live rock question

[ZOOT098]

how long does it usually take for the die off on live rock to dissapear and its true colors to come out

im coming out of my first algea bloom and the live rock still looks very white

 

[dustin_P74]

my rock has been in my tank for coming up on three months and the coraline is just starting to come in. i would add purple up if you wanna speed the coraline growth process up

 

[Reefgyrl]

It may look white for quite awile. It just depends. Make sure to check your Calcium level before adding any. If all parameters are good it shouldn't be too long. Coraline is sometimes hit or miss in the beginning. It has to get used to the lighting etc.

 

[ZOOT098]

dustin
what do mean by add purple???

 

[dustin_P74]

purple up is what the product is called http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=12799

 

[yote]

It can take any where from a week to a year for rock to start coloring up.
Just make sure that your calcium,alkalinity,PH,and magnesium levels are right and stable,and coralline will eventually grow.

 

[Mtrueblood]

It does take some time for the coraline to come out really well in the tank. The product purple up is a really good way to speed that up. I used it in my 30 gallon and it worked well. Like Yote said just make sure that all your levels are stable and it will grow. If your levels are not stable make sure that you test before you add anything. Its a lot easier to add things than it is to take them away.

 

[fatman]

If you are using a good recognized brand of salt mix then I would not recommend anything other than Purple up, or its equivalent. It is just aragonite sand dissolved in acid. It just supplies the trace elements calcium and magnesium that is in aragonite sand to your tanks water where it is readily available to your Coraline. If you have real intense lighting you will probably have a long wait to get much Coraline algae on your rocks, and then it will mainly appear in the shadows of other rocks and in the corners of the tank where the light is not as intense.

 

[ZOOT098]

finally starting to see some nice purlple and reds coming thru on my live rock, hopefully this is a good sign that the tank is doing well

the lighting is a nova extreme pro, it is on a timer so the actinics are on for 2hrs before and after the daylights come on and shut off, switch to moonlights overnight, also on timers

added buffers for ph and calcium when i did my water change
calcium is at 450ppm and ph is riding around 8.2

 

[IraqVeteran]

also ZOOT, you need to make sure that there is some form of corraline in your tank to begin with. If I remember correctly, if you dont have any corraline in your tank then your rock wont just appear with corraline. You need to provide at least a tiny piece of live rock, sand or even scrape some off of another tank that has corraline and place it in your tank. Maybe I am wrong, but thats what I always understood.