coraline QUESTION

J

jasdavis09

New member
I want to start a coraline alge growth. My tank has been up and running for almost a year now. I have a 46 gal bow front with about 50 pounds of fiji live rock, 25 pounds of live sand I have 3 fire darters a cleaner shrimp small watchman gobby and of course snails and a few hermit crabs. My lighting is dual 96 watt pcs one 50/50 and one 12.000k. What can I do to encurage the coraline growth?


Thank you
 
Check Ca. I was told a few years ago that scratching at it does something to promote growth, but don't quote me on that, it could be false.
 
Good Ca and Strontium levels. For some reason a Strontium level of 20-30 ppm causes them to spread faster than just taking care of Calcium levels at 400-500ppm.
 
If you don't have any currently growing in your tank, go to a fellow reefers house and scrape all you can from the tank glass. Sprinkle the purple flakes and dust in your tank, and as long as your Calcium Magnesium levels are good, you should have it growing in now time.
 
Check your phosphate and nitrate levels, both need to be low. CA and ALK need to be in normal range. How much flow do you have in the tank? The more the better for coraline. The lighting is perfect for coraline.
 
if your bulbs are about a year old, plan on some new ones soon, they have a life of 8 mnths to a year, and keep water quality good, i kept the calc/alk in check and it grows like crazy on everything exept the rock, its real slow growing on there
 
Do you have any coraline growth in your tank now? I'm thinking your lighting is fine, since I had half that and in 6 months, my rocks were 75% covered and my back glass 50% covered. Other than regular water changes, the only additives I put in was a tablespoon of Kent Coral-Vite once every week or two.

I'm thinking Konadog is probably on to something. The rock I buy from my LFS has pretty decent coraline growth on it when I buy it. Getting some seed coraline into your tank may be all you need.
 
dose your tank with Bi-onic it is a 2 part solution it will raise your calcium without messing up your PH coraline will start growing great, my tank has been running for about 1 year and the coraline is just starting to take off
 
Coralline algae consumes calcium and alkalinity out of the water column, so you need to make sure those are in line. Magnesium can be an issue as well, but it's consumed very slowly, and is seldom an issue.

Beyond that, coralline requires nitrogen and phosphate from the water column, in small quantities. Large amounts of phosphate can inhibit growth.

Coralline also requires light, so checking your bulbs, as suggested, might be useful.

This article discusses all the water parameters of interest:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php
 
TO IslandCrow:
When looking at lighting for coraline algea, wattage does not really matter. What really matters is the spectrum of color that the light is emmiting.
 
That's not really accurate, IMO. Dim enough lighting will give low growth no matter what spectrum. Different types of coralline prefer different lighting levels, too. I haven't seen any graphs showing coralline algae's light response, but different spectral content does seem to favor different organisms.
 
This is what has worked for me. My tank has now been up for 49 days. I am getting very good coralline growth. I have kept my parameters per the link that Jonathan gave you. I had some good live rock that was precured with good coralline growth on it. I have been dosing almost since the onset of this tank with Randy's 2 part alkalinty and Calcium solutions. I have also dosed the magnesium as well. I use only RO/DI water and do 8 gallon water changes weekly.

I think the real key is keeping the alk and calk where it shoud be. I strive to keep mine at alk 3.2 MEQ/L and the calcium at 420 to 430. I use the dosing calculator and spent a lot of time in the chemistry forum getting educated.

By the way I have very little algae in my tank. Just two small spots on both sides of the tank.

By the way, lighting seems to have minimal affect on the growth of the coralline. Alk and Calk seem to be the most beneficial.

I hope this helps you. Good test kits are a necessity. I use Saliferts. They work the best for me.

Regards,

Pat
 
To bertoni:

You stated: "Dim enough lighting will give low growth no matter what spectrum"----------Yes, that is true. But to encourage growth even more, you should look at the spectrum of color the light will emit.
 
I don't think spectrum matters much personally. My best growth is in the 20 gallon FOWLR with the PC fixture burning 3 year old bulbs. Overall, it doesn't really matter much. With good CA, ALK, PO4, and NO3 levels along with good flow it will just start growing. You can assist the process by toothbrushing the existing coraline or adding an urchin which will eat it but spread spores while doing so. Here's two months into my 125 with minimal LR. The purple scraping hassle is well under way. :(

3.jpg
 
Alaskan Reefer,

Thats going to be a nice looking tank. Your off to a good start. It reminds me of mine, I have practically the same coralline growth 50 days into it.

Regards,

Pat
 
Pat -- I'm glad the stuff is growing (means water quality is pretty good to excellent), but I just hate scraping it. Thanks for the compliment on the tank, can't wait to get down with the SPS in there. :)
 
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