Questions about the live rock and lighting

[Yellow Eye Tang]

If rock has sat outside in the rain and mud for a long time, but was taken from the ocean years ago, is there anyway to revive this rock and make it a part of your system>? I read the curing live rock post andmy whole tank has been set up with fresh rock from the lfs. There was only one piece of rock i bought allready alive with coraline algae all over it. The rest of my rocks are growing feather dusters on it and other life along with the coraline. I found a rock outside the house tho that the old owner of the house said she got from the ocean. THIS ROCK IS KILLER LOOKING. Ive been tempted to do somthing with it but need to know if its a good idea. ----- Also, onto the lighting situation --- i read a post about the slime algae and MichealPrater said to introduce more actinic. Ive heard that a few time and am wanting to try it. The LFS has a 75 gallon BEUTIFUL reef tank but said he had tons more sun spectrum than actinic. he said you simply need the "presence" of actinic to have a great tank. Needless to say, he didnt sell me a new actinic bulp. I have a custom sea life 48" power compac light with two bulbs and a total of 130 watts going. have blue half 10000k. I had gone to him to get a 50 / 50 bulb for the other strip light i have. he recommended sticking with a full 10000k bulb in the stright strip lamp ficture. Should i have gone actinic anyway?

 

[fishfreek]

My concern with this rock from the ocean would be what it could have collected/absorbed since its time on land. Rain and mud is nothing to worry about to much. But, fertilizers, pesticides, etc are items to be very concerned over.

Any rock placed into the tank will beome live and covered in coraline and all other forms of live over time. So there is no question that this 'killer' rock would look outstanding after a few months and just keep on improving in appearnace over the years.

But, if it has absorbed toxins from fertelizers and such it could be a true 'killer' rock.


I have no comment on the actinics. I have 1/2 actinic and 1/2 10K on both of my reefs. I had slime alage on both after introducing some new live rock that was not 100% done curing. After a month or so the slime just disapeared.

 

[Anemoneman]

Get an actinic for the other strip light to complement your white PC's. I think you will like the effect. Many corals fluoresce under actinic light.

A 50/50 or 10000K will not give the same effect.

Many LFS owners/employees are quite pompous in their wealth of perceived knowlwdge. Take recommendations with a grain of salt, seasoned with your experience and research.

Mark

 

[michealprater]

I agree with anenomeman. Actnic light helps because red slime doesnt grow well under blue light. I didnt hesitate to add it when it was recommended to me because I thought that actnic lights just made a tank look better. I seen a guys tank, who happened to be a fellow customer of my favorite lfs, It had two 3 foot power compact fixtures with all 4 bulbs turned over to 10,000 k. Then he had one 6 foot actnic bulb on each side of the pc fixture. The result, his corals looked like stuff that glows in the dark. It was AWESOME. He had never seen red slime in his tank in the 4 years it had been set up. Hmmm.... .... I wander why???