Best rock for base rock?

[ww]

What type rock is best for base rock? I have tufa, large pieses of dead coral, lava, and a LOT of heavy smooth stuff. All this rock was in a LFS tank that they tore down and I got for free. Which of the above will best take coraline algae? Being a reefer on a budget, I need to "seed" base with as little live as I can.

TIA

 

[fishfarmer]

I'd first question the LFS to see if they had used any copper medications in the tank the rock was in. Copper can be bound up in substrates and leach out over time.

I used a combination of tufa and old coral skeletons for base in my reef. They initially get a coating of algae and look drab for a while, but a year and a half later they are encrusting well. Coralline algae seems to encrusted the dead coral better than the tufa. I also throw in a piece of lace rock every once in a while for coral fragging, that get's encrusted fairly quickly.

There was a thread on this board a few weeks back concerning "lava" rock, which actually may not be real lava rock (which you wouldn't want to use), but an aquarium safe man made rock.

[ November 25, 2001: Message edited by: fishfarmer ]</p>