Setting the stage for coralline algae
 

3 days in, virgin live rock. How can I provide the best environment for coralline to grow? There seems to be a big debate about supplements.

Keeping consistent water parameters.


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Keep calcium levels up, using a calcium reactor or kalkwasser additions.

Keep alk, calc and magnesium in the optimum range and the coraline will grow.

This and don’t fall victim to coralline in a bottle products like some people :cool: it will only drain your pocketbook. Patience and it will come, I know that’s hard when your starting cause I went through the same thing think there was a magic bullet or particular process. Stable parameters and time is all it takes.

I'd seed it with a piece of live Rock that has alot of coraline growth.

By "virgin rock" I am going to assume that you used dry rock. If this indeed is the case then you need something to seed the rock with. You can use a piece of coraline encrusted rock. Typically when I start a tank with Dry Rock I use a few pounds of Garf Grunge on top of my sand bed to provide bacteria, Coraline Algae spores among many other beneficial things. Typically in 3 months or so you should start seeing "pretty purple stuff" popping up on your rock.

To speed things up a bit....cause lets face it, the waiting is the hardest part of this hobby, there are a few things I do that have worked well for me in the past! I do not run a skimmer until I start seeing Coraline Algae on my rock work appearing. I will also boost the flow in the tank with additional power heads. I will also use a low wattage, typically a single NO T-12 or T-8 actinic only light, over the tank on an abbreviated light schedule until coraline algae is established. Once established I will start running my primary lighting set up which typically is about 12-14k ramping up the lighting period over a couple of weeks. While playing the "waiting game" I will drip Kalk Plus 2 for make up water to keep Calcium, Alk and Mag at optimum levels.

I have had some pretty solid results going this route over the years when setting up a sterile tank.