Coralline algae's affect on filtration ability of Live Rock

[Josh's Reef]

Leonard, you have a great looking tank.

The way I see it ,is that coralline algae doesnt really suck up a significant amount of nitrates. Otherwise there would be no concern as to wether or not your rock got covered in it b/c it would be doing the same job if it was not encrusted.
The other thing is that if your rock is not completly and I mean completly coverd in coralline algae, I would think your only adding to its surface area .Which is living space for anerobic bacteria.
just MO

 

[Len]

Troy,

The tank is over 6 years old. I attribute age with much of its success. It was kinda rocky for the first 2-3 years. Thanks for compliments.

 

[Emmitt]

The way I understand this is as follows:

The denitrifying bacteria we depend on to function as a biofilter lives on the surface of everthing in our tanks. We want porous rock because it has more surface area. DSB's are better with very fine sand because of the increased surface area compared with larger grains or gravel. The more surface area, the more bacteria that CAN live. Doesn't mean that all surfaces are housing bacteria all the time. The levels fluctuate constanly with the levels of Ammonia/Nitrite to process.

If you have a tank with almost any amount of LR and a DSB, your going to be covered unless maybe you have a wall to wall fishload.

I certainly don't know for sure, but I'd guess that coralline encrustation has zero effect on the denitrifying capactity of our tanks. JMHO

 

[sandmanrieast]

and your bumming why????????
most people are dying to have to much coralline !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Emmitt]

Hey Leonard, that is one beautiful tank you have. A question if you will. What is it that you don't like about the IceCap fans?

 

[Len]

They're noisy, and the automatic temperature potentiameter feature that you pay for is useless. It's whirling at full strength anytime the lights are on. Besides, who wants variable RPM's; it just messes up evap rates for those using metered dosing pumps.

 

[JeremyR]

Interesting.. I have some icecap fans running here, and some customers running them.. I've found them to be completely silent. I won't argue about the cost.. they are expensive.. but I've not known them to be noisy. Now the regular PFO fans.. those are noisy.. hehe.

 

[Anonymous]

Someone posted that coraline does not grow in the dark.
Yes it does actually! It just depends on the the species or type.

Jim

 

[jimmy n]

Dave,

Just curious, what kind of call do you take as a lawyer?

Jim

 

[davelin315]

I'm a prosecutor, I prosecute state criminal charges. Any jailable offense is prosecuted by me, as well as all state police arrests. I think that's what you were asking.

Back to the subject, I am curious as to whether or not living things provide for a good surface for bacterial growth. If so, wouldn't a tank that had nothing but coral in it provide for excellent surface area and water quality? Coral skeletons are very porous, and most probably harbor bacteria within them as they build upon dead coral skeletons to grow. Obviously, I think that a mucous membrane would discourage the growth of bacteria, but what about coralline algae's ability to host bacteria on it? If coralline is such a good host (and I'm not suggesting it isn't, I truly have no idea) for bacteria, then why is it that we don't start our tanks as empty first, with just coralline algae until it encrusts all the walls of the tank that we don't want to see through, then add the substrate, and then add the rock, pausing at each stop to encourage the growth of coralline algae? Also, wouldn't it make sense if it's such an excellent host for bacteria to cover a DSB with crushed coral that will host coralline algae growth on it? So many questions, and very few scientific answers! Somebody look at this stuff under a microscope!

 

[THillson]

My take on this. We are talking about very small things here, molecules or simple compounds (H2O, nitrate, nitrite and ammonia). I find it hard to believe that coralline could get so dense as to prevent the passage of these. If anything it is providing more surface area for the aerobic bacteria to grow on. If I could look, I would bet that the rock under coralline is just as biologically active as the spot next to it that is not covered.

 

[MattM]

I think Dave hit the nail on the head in his most recent post. I have not examined coralline under a microscope, but have always assumed it to be fairly porous. In any case, it does not seem reasonable to assume that it hermetically seals rock under it.

 

[leftovers]

not to want to state the obvious but only a small portion of the rock is covered by coraline as the rocks surface is not entirely exposed to light. It its probably doubtful that any meaningful thickness of coraline algae would negatively affect the anoxic area of your rock. Besides which there are many living examples of reef tanks that are living and thriving and consider coraline almost a nuisance rather than a blessing

 

[davelin315]

No, live rock is dead coral skeletons, not coralline algae. Or, it is volcanic rock, or any number of other rocks. One of the more popular live rocks (is it Fijian?) is actually dead blue ridge coral, and it is very light and porous, with lots of caves, etc.

 

[Shamrock317]

just a thought... isn't most LR made from encrusted Coralline algae that has repeatably grown over itself from eons ago?

 

[Shamrock317]

just a thought... isn't most LR made from encrusted Coralline algae that has repeatably grown over itself from eons ago?