Cerameco VidaRock Observation & Question

[broodc2]

So my tank is now almost a year old. I'm struggling with GHA currently but it isn't your normal breakout. I've been fighting this for about 2 months now. The interesting thing is, the GHA only grows on my Vida Rock pieces and my live rock is completely clean and has coralline encrusting. I can't figure it out. Cerameco claims that the rock does not leach phosphates so I'm wondering what is causing this phenomenon. I test phosphates with Hanna checker and get a reading of zero. Nitrates are at around 1.5. I do regular 20% weekly water changes. I use RO/DI. I don't have a silicate test so that is the only thing I'm not 100% of. But I haven't had any sign of diatoms for about 6 months.

 

For the life of me I can't figure out why the GHA is only growing on their rocks, but not on my live rock. I suppose if I was overfeeding/under skimming, etc. the GHA would be growing everywhere correct? Does anyone else have an experience similar to me? Here are the things I've eliminated as causes:

• I observe my CUC and they don't show a particular preference to the live rock versus the vida rock. I've tried manually placing hermits, snails, even my fighting conch on both live rock pieces and vida rock and don't notice them scurrying off one or the other or otherwise giving preference to one rock over the other
• If you break my tank into 6 sectors (i.e. top left, top center, top right, bottom right, bottom center, bottom left) I have both vida rock and live rock in all 6 sectors so I have to think flow and/or lighting isn't the cause.
• As an experiment I chipped off a piece of the surface on a portion of the vida rock, exposing the white ceramic in an attempt to see if it's the purple coloring on the surface that is leaching something. I just did this though so there hasn't been sufficient time to see if algae grows on the exposed part just yet. I assume the claim of not leaching is applicable to the vida rock material AS WELL AS the purple painted coating. We will see.

This is really frustrating because I was skeptical of any man made rock leaching but had heard and was told vida rock doesn't leach.

[xlzerolx]

That sucks man, if it is the vida rock. I was thinking of getting vida rock but shipping to Canada didn't make it worth it. I ended up using the marinepure blocks. I had them cycled in a seperate 5 gallon for a month bucket before putting it in my display. Of course after doing this they now sell the marinepure in rock shapes from their website. However I have not had any problem with them so far.

 

I am thikning that it is probably the colouring that could be leaching.

 

Please keep us updated. I would like to know the source of it for you.

 

By the way, how long have the vida rocks been in your tank?

[brandon429]

Excellent post

 

you are framing the same questions hundreds of people have about algae invasion

 

how to handle it is this

 

google: pico reef pest algae challenge thread

 

 

after reading all 60 pages and three days later, you w now have a way to fix your tank. see a post in the biological filtration forum here called "biopellets and algae" for great details

 

 

the answer as to how you are getting algae:

 

consider this comparison then tell me what you think about it. Forget phosphates, forget them. ever testing for them is optional, and has absolutely nothing to do with an algae infested tank. <--how many people online do you know agrees with that?

 

mother nature agrees. take the most perfect reef in fiji you know of, remove the grazers, you have algae problems. how did phosphates factor into that?

 

sure, po4 is indicated in some algae invasions. my giant 4 year thread shows many times it wasnt involved, and you may have a tank like that.

 

 

So how do you simply stop this, knowing you've done nothing wrong to cause algae? do what the thread says. or, hook up a santa monica scrubber. everyone and their dog has algae advice for you, I say go only where you are guaranteed to find proof. pick a proof thread, and use that method, and you have no algae and we have also now discovered how you got it in the first place. algae can utilize nutrients you simply thought were not there, even on a seemingly perfect natural reef that would test 0 0 0 on all our critical algae params.

 

 

some will say algae is using up the phosphates leaching from the rock. the test is easy, take out a rock that has no algae and put it in a tank of clean sw for a couple days that already registered zero. test in two days for any leaching, free of algae, then you'll know.

 

you asked why the growth is spotty, not everywhere and that cannot be answered. algae selects where and why, we just react. in the thread mentioned about biopellets and algae, his tank showed spotty growth probably not unlike yours, so the rocks and the phosphate isn't what you attack, you attack the algae as often as required until your preventatives kick in.

 

the golden rule is, allow no algae. dont care why its there, just allow none and you are certain to never have algae problems ever again. preventatives will lessen the work you do to attain that perfect condition for your tank.

[NanoTank1]

I have used VidaRock myself. Both my 'regular rock' and VidaRock have seen comparable algae growth. My tank is younger than yours though.

[ninjamyst]

i am using vidarock in both my tanks. i had algae on everything, on the rock, on the sandbed, on the backwall. my algae does not discriminate.

[SbCaes]

its like frag plugs. they always grow algae even in the super clean sps systems ive seen. weird.,

[farkwar]

"<--how many people online do you know agrees with that?"

 

If you have crap algae growing, your phosphate level is too high. Even when the test shows zero.

 

As soon as a phosphate molecule is free, it quickly gets bound to algae anabolism. The test kit will never see it.

[Horerczy]

Algae to me is not really all that big an issue. I would say that the reason your regular rock has no algae versus the vidarock may more lie in the form of the rock than the rock leaching phosphates.

 

Likely the rock's inherent shape, porosity, etc. is allowing the algae to easily anchor to it. Once anchored the algae grew quickly taking in the available phosphates in the water (and a good chunk of the nitrates as well). Now there's not as much food and an already healthy and growing algae presence consuming much of the food so new algae growth has a hard time taking hold in the rest of the tank.