Coralline Algae stopped growing. Have no idea why?

[MiracleFish]

I tested my water for the first time in months and my readings are almost perfect.

Salinity: 1.026
Salifert Magnesium Test Kit: 1290ppm
Red Sea Phosphate Test Kit: 0ppm
API Test Kits - pH: 7.8
- Calcium: 480ppm
- Alk: 11dkh

All my corals and live stock thrive amazingly besides Caulti Coral, its as flaccid as well... you know. Also my Star Polyps aren't growing as fast as I predicted the would grow, since I see at least 2 or more polyps grow from a colony each week.

I just started doing water changes again since my Hair Algae dilemma. However, with the help of Brandon from Nano Tanks section helped me out 100% with that situation. Along with my new phosban reactor, there are undetectable amounts of phosphates in the water. There is no algae growing on the walls of my tank or even in my HOB refugium. Just some old yellow coralline from when it did grow on my equipment.

I noticed this change as soon as I got new lights for my 20g long, when I set up my new Aquatics 1watt per LED (Considering I got the 24w). Along with that Change was the extreme growth of Green hair algae as I just mentioned before.

I Also want to say that I'm afraid to chase the pH levels because of what happened last time throwing the rest of the chemistry off because I was dosing Buffer into the water changes. I feel like I should continue adding buffer again, but that will bring my Alk to 18 like last time. There is no canopy over my tank, there is 100% gas exchange and the water has enough surface movement.. actually a really good amount of surface movement. Should I consider putting a pump inside my HOB fuge for more oxygen? I think that would be quite the interesting test, no?

TL:TR - Chemistry is almost perfect but coralline still isn't growing? Is it the new lights?

[bertoni]

I suspect it's the lighting, but there could be a number of causes. Other organisms might be outcompeting the coralline for nutrients, for example.

[MiracleFish]

bump, anyone else?

[MiracleFish]

Not trying to make a new thread and p*ss everyone off, but I'm still left with questions? This is really the only kind soul to try and help me?

[bertoni]

I guess not. FWIW, I managed to kill off almost all the coralline in one of my tanks by changing from compact PC to MH lighting. I was happy, though, because I was tired of all of the purple.

[sahin]

It is most likely the lights. You can try boost your magnesium level to at least 1350ppm. I found in the past slightly higher mag levels boosted the Coralline algae growth.

You can also dose kalk in your tank if you dont already. For some reason I found kalk seems to increase Coralline algae.

Also, note that there are varieties of Coralline algae that grow in different light conditions. My tank used to have a largely pink variety under T5's. When I switch to T5+LED the overall Coralline algae is a purple variety.

Just continue to carry out regular weekly water changes and keep the parameters in check. Coralline algae will return. You might also consider adding a small piece of fresh liverock from the LFS which is cove.red in Coralline algae, perhaps that will seed new growth

[MiracleFish]

I guess not. FWIW, I managed to kill off almost all the coralline in one of my tanks by changing from compact PC to MH lighting. I was happy, though, because I was tired of all of the purple.
Thats the thing, I want to see all the purple!
It is most likely the lights. You can try boost your magnesium level to at least 1350ppm. I found in the past slightly higher mag levels boosted the Coralline algae growth.

You can also dose kalk in your tank if you dont already. For some reason I found kalk seems to increase Coralline algae.

Also, note that there are varieties of Coralline algae that grow in different light conditions. My tank used to have a largely pink variety under T5's. When I switch to T5+LED the overall Coralline algae is a purple variety.

Just continue to carry out regular weekly water changes and keep the parameters in check. Coralline algae will return. You might also consider adding a small piece of fresh liverock from the LFS which is cove.red in Coralline algae, perhaps that will seed new growth
My PC's had this ugly yellow coralline algae growing.. there are little pink spots still in existence when the PC's actually had 1:10 ratio of pink to yellow coralline. just that even after scraping, it doesn't grow at all. I do keep up my water changes now, I'm about to do a water change tomorrow.. Maybe I should try kalk dosing.

[bertoni]

If the parameters are fine, I doubt that Kalk will help, but if it's easy to use, you could try it. It's cheap and can help with low pH situations.