Lets talk Coralline algae

[Greywaczera]

I dont know much about Coralline algea and wanted to know more. The in and outs i guess. When should i start seeing it in my tank and what does it look like once it starts to form. Is there anything i can do to make it grow quicker?

[Tweaked]

I dont know much about Coralline algea and wanted to know more. The in and outs i guess. When should i start seeing it in my tank and what does it look like once it starts to form. Is there anything i can do to make it grow quicker?

If you seed your tank with it from a friend, that helps. Also, you need proper params and light to really kick it off. If you place in the flow, that helps as well. Good luck

[saltychick]

There's something called purple -up I've never used it but heard it helps. You shouldn't see it for a couple of months though I'm just now starting to see signs of it and I got my light up in december

[muppet]

I've only heard negative things about Purple up from experienced reefers on RC and elsewhere. It's generally considered to be garbage.

[saltychick]

That's what I figured. I never planned on using it I like things to happen naturally

[muppet]

My new tank that I put up... 2 months ago? Almost 3? Is just beginning to show coralline on the overflow. It starts out as very pale pink/purple raindrop-sized circles and goes from there.

[BfishLpond78]

Its cool for the first couple months then it gets really annoying have to scrape it off all the glass...if it grew on my rocks and made them nice and purple i'd be excited, but it usually only grows on my glass, lol

[muppet]

Honestly? I don't normally even notice that it's all over my rocks until I rescape or have to remove a rock to catch a fish. It's very gradual and just not that striking, in my experience. Maybe it's the way I scape my tank, though.

[frankyrivera]

I'm no coralline expert but I used to get better coralline with my power compacts than I did with my T5's. lol. So maybe the light from the LEDs is so intense and focused that its a different wave length or spectrum or something don't know really but it may be just an led thing. Some people hate it all over their glass anyway so perhaps it's great news to some lol

[muppet]

I remember reading that bright light discourages coralline. I do tend to get it in the darker areas of my tank first and most heavily.

[BubbaBoBobBrain]

I cant get coraline to grow in my dt anywhere but on my powerheads but in my frag tank it grows on the overflow tube, the glass, the zoa tiles. Very weird considering they both use the same water and salt but my dt gets water changes much more often than my zoa/frag tank. I dont think lighting has much to do with it either because until i got the led unit that is over my frag tank now i had t5s just like on my dt.

[shecter]

I've only heard negitive things about purple up. They were giving it away at ffm and I passed lol. It'll come with time. Try not to dump any chemicals in your tank that you don't have to. Remember fish swin and breath in that water as do the coral.

[Greywaczera]

It says the only way to get coralline algea is to introduce it into you tank. you need to turn you pumps, skimmer off and breake the corline up, put it in your tank with just powerheads for about an hours and then turn everything back on. the only way to get it into your tank is to put it in from another source

[muppet]

I assume that all of mine came in on live rock. I never did anything special.

[Pallobi]

It says the only way to get coralline algea is to introduce it into you tank. you need to turn you pumps, skimmer off and breake the corline up, put it in your tank with just powerheads for about an hours and then turn everything back on. the only way to get it into your tank is to put it in from another source

That is completely bogus...

[Greywaczera]

Here Check it out....

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/aboutcorallinealgae/ss/coralline.htm

[Pallobi]

I've grown coralline from nothing but dry rocks (and all natural rock tiles for that matter), and two cheap t5 bulbs as well as 8 bulb high output t5's... My personal experience tells me differently... Water quality and time is what does it IME...

My 180g, coral'less, dimly lit display is only about 8 weeks old, and I already have small spots of coralline forming... Started with nothing but dry rock and dry aragonite sand...

[suicideissleep]

Did you add any frag plugs or anything small with Caroline in your system at any point Neal mine broke out from a peice the size of a dime :)

[Pallobi]

It depends... I've had multiple systems the past 6 years... They have all produced it, and have been done differently for the most part... Im not imposing my opinions too harshly I hope, I've jus observed different results in my systems... Kinda drives me nuts when the thoughts are so definitive on one particular idea/aspect, as nothing is set in stone in this hobby...

[suicideissleep]

It's crazy how every tank is so different

[Beandawg]

Be careful what you wish for. I cant stand coralline.

[Collinrb]

I would just get yourself a couple frags with a bit of coraline on them. And then sit back and forget about it. Because in a few months, you'll be fighting the tiny pea-sized spots your glass daily.

[suicideissleep]

+1 to both posts above if I don't clean my glass every day I get dime sized Peices in two days and the mag float don't fix it and I only started off with a plug that was covered

[Pallobi]

I personally don't care for coralline if its not on a rock... Annoying after a while... My 75g, and then my 80g, grew that stuff like crazy... I can't even explain the growth rate, like Ron, it was unreal... Actually hopin that it doesn't happen again, lol...

[triggreef]

I've only heard negative things about Purple up from experienced reefers on RC and elsewhere. It's generally considered to be garbage.

I used it when I first started my 72g and it sent the Ca out of control. I wasn't testing Ca and thought using the purple up at half of what the bottle says shouldn't be too bad. A month later, wondering why my corals were not doing well, began testing and Ca was about 750ppm. And no coraline growth either. Stopped using it then obviously.

Although just to see, on my other tank where Ca was dropping for some reason (no hard or sps corals in the tank) I used some kent or seachem Ca additive which brought it up a little. Then tried the purple up the next time just to see and it brought it up about double what the other additive did (which was about 45ppm higher at the recommended dosage of purple up).

I'm not saying its good or bad, but I wouldn't use it in a tank with corals that depend on consistency.