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View Full Version : Tips to get Coraline Alage growth?


Aquaman101
07/03/2010, 07:35 PM
I was wondering what would be a good way to encourge coraline algae growth?

I have a 55 gallon setup with lots of live rock. I purchased this system and it was in bad shape. I've done a lot to clean it up.

I'm not seeing coraline grow though. I bought some Astera and Turbo snails that have it on their shells and it stays nice and purple but I'm not seeing evidence of it anywhere else in the system.

I have 130 Watts worth of 50/50 PC bulbs and run them on a 7 hour schedule.

Current Levels:
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Calcim - 400
Phospate - .5
PH - 8.4

Any thing I can does or improve? I don't have any GFO at the moment, but plan on adding a bag of Phosguard or the like to bring the P04 down.

I do 10% weekly water changes with premixed RO/DI salt water from my LFS.

Thanks!

fishox
07/03/2010, 07:40 PM
I have found that maintaining the Magnesium level is the key to getting coraline to grow. Try ordering the Ca/Alk/Mg kit from bulk reef supply. You'll also want to get a test kit for Mg if you are going to dose it.

Mattik
07/03/2010, 09:42 PM
+1 for Mg.....Ca and Alk should be maintained as well.

tiredreefer
07/03/2010, 09:44 PM
+1 as well

96b.boy
07/03/2010, 09:51 PM
time

roush08
07/03/2010, 10:03 PM
^^^^ what he said.

chrishet
07/03/2010, 10:19 PM
I found that maintaining Ca and Mg levels are critical but also keeping down growth of all other algae - Astrea Snails were key in my latest setup...get a bunch of these and dose and you will be amazed.

jbird69
07/03/2010, 11:09 PM
I just returned from Maui and did a ton of snorkling and free diving. I inadvertantly turned over a big rock while pulling myself along. The underside of the rock was solid pink with coraline. I overturned a few more during the trip to see the same. There was no evidence of coraline algae in lit areas.

I say that to say this... light is the LEAST componant in coraline growth. This is also evident in the cakes of coraline in my sump. If you have low to moderate lighting and are not getting coraline, your perameters arent in check.

AquaReeferMan
07/03/2010, 11:45 PM
Keep Ca, Alk and Mag in check and it will grow regardless.

mullinsd2
07/04/2010, 02:13 AM
weekly water changes and dosing two part on my 28 gallon!

gregmoeck
07/04/2010, 07:23 AM
use kalkwasser in your RO water for daily top off. Make sure PH is ok and light.

sahin
07/04/2010, 10:45 AM
I have found that with phosphates being as high as 0.5ppm corraline algae growth is largely inhibited. Once i started to use GFO coralline algae took off.

Ian
07/04/2010, 01:59 PM
strontium helps with coralline growth IME....

capecoral
07/04/2010, 09:58 PM
Purple is good!!

Mikilios
07/04/2010, 10:19 PM
Ive also seen stuff online of people who take rubble rock with coraline algae on it and scrape it into a bowl of your tank water, turn off the powerheads for a short period, and dump the sediment like pieces back into the system to promote spreading through out. Dosing of above mentioned is also good from all my information gathering.

RokleM
07/05/2010, 09:42 AM
I just returned from Maui and did a ton of snorkling and free diving. I inadvertantly turned over a big rock while pulling myself along. The underside of the rock was solid pink with coraline. I overturned a few more during the trip to see the same. There was no evidence of coraline algae in lit areas.

I say that to say this... light is the LEAST componant in coraline growth. This is also evident in the cakes of coraline in my sump. If you have low to moderate lighting and are not getting coraline, your perameters arent in check.

I agree with this point. Keep your calc/mag up, and give it a LITTLE light and it will grow well. The thickest coralline I had on my system was 1/8 or so thick in my 100g sump back years ago. The entire 100g was lit by 2 horrible sunlight color generic T5 bulbs with bad reflectors. It grew like mad. In short in my opinion, blast a tank with MH and you'll likely actually see less coralline growth than with some lower lighting options (especially when trying to get it started).

firereef
07/05/2010, 10:13 AM
Stability..... Then patience;)

Arnold40
07/05/2010, 10:18 AM
Stability..... Then patience;) then frustration because you have too much!

necessary evil
07/05/2010, 10:19 AM
get some one to send you scrappings from their glass it will go a long way in helping actively seed the proscess

firereef
07/05/2010, 10:36 AM
then frustration because you have too much!

Lol. So true.

phenom5
07/05/2010, 10:54 AM
Stability..... Then patience;)

then frustration because you have too much!

Yup. Keep your Ca/ Alk/ Mg good, and give it time. You'll be cursing the coraline algae as you are scraping your glass in no time...

RokleM
07/05/2010, 01:22 PM
get some one to send you scrappings from their glass it will go a long way in helping actively seed the proscess

That is true as well. If you want coralline to grow in other places, scraping it off all glass is a good way to start the spread. To start it in my mostly dry rock tank, I scraped a bunch off the walls of my old system, crushed it up, and threw it into the tank.

boodlefish
07/05/2010, 01:29 PM
why do you want to grow more coralline algae?

i am constantly fighting to keep my tank as free from coralline as possible.

it does seem to grow faster on acrylic or plastic IME-- powerheads, overflows, return lines, fragracks, etc...

Aquaman101
07/05/2010, 02:30 PM
why do you want to grow more coralline algae?

i am constantly fighting to keep my tank as free from coralline as possible.

it does seem to grow faster on acrylic or plastic IME-- powerheads, overflows, return lines, fragracks, etc...

I suppose I need to be more patient. This was an existing system that I purchased online. When I went to pick it up, it was covered in cyano.

I replaced the sandbed, but kept the rocks. I've only had it set back up for 4 weeks. I get a bit of diatoms in one corner, but I think that is from low flow there.

After the sand bed replacement I had a full diatom bloom, then some cyano and now green algae has covered my live rock.

Just tired of the green. I added some Astera snails and Turbo snails that had coraline on their shells, but it hasn't spread to my LR or glass yet.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that with weekly water changed the green algae will subside and coraline will start to fill in.

I have 130 watts of 50/50 PC bulbs running at the moment. The guy I bought them from said they were about 6 months old.

Time to change the lights maybe?

Thanks!

boodlefish
07/05/2010, 09:58 PM
to help with your algae battle try an extended period of lights out-- 48 to 36 hours and manually remove all algae you can during that period + run a filter soc to catch dieing algae. i would then recommend running new activated carbon and GFO. id look at Bulk Reef Supply for CUC and GFO. you will be surprised at how much the lights out will do to combat algae.

and if that doesn't work look for a very useful product called AlgaeFix (marine) if you are cautious that's good. do a search here about it there are some threads on it. i read for like 3 days straight before i tried it. i didn't want to have any ill effects on my sps. but it helped to clear up the small patches of GHA i was fighting off.

coralline will soon plague you too ;)

capecoral
07/10/2010, 11:57 AM
Well is it growing?

NoBigDeal
07/10/2010, 12:10 PM
I remember when I first started in this hobby 4 years back I was dying to get tons of coralline algae growth. After about 6 months, I had to always scrape it off the sides because it grew so much.

Typlus5
07/10/2010, 12:34 PM
Don't have an urchin when you're trying to grow it...get one to control it later!

capecoral
07/11/2010, 12:54 PM
I read they might scratch acrylic?