does live rock need any fancy lights?

[peckhead]

what kind of lighting does live rock need?

 

[teen]

doesnt need any fancy light. actually, coraline doesnt do as well under intense lighting.

 

[peckhead]

so just a regular flor. light is good? i will post pics of the lights i have later tonight.

 

[peckhead]

i have some really encrusted live rock...really purple and nice color and shape. if i take 2 pieces of rock and rub them together above my other rock that is more white with some purple spots will it help the growth of coraline algea?

 

[chipmaker]

As for providing a place for benefical bacteria etc live rock will do just as well in pitch black as it will under MH lights. However foks also like to see coraline algae etc grow so therefore you do need somewhat decent lights and in most cases a regular NO flourescent light of proper temperature rating (10k) will provide sufficieint light levels to get coraline growing. I would not waste any energy rubbing rocks together.....Coraline will grow when coraline is ready to grow. YOU can probably set there and run 1000 rocks until they are nothing but dust and if conditions are not right for coraline its not gonna do a thing. If there is any coraline in the tank now it will spread when its ready. Ensure temps are good, and all other water parameters are where they shold be., I like to run calcium and alk at the extreme high end, and keep my ph at 8.3-8.4 or so and my coraline grows just fine.

 

[debbie]

Yes I have to agree about the coraline algae. I had some rocks that were full of it. I put in some new rock with none on it and a piece of barnacle too and within no time at all both these were full of coraline algae.
I don't have fancy lights, just a 20 watt power-glo 18,000k

 

[bjlled]

I am confused about this too. When i buy live rock, will it have coral on it? Will the coral die if I put it under a florescent. I am going to be doing this in a week or so.

 

[peckhead]

it wont have coral and it wont live under taht light

 

[fbm]

The thing about live rock is you never know what you are going to get. I got a piece about 2 weeks ago that I that just had coraline on it. Come to find out it now has mushrooms growing on it. You never know what you will get when you buy live rock. Most of the time you get good stuff but sometimes you will get bad stuff as well.