No coraline algae under LED lighting

dmsprague

dmsprague

Member
Just curious what other folks results have been getting coraline algae to grow under LED lighting. I have 6 black box LED 3 with SB reef upgrades. 3 over a 180 and 3 over a 150. I have an AI prime HD over a 28 gallon nano. I can not grow coraline. I mean zero. Corals look good, nems are happy and my maxima clam has doubled in size in a couple of months. I set up a 40 gal QT and toossed on an old t5 HO light with bulbs over a year old and 2 weeks later I'm getting coraline on the glass and rocks. Any ideas other than repalcing all my lights with T5's ;)
 
I've never had an issue growing coraline under LED's. My only issue is that I have way too much coraline. I run Kessils and GHL Mitras's so I can't speak to Black Box LED's but I've also run Reef Tech LED's many years back and even those grew coraline just fine. I'd be looking at the calcium and alk levels before blaming the lighting. And you can always add some strontium or Purple Up which will help. It also helps to seed a tank with coraline or live rock.
 
I have noticed that coralline grows slower and takes longer to show up under led than with t5....but...it will come....coralline is a nucense anyway so you should be happy !!
 
+1

"I’d be looking at the calcium and alk levels before blaming the lighting"

back in the day i ran some CHEAP compact fluorescent lights and it grew just fine.
 
What’s your mag reading? I’d be happy with good coral growth and no coraline but I bet one of your parameters is out of whack
 
I'll have to check it. I have a kit but stopped checking it since I only dose 2 part in 1 tank and kalk in all the ATO units. Definitely don't want it bad enough to start dosing as long as everything else is growing. Had the wife out touring the LFS this week end and one store had coraline growing so thick it was actually plating and she liked it and of course she wanting to know why my tanks didn't have it. At least she didn't ask why I have green and brown algae instead lol. Thanks
 
I'm running a single mitras on my cube and no issues growing coralline algae here.

too much in fact. My coralline took off after my Carx was finally dialed in and i adjusted my white channels down to 10% and overdrove my blues.

ca 410 (nyos)
kH 8.2 (hanna)
mag 1300 (nyos)
 
Do you have any asterina starfish in your tank? I had asterina starfish in my tank and they seem to eat all my coraline algae. Lots of starfish and no coraline algae.
 
I set up a 90 gal. reef display last February using 20 - 25 year-old rock from a sump under a quarantine tank.

I have 600 watts of halide light in the 90 gallon, and there is not a trace of coralline algae anywhere. (BTW - there are two L's in coralline)

I believe that's because I have not introduced coralline. All the other parameters are fine, and corals grow well. The fish looked great.

However, about 15 or 20 years ago I set up a 90 reefer using around 500 watts of compact fluorescent lights. It was bright as hell, brighter and more even than my current set up, and I believe the best lighting over a marine tank I've seen (excluding LEDs). Grew corals, nems and coralline algae very well.

I got so used to seeing coralline in everyone's reef tanks that I was under the impression you could not set up a marine aquarium without it.

It's going to be interesting to see if coralline begins growing after I switch my halides out for two Kessil 360WEs next week.

I hope it never grows. Coralline, in my opinion, is a waste of calcium, and can be PITA when it grows over everything.
 
I get very little coraline with my Radiums, even though I dose and levels are perfect. I do have one side glass that is covered but it gets hit with morning sun. OTOH, my FOLR tank with cheap chinese LED gets more coraline and I don't dose anything in that. As such, I suspect it's the spectrum setting rather than the LED.
 
There are many factors involved in coralline growth. Parameters, flow, source (need a little to grow a little), lighting, etc..... Also, if your livestock is using up the available Ca and Alk, then it might out compete or slow down the coralline growth itself.
Be patient, once it starts to take off, you'll be on the other end of spectrum. I have 3 urchins in my 90g and they keep it in check, but it still grows faster than what they can consume and I'm running Kessil's as well.
I've always found that when I increased flow a little, it started to take off. In really high flow areas, I see it plating.
Like Slief mentioned, try purple up or buy a small piece of LR covered with coralline and put it in a high flow area.
Good luck!
 
IMO it’s a good thing, pain in the butt to clean the side of glasses. But i think it will start to grow, with led just takes a little longer for it to start growing.
 
I have tons of it growing my sump, fuge, skimmer and even media canisters. Putting the fuge aside because it has an Kessil H380 over it, the only lighting over the other stuff is a cheap LED blacklight to highlight the fluorescent acrylic on this equipment. So clearly, to me, lighting is near irrelevant. Flow is certainly a factor as the coraline seems to be more concentrated in higher flow areas of my sump.
 
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