live rock /calcium

[brswitt]

I was a fool about three years ago and thought that my live rock was harboring evil things that kept killing all my fish so I took it out and scrubbed and microwaved it. Now I have it back in the tank for three yearslater and want to recolonize it by adding more. Is this possible? Also I want to get the coralline algae to spread throughout and am using Reef Builder by Seachem. Do I have to supplement with calcium? I added 2 more flourescent lights to the 75 gallon tank & want to try some invertabrates. Can anyone offer any insight and their advice :notsure:

 

[shoreliner11]

Your right in the seeding idea. If you buy a couple more pieces of live rock and stick it in there, it will seed the rest. You just have to be patient. For coralline growth itself, most people don't dose calcium as the calcium consumed by it can be replaced by water changes generally. Your lighting is enough to grow coralline, as coralline can grow at low light levels. If you do however try photosynthetic inverts (corals), you'll probably need to upgrade your lighting. The upgraded lighting might be able to increase coralline growth as well but this is not always the case.
Aaron

 

[clamdigger]

I have about 30 lbs of "dead rock" from a prior tank...I now have a 55 reef with those rocks in it, I have added 45 lbs of cured fiji to it and I am already starting to see coraline on my old rock after only 2 months, so it will come back with time....

 

[clamdigger]

I am however adding calcium and magnesium with each water change, not sure if it is needed , but it seems to help