The mystery of coraline algea growth

[snoopdog]

I would like to know what the big mystery is of coraline algea growth. The first few months people tell me that give it time and it will start growing. I am going on two years now and my parameters are perfect. I use salifert test kits, digital PH testing. I have awesome water flow, my acroporas are growing so well I have been able to frag them. Still with great sucess on everything I have no coraline algea growth. In fact what little was growing is now turning a green color. They only thing I dose is maybe some iodine because I think everything else should be provided by the reactor. The only tank I have the slightest coraline growth is my 20 gallon tank which is making some progress. When I purchased my rock it had nice purple, pink and even some white macro algea. Most of this had disappeared and faded.
The only observation I have made is coraline seems to grow better where water dumps in my sump area. Also in my 20 gallon where the water dumps from the skimmer it is pretty heavy growing coraline. Is this saying that it requires heavy aeration to grow ? I am not sure but what ticks me off is to go somewhere and seeing heavy coraline growth and I cannot get any to grow in my tank.

[golfish]

I see you have SPS, What kind of lights do you have? I have found that coralline will die or won't grwo under very strong light. The 400 watt Iwasaki killed all mine.

[snoopdog]

Maybe that is my problem. I currently have four 110 Watt Vho's and two 175 Halides (True 10k) over a 75 gallon tank. It seems that I have seen other people with that bright of light over similar tanks with coraline but I may be mistaken. My other tanks that have less light seem to have a little better coraline, but nothing to right home about

[reefhead]

your lights aren't the problem-- You dont through oranges in your fishtank man!

That is about the only thing I can think right now, some people have no problem growing it and others do . What do you keep you Ca/Alk stable at?

How often do you test--You should'nt be chasing reading this is unstable


cheers,
Joe





Happy New Year 2002
Joseph Abrams
St.Petersburg Fl.

[snoopdog]

I do not check parameters like I used to. I only check them when something looks wrong or if the cal reactor gets out of whack. Since the cal reactor my readings have must improved. The calcium reactor keep the calcium in the upper 400's and the alk around 5.0 or higher. The Ph has finally stabilized at 8.25 during the day.

[Wind]

For me its time and age of the tank.. I use 4-NO over my 55.. 2 actinics, 1 50/50, 1-daylight. I switch the spectrum weekly or whenever from time to time..

At first the coraline were fading, then the powerhead were covered with specs, then the rocks were growing richer in color. Now specs on the glass.


I think its time..

[Wind]

Oh yeah. i add calcium from time to time, and alk from time to time.. I love my tank its finally growing..

[Barry N.]

First of all IME, I have run 250 watter and always had nice coraline algae then I changed to 400watter and it started to disappear and then went back to 250s as I was having a heat problem with the higher watters and now my tank is covered with coralline algae.

Barry

[ReefHog]

I have noticed mine has been dissapearing somewhat lately. I still have tons but it is not spreading like it use to and there is more green type coarline algae. I really don't do water tests unless there is something wrong. So I did a test and found my phosphates were at 1pp. Turns out my RO was spent. I just had it replaced so I'm hoping things will turn around. Just a thought.

[bongobrian]

What is your phosphate level? high phosphates will hinder coraline growth, even prevent it. Phosphates will make it very difficult for anything to calcify in your tank including corals and coraline algea, even if your calcium and alk levels are perfect. It basically chokes your corals and prevents them from growing.

[snoopdog]

I did not really think about phosphates so I went ahead and checked the tank and the water straight out of the RO just to be sure. Both came out totally zero using a salifert kit.

[David]

Hi kids, I'm back. Changed isp, guess I'll be nit for a while. Anyway I was looking at a guys tank a few months ago, really awesome. 240 gals, the guy propagates and sells corals. Tank was loaded with coral and macro algae. Not one spec of coraline, odd I thought. We talked. He originally set up the tank with dry base rock and poor quality lr. If you don't plant the seed.... Just a thought.

[LazyReef]

Corralline likes blue light or dimmer light deeper in the reef. It grows best for me in a a tank lit by one 30 watt penn plex light (unbelievably), and in my other tank with two x 110 watts. It also seems to grow great on plexiglass. I have a 30 lit by 2 x 40 watt cool whites and I get no growth in there. My higher light tank it does not grow high but lower i have great corralline (SPS tank). I use long spine urchins to keep the rock stripped and it helps (2 in a 125). Literature suggests that tanks with urchins grow more corralline than those that do not have them. This is in direct dissent with many aquarists. They apparently provide a clean clean rock for it to take hold, however over grazing would not be good either so maybe one urchin per 100 gallons. I am thinking of taking one urchin out of the 125 and moving it to the 30. I do have nice corralline in the 125, but not covered head to toe. (All the tanks are on the same system and I use a Ca Reactor). It remains a mystery.

[reefhead]

damn lazy, this thead is over 2 years old---where have you been digging?


LMAO

[kevinpo]

Yikes! That's an old one. IMO coraline algae is a waste of calcium and a PIA!

Regards,
Kevin

[LazyReef]

Gosh, I don't know, smoking my Caulerpa I guess and I got side tracked...

[jiggly75]

just thougtht i would put in my 2Cents. in our 55 we had killer corraline algae all over everything w/440 watts vho. since we have converted to the 90 gallon w/2 175 mh and 2 110 vho we have seen some of our rocks that had total corraline coverage are now bleaching white. we also have none on our glass(yeah!!!). we also heard that the mhs kill corraline.

[Reefland]

we also heard that the mhs kill corraline.

The statement alone is not true. Coralline algae is like our corals though, there are many different species of coralline algae that have different requirements. Some species do well in low light, low flow areas while another may do well under intense 400w MH with extreme current.

[reefhead]

I agree with the above statement, good current is diffently a helper in the growth of coralline.

[LazyReef]

Well Reefhead, looks like digging around stirred some coralline up. I give my tank an hour of 220w actinic in the dawn and dusk by itself and throughout the day along with 175 10M Halides. Maybe they really need the violets and blues. I'm gonna go find some other stuff that is sitting around and getting stale.... like maybe bare bottom vs. deep sand bed