Live Rock And Dead Coral

[SkiFletch]

So, after telling him I was starting a SW tank, my uncle was kind enough to offer me some of his older dried dead corals that he used to have as decoration in his house. They were hand picked from the ocean and merely allowed to dry in the sun and given to fireants to clean up so I'm confident there's nothing nasty about them. Two questions then:

Can they be put in the tank?
Will the corraline algae seed them from liverock over time?

The reason I ask the latter is cause if not, they'll probably look tacky in the long run. Knowing what I know about coralline agae and its ability to colonize everywhere with time, I'd have to think that they would, but I'd love to know if any of you have tried this. Thanks in advance

 

[penguinpimp1990]

im sorry i cant answer your questions as I am a reef newb, but what I can tell you is that its illegal to hand pick corals from any ocean

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, that much I know, but these were taken from the sea as allready dead skeletons back long before I was born. Maybe sometime in the 60s or earlier, I didnt ask. A good lesson though for those thinking it might be OK to do that nowadyas, thanks

 

[Aquascaper]

You can add them to the tank but IMO they will just collect algae (coraline in time maybe) and look odd. I've yet to see a dead coral in a tank that looks 'natural', just looks wrong to me
Whenever a coral has died in my tank and left a skeleton I hide it in the rockwall as it's still worth having, just not on show.

 

[SkiFletch]

ok, cool, thanks for the advice. so I'll prolly want to place them down in my corners as part of the base for my rock walls then huh?

 

[Aquascaper]

Yeah, they're good for adding bulk to a reef but not really that good for looking at. You could try 'planting' coral frags on them, I did this with a dead table coral and it looked quite cool with zoo frags all over it.