coraline growth blunder

[wagnutz69]

As I sit here at my CPU, staring at my 125, suddenly this ? popped into my mind....Why does it seem that coraline grows so much faster on certain things then others??/ All "plastic" objects in my tank seem to have more coraline growth in past 6 mths then my rock. My Skimmer intake, my 2 emperor 400 (waterflow only), and my powerheads ALL are covered in coraline. Yet my rock doesn't seem like it's grown much at all since I purchased. Is this something that anybody else has noticed? Or is there any certain reason(s) that this occurs, or do I have way too much time on my hands. Not an important question, just a curiousity....


WAGZ

[Spanky]

LOL WAGZ,
It's like anything else, grows a lot better where you don't want it. It really loves plastic though.
Try this, take anything clean - plastic, glass, ceramic, etc. see how much faster it will grow on a new clean surface.
Jerel

[MontanaRocknReefer]

Hi there!! I agree with Jerel, anything new goes in the tank and with a clean surface, here comes the coralling algae!! Johnny

[Reef Rat]

Hi Wagz!

Hmmm...I can see it now...next year's MACNA will introduce yet another fad in reef keeping...plastic rocks! j/k

Actually, I believe the good folks at GARF "discovered" the same thing. In the process of making their own live rock from aragonite and cement, they were looking for a way to make the resulting rock lighter and more porous. They tried adding the dust and small shards that was leftover from cutting and drilling acrylic to the mix. They noted that coralline algae seeded these rocks *much* faster.

Plastics are much softer than your typical rock. Maybe the coralline can gain a better foothold because of that? Perhaps there's something in the plastic that the coralline finds "delicious"? I tend to think the former is closer to the truth, but as far as I know, there's been no experiments undertaken to solve this "enigma".

Cheers,
Steve