Green coraline???

[Stinkyfish1]

I am wondering why the only color my rocks only have green coraline growing on them and no purple what so ever? I have a 14k 150w HQI bulb Sunpod suplemented with T5 atinic and blue. The tank has been up for almost 3 months now.

I added a few coral peices that had purple coraline on it about a month ago but i still dont see the purple starting to form. My water peramiters seem to be spot on; KH 9.8, Ca 440ppm, PH 8.1-8.3.

Any ideas why purple or any other color isn't growing?

I have one tank as of right now 40g tall, 20g sump, reef octopus skimmer, 150w 14k Sunpod, JBJ 1/10 chiller, 300w Hydor inline heater, ViaAqua calcium reactor controlled by Milwaulkee PH controller, Ocean Pulse wavemaker

 

[con999]

i know i HATE it its all over the glass and as soon as i scrape it off its back the next day.

 

[brycerb]

I would say it is just green algae.

 

[con999]

well mine is just like coraline but in green spots

 

[Palting]

Green coraline, as I understand it, is actually more rare than any other color coraline. You should get more of pink and red before you get green. Maybe the green you have is not coraline? How about a pic?

 

[dots]

Patience Grasshopper, soon it will be all over the place and you will be wanting to know how to scrape it off your glass, seams, power heads.........

Keep doing what you are doing and it will come.

 

[Alex T.]

When I first finished cycling my tank I had purple and pink coralline all over the place. When I ramped up my lighting from 14k to 10k lighting the purple and pink coraline slowly gave way to green. I also increased from 4 to 6 hours with mh on. Then it all started to die and peel off the back glass.

I've since lowered my halide photoperiod and gone to a 20k radium bulb and all the green dead spots of coralline have colored back up to purple. I know I'll get flamed for this but I'm not convinced that there is a green coralline at all...much less rare. Expose the coralline in your tank to air and I guarantee you it will go green and then white and die.

Lift up a piece of live rock in the upper regions of your tank and expose the shaded but partially lit area. If it's purple on the rock below, chances are your photoperiod is too long and you're bleaching the purple out of it. Some people say that certain kelvin bulbs will bring out certain colors of coralline but I think that's dribble. Lower your photoperiod and check back with us in a month. I'm pretty convinced it will be purple. When my coraline went green I also noticed my corals started getting more pale and were on their way out unless I did something. There was simply too much light hitting them between the t5's and 400 watt halides. My coralline and sps do much better with a 3 hour mh photoperiod and 10 hour t5 photoperiod.

You didn't mention your photoperiod for the halides, so any further info would be of benefit. Also, if the coraline starts getting more purple as the depth of water increases you'll start seeing that even 150 watts of halide with crystal clear water can be too much if the photoperiod is too long.

 

[con999]

ya i had a few months last year of a TON or purple but its almost all gone and now its green in running 150 MH that are 14k

 

[Korrine]

Like this:

With time it should turn into more purple like this:

Waterkeeper told me so

 

[Korrine]

Found it. My thread in which dear Waterkeeper speaks!!

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1647139&highlight=coraline

 

[Stinkyfish1]

I am running a 12 hour photo period so it could be bleaching the color out. Here is a pic. The rock looks very similar to the pics posted above.

 

[sjmantis]

When I had strong LEDs and my tank was newer all I had was green. Now that my tank has aged a bit and I swithed to t5s I am getting a lot more purple. Just my .02

 

[Alex T.]

Yup...as posted, this is the trend. When my coralline starts turning green...it's not a rare and beholden strain to be proud of. It's most likely too much lighting intensity or too long a photoperiod.

Cut your metal halides back until it goes purple and keep them there. I'm finding a trend that as sps keepers we feel we need to acclimate corals to our lighting, when in fact we should be giving them just enough and that's it. If your corals are doing great and coloring up nicely with 3 - 4 hours of intense lighting then where is the need to slowly raise the amount of hours that they're exposed to it? Happy sps will grow, and giving them too much of a specific parameter is akin to saying that if an alkalinity of 9 dkh is showing good results then maybe I should bump that up to 12. It doesn't make sense. I rarely have to acclimate a coral to my 400 watt radiums anymore because they only get hit with it for 3 hours. Some new frags I recently purchased were mounted in their desired location 2 weeks ago and are coloring up nicely. No sand dwelling...no screen shield waiting "until they're ready".

I consider lighting a parameter. While par is important, I don't think it needs to be consistent for an overextended period. Clouds pass over the reefs all the time, sometimes blocking out the sun for minutes or even hours. This can be everyday for months or not at all. Most frag farmers only use 20k bulbs that are on light rails to save on electricity. If two halides are on for 8 hours over a 10 foot runway, each frag may see only half that amount of time in intensity all day as the light rail moves. When our halides go on, it's noon day sun beating down on them from a fixed position until they go off.

I've grown convinced that marathon lighting periods aren't any more beneficial, and in many ways harmful. I've even started experimenting with different photoperiods and am starting to log a photo series of growth rates versus lighting intensity and duration. So far, things looks promising and I hope to post pictures in a month or so.

Sorry for the novel. If anyone has any advice on adjusting the white balance with radiums running I'd appreciate it. I want to be a better photographer than my current skills allow for, lol.

 

[Stinkyfish1]

Thanks for the info everyone I'm going to cut the photo period from 12hrs to 8 and see what happens.

 

[seege]

Thanks for the info everyone I'm going to cut the photo period from 12hrs to 8 and see what happens.

Any difference yet?

 

[XtremeFromHell]

Well in my tank, i have plenty of green coraline. I do not have strong lighting either. I have a 29 gallon tank with 2x24w t5ho heres a pic, i have a mix of both green and pink/purple as well as red.

I have a balance of both colors, notice my overflow, my powerheads and my rocks too.

 

[zma21]

In my experience new coraline that forms will be green. With time it turns red, pink, purple, etc.

This is what all of my coraline has done over the years in various tanks. I'm just now starting to see some green in my nanocube, after two months of being set up.