[craziloki]

So I just got my new tank, REALLY NICE DEAL.. Anyways, it was used as a reef tank previously and has coralline algae covering the back wall and sides(pretty thick). I am in the process of cleaning it off with vinegar and razor blades...
Anyways, wondering.... If one was to use a BG to cover it, would the algae have any good properties for cichlids? Since it is dead and won't grow.. Such as buffering and or the hardness.. I understand that this algae is mostly calcium?

 

[frank1rizzo]

yea, it would be fine... I have used dead "live rock" before with no ill effects. Just give it a good rinse.

 

[Furcifer158]

I can't see it helping with anything, but like frank said it will be fine.
I have bought used tanks that were salt before too and I only cleaned them off a tiny bit.

 

[Darkside]

I will buffer the water for a limited time. If you have soft water eventually it will more or less disappear. I had some coraline algae on one of my old penguin filters along with the tubes from some small feather-dusters and over the last 3 years they've almost completely dissolved.

 

[craziloki]

i see.. well it's almost all gone.. I swear, reading the reef forums make it sound easy to remove... I do construction for a living, and this algae wore me out!!

My thoughts were, we use crushed coral as a buffer, this stuff attaches itself to coral as well as anything else. So to say that it wouldn't help at all may be an understatement.

 

[Furcifer158]

not to sure on this but I think the crush coral they sell is bleached?

 

[triscuit]

Some folks try to use crushed coral, but it does not effectively buffer water for any length of time. :wink:

If you have soft water, then yes, it will dissolve. But since you are posting this in the Tang folder, I strongly suggest you do not add water that is low pH and poorly buffered enough to be effective at dissolving coral of any type if you expect your fish to thrive.