Forums

[Astrivian]

Oh? The posts are gone

Well...to recap:

The stupid hair algae is coming back. I thought i had it beat but i see it growing all over the rocks again. However, i noticed something: the growth is not even over all the rocks. The first batch of rocks i added (not live) have 80 to 90% of the algae on them. Rather mysterious. So, i mentioned this to my LFS and he asked an interesting question. He wanted to know if i used lace rock or base rock. I told him i remembered th box being marked lace rock but the other store people said it was all the same. He said, no, in fact they are not the same. Lace rock is mined volcanic rock that has never seen contact with the ocean. It is rock pushed up from deep in the earth and often used in cichlid tanks. Some ignorant store owners, according to him, sold it as a cheap replacement for argonite base rock. Lace rock is not argonite (calcium) based and contains lots of other minerals (although he was not positive that phosphate was one of them). However, he said the porous structure of lace rocks are quite different than argonite base rocks mined from ancient oceans. Thus, lace rocks do not perform the same denitrifying properties as base rock. Furthermore, their porous structure traps detrius without processing it (the typical bacteria don't like lace rocks i guess).

I took out one my my hair algae covered lace rocks and smashed it. No goo oozed out of the rock, like he said might happen, but i got a strong wiff of hydrogen sulfide from the inside of the rock. This is interesting. I think i will remove all the lace rock (i have a few large pieces) and see if that reduces my algae issues.