Regaining Corraline Growth/LR Health

[NaClH20]

Last summer my air conditioning went kaput and we used fans and evaporation to cool our tank, that interspersed with dunking refreezable ice paks into our 180 gallon fish and 1 leather coral tank. In doing so we replaced alot of water and while I was not home, it was being replaced mistakenly with saltwater! The salt levels soared and I did what I could everyday, upon my return, to dilute it out. My live rock hasn't been the same. I think my investment in Fiji LR is dead. How can I tell? and is there a way to jump start corraline growth again?
Thanks all in advance.
-NaCl H20

[mazer62]

Here is a few things to try out. Make sure you have good lighting i.e.. VHO Then try adding in Coral Vital which should be available at local pet stores or order online. This stuff works great, it is used on daily basis until Corraline growth is sufficiant. Also helps out other corals in tank..

[Reefman19]

Also make sure your Magnesium level is at about 1200-1300ppm. Salifert makes a very affordable test and is easy to use and read.
Magnesium is what gives coralline its color.
At below 1000ppm's Mg, my coralline is pale and not very exciting. I used the Coral Vital and ESV B-Ionic Magnesium supplement and it colored up very nicely, just use as directed and be patient. I also found that coralline "grows" better under 6500K MH bulbs instead of the 10000K bulbs, for me anyways. VHO's also do well if kept fresh and burning brightly.

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Greg

[glh7767]

coralline algae will grow if 1. coralline algae spores are available 2. alkalinity and ph are maintained 3. calcium levels are at 400 or so. adding 1 tbsp of baking soda per 50 gallons of water per day will keep alkalinity up. a good calcium additive like b ionic, seachem reef advantage and calcium, and a bunch of others will maintain adequate calcium. if you think your live rock is dead rock, you can jump start it again with "garf grunge" available from garf. it is basically all the junk in particulate form from the bottom of a number of their long standing tanks, and is filled with coralline algae spores. you can even use this stuff to make your own live rock out of aragonite and cement. hope this helps

[Tattooedlife]

Originally posted by mazer62:
Here is a few things to try out. Make sure you have good lighting i.e.. VHO Then try adding in Coral Vital which should be available at local pet stores or order online. This stuff works great, it is used on daily basis until Corraline growth is sufficiant. Also helps out other corals in tank..

I've been using Sea Chem Reef Calcium, Thats it.... I'm starting on Coral Vital and SeaChem Reef Calcium this weekend. Have any of you tried this combo? Will it work?

[jadeclam]

i quit using corallife products long ago, the only thing i dose in my 10g, is seachem reef complete. in my 5g i dose kent turbo cal, no results yet.


Jade

[saltjunkie]

thats all ive been using to jade, i havent seen any results yet... hopefully we willl though , sea chem is supposed to be good?

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Whoever invented salt water aquariums should be shot for taking all my money...everyday, oh well gotta have something to do!

[jadeclam]

salt, i didn't write that right, i haven't seen any results with the turbo cal. i actually get decent coralline with the seachem.

Jade

[saltjunkie]

i reread your post jade, you actually did write it correct. i just read it sideways or something...lol

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Whoever invented salt water aquariums should be shot for taking all my money...everyday, oh well gotta have something to do!

[rmoro]

Here is a section of an article I found on this topic:

"Some people build the base or main structure for their reef or fish tank from any of the varieties of rock listed above, and then add some nice established cultured live rock or wild live rock or even ocean cultured live rock over parts of it, in many or just a few spots. This live rock from the ocean or from another good reef aquarium provides the "seed" culture for coralline algae, beneficial bacteria, tiny crustaceans (amphipods, decapods and copepods)and other goodies which multiply, spread and grow on and in your new rock also. I have even seeded Idaho aragonite rock with coralline algae in one 20-gallon reef tank with only the coralline on a few snails, hermit crabs and a live sand culture containing some small bits of coralline algae. Of course it took a lot longer to get really good looking live coralline rock with this very conservative seeding method. I prefer to use live rock for the "seed" coralline, NOT live sand with coralline mixed in with it.

I seeded another live rock and live sand growing tank (55-gallon) with only some home grown live sand and two 2-3 inch pieces of heavily corallined live rock. I put the well corallined rocks directly in the heaviest water flow from a power head. This helps spread the coralline algae spores around the tank and to the new rock faster. This grew nice coralline live rock much faster than the previous tank. Faster water motion in the tank (and across the seed rocks) helps here. Two MaxiJet 1000's work well to keep the water moving well in a 55-gallon live sand and live rock growing tank. These two tanks only had single or double flourescent lights of the Triton and Blue Moon Reef types which are 40 watt standard output. Two to four standard output reef tubes over a 45, 50, 55 or 75-gallon tank is ideal lighting for growing a good tank full of coralline live rock. You might as well grow live sand right in with your live rock at the same time. You need to use either enough live sand or live rock in with the new sand and rock to act as a starter culture to spread worms, amphipods, decapods and copepods along with coralline algae, to multiply and populate the new sand and rock. Of course some coral cuttings can be grown on top of all this in the same tank.

If you sell or trade the newly grown coralline live rock that you have just raised, you can then replace it with more dry base rock to keep growing more live rock. You will also have coralline algae growing on the inside glass of the tank by this time. If possible do not remove it, since it also provides seed culture in the form of spores, bits and pieces which can help spread coralline algae to the new rocks even faster the second time around. The more coralline algae on your glass and existing rocks, the faster the new rocks tend to grow coralline. Another trick that helps spread coralline algae is to scrub the coralline on the glass or a rock just a little with an abrasive aquarium cleaning pad or tooth brush to create coralline dust that can be blown around and settle on the new rocks to grow. Good water current is helpful. I do not use filter pads nor do I protein skim the tank during this initial phase, or especially when I scrub the coralline to "seed" the tank with coralline. Filter pads and protein skimming can remove spores or fine coralline dust which I want to encourage in the early stage of getting the rocks to start growing coralline algae.

The only calcium, magnesium or strontium additive I normally use to grow my coralline live rock is CaribSea aragonite sand. The aragonite sand dissolves slowly to provide these while buffering your water just fine on its own. Oolitic aragonite sand from CaribSea or ESV Company can also be used. I normally use no kalkwasser or buffers to culture homegrown live rock. I usually add iodide and a broad spectrum trace element and vitamin supplement such as CombiSan, Reef Plus or Vital Gold twice a week in smaller than recommended doses while growing coralline encrusted live rock. Other trace elements are used by others also. Some aquarists do not even add any other trace elements or iodide other than what the aragonite sand releases as it dissolves.

Using SeaChem's trio of Reef Plus (trace elements and vitamins), Reef Calcium (organic calcium) and Reef complete (calcium, magnesium and strontium) can speed up the process of coralline growth somewhat. Aragonite sand does release calcium, magnesium, strontium and some other elements too. Calcium and magnesium are especially vital to coralline algae growth. Organic calcium accelerates the growth of coralline algae also. Many people have experienced increased coralline algae growth when using Marc Weiss' Coral Vital.

Now we come to the two most common causes of poor coralline algae growth. The first cause is low pH and KH (alkalinity). The second common cause of poor coralline growth is the use of excessive herbivores, especially ones that like to eat coralline algae! You can use a supplement like SeaChem's Reef Builder to boost alkalinity and pH a bit and accelerate some cases of slow coralline algae growth. If you decide to use it, I would use smaller conservative doses more often rather than large doses less often. Take the recommended weekly dose and use just 1/4 of that dose twice a week. Others see accelerated coralline algae growth when using balanced calcium/buffer supplements, like ESV's B-Ionic two part calcium supplement. It is also heavy in calcium and magnesium and it raises the alkalinity (KH) of your aquarium water. Be careful not to add too much at any one time.

Some people also see good results by adding kalkwasser, but if you over do this also, you will then get some negative results as discussed in this column in Dec 1997. If you boost the KH much over 10 - 12 dKH for a long time it could negatively affect your aragonite sand and stop it from readily dissolving to buffer and release calcium. The same precaution applies to using kalkwasser or buffers which can raise the pH and KH too high resulting in precipitation of calcium and magnesium and then aragonite sand failure. More people experience this problem than realize it. I still tend to just stick with the simple aragonite, trace element and iodide combination for a reliable and acceptable coralline algae growth rate. Simple reef aquariums like a HANDY Reef, Merrill Cohen's "Easier than Freshwater Reef" (see my web site) or other simple systems will keep costs and care low.

Using algae eaters such as tangs, snails, amphipods and copepods can be helpful also. You need to keep the hair algae at bay so the coralline algae can take hold and grow. Small blue legged hermit crabs or scarlet hermit crabs are included by some also. Red legged hermit crabs from the Sea of Cortez, although fairly efficient cleaners, like to eat the faster growing types of soft coralline algae and have been totally or partially excluded from some commercial coralline rock growing systems for this reason. I get letters from people who are adding the above supplements to speed the growth of coralline algae and it still doesn't grow! Too often the mystery of the missing coralline turns out to be the use of too many red legged hermit crabs. This results in the rocks ending up with a dull gray-green look which is easy to identify once you've seen it a few times. I can get better coralline algae growth by simply using only CaribSea aragonite sand and no coralline eaters, than the person who uses all the additives above and is hooked on using coralline eaters. Or if you are in a real hurry to grow good coralline algae, you can get the very fastest growth by eliminating the coralline algae eaters and also adding some of the above supplements."


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Rocco

[icemark]

Has the coralline gone white? If so you need to start again with either some new rock as seed rock or Garf Grunge. Or is it just sad? I grow new live rock all the time for local pet shops, using home made rock (Portland cement and either crushed coral sand or Aragonite) but the rock always needs to be seeded with something.

BTW the darker colors of the coralline (like a rich purple) grows better in less light (like a couple of 40 watts 50/50)and use lots of Reef Complete.

A couple of small (don't put in more than a couple or the whole tank will stink) Un-Cured real live rock(s) will help you get the sponges and other critters back as well.

[Brewster]

Ok, now I am confused about the connection between PK and coraline growth. I have great PH, and do not buffer, but I have never tested PK. Should I start testing PK after I dose a calcium suplement?


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"No TV and no beer make Homer go some thing something........" H.S.