Up " from the store and have been adding it to the tank. What is the process for live rock growing coraline algea. I am not sure if this is part of the process? I am also wondering if I took this rock from the LFS too soon. I know it did not have the bad odor associated with rock that is not cured, but it also had no color what so ever.
I hope my wanting to save some cash on shipping hasn't wound up in my getting ripped off by a shop just trying to make a dollar.

[nickrp]

The LR I bought didnt have much color two it, but after a couple weeks it started to darken.

From what I've learned, corraline isnt gonna start growing over night.

I was adding purple up everyday and my rock has a beautiful bright green color to it but my calcium levels were a little high so now I add it about every other day to every three days. Ive got a 12 gallong tank so I only add 1ml at a time.

[cappy290]

Hey is your tank already established? Or are you just starting it up? I am pretty new to this hobby but when i bought my live rock some was cured and some was not none of it really had any coraline algae on it, but after a few weeks the rock and the tank both developed a mix of coraline algae. I never tried that purple up stuff but i did scrub my rocks with some stuff i bought from lfs that seemed to work pretty good for me. I think if you give it some time you will definitely have some coraline algae growth in your tank and on your live rock.

[animekid1]

Hi Cappy. Yes my tank is established and has been up for several years now.

[glampka]

Hopefully the rock you bought has some coralline on it. If it doesn't you have to introduce it to the tank. Get some snail/crab shells or a small piece of LR that has some, put it in your tank & scrape at it. That will get the spores in your tank. Purple up helps to feed the coralline but won't cause it to grow if you don't have any. Don't add it all the time since it'll raise your calcium levels.

[R-e-D]

if you want to get coraline there is no quick way to do it .. exept if you can get your lfs to sell you some rock from there show tank like i did .. also when buying corals and my anemones i look for the ones that are atatched to nice coraline covered rock. as for intraducing the algee to your tank the easy way to do it is to ask your lfs for some algee scrapings and then just add them to your tank .. worked for my tank ..

[jipo123]

coraline takes a wile to grow, and LR that is that clean is not very good, you want the dark rock, covered in coraline already, those are the ones with the most critters inside. the ones that are super clean were cleaned to much by the dealer to cure it faster, and that kills a lot of the good things. so my point is that you dont need to worry, it is already cured, but it has to go through the process of green/brown algae. so just let it do its thing