On Mon, 22 May 2006 15:55:37 -0500, "Thomas Bartkus"
wrote:

wrote in message
legroups.com...
I think that adding the "small piece of liverock with just a hint of
coraline on it" is what one might call "seeding". Obviously the
genetic instructions for how to create coraline algae is not just going
to spontaniously form inside of biochemical machinery capable of
reproduction within a couple of weeks just because the chemistry of the
environment is hospitable to the growth of such an organism. If you
have a tank that totally, absolutly lacks any form of coraline algae
then it is not going to magically appear unless you add it to the tank,
at which point if the proper conditions exist it will be fruitful and
multiply.


You won't even get dandelions to grow unless you get at least one dandelion
seed from somewhere ;-)
Thomas Bartkus


I dunno about that. I had a 2 gal pico that had plain whie sand from
the beaches on the gulf of mexico i the panhandle, no live rock and
just a piece of bleached white coral that was at one time purchased
from a souviner shop many many years ago (probably around 1965 or so)
and in no time that piece of long dead bleached white coral had nice
pink hue to it, and in short order it started to get deeper darker
pinks and purple colors to it.......Now there may have been a tiny
spec of coraline in that beach sand, but coraline is not a very common
item in that area to be found......I found it kind of odd. BUt
generally what you say is correct you need something of what ever yur
looking to propagate if yu expect it to appear.