OCD will drive me nuts - coraline algae

R

reef tank 2.0

Member
OK, although my tank is not up and running, but rather under construction. I hear a lot about this coraline algae and having it is a good thing. I see a lot of photos of members tanks and the pink algae is very noticeable. I don;t recall seeing it on the front/sides of the tank, but mainly on the back.

Since I have two overflows, is there any possible way that I can keep the overflows coraline free? I'm afraid that my OCD will drive me insane trying to keep this algae off every inch of glass, including the black overflows.

my background is black, along with the overflows, so the pink algae will stick out like a sore thumb.

let's say i scrape the glass so that its algae free. how long after that, will more appear? are we talking hours, days, weeks, or months?

anyone have any advice on keeping the overflows spotless?
 
You can scrape it of with a plastic card or other stiff material. I find that the nylon media bags work well for this also. Seachem makes one that is very stiff and does a great job of scrubbing it off.
 
It all really depends on the tank and the conditions. I clean my front and sides. The overflows and the back are owned by the coraline. It is just not worth the effort for me. Good luck
 
In my tank I scrape mine every other week, and it's not even that bad in that time. Mine seems to grow more in the corners than the flats for whatever reason, which makes it harder to scrape because i have to be careful not to nick the sealant. Couldgrow faster in different conditions, but IMO it's not too bad. My tank is glass though, not sure how easy it is to get off of plastic. I cleaned it off of a powerhead this weekend, but I can take that out and soak in vinegar, so that's a bit different.
 
thats good news. mine is glass as well. can this algae be rubbed off the powerheads? those are a little trickier since they are not flat/straight.
 
yeah, I got mine off with vinegar and a toothbrush, took about 10 minutes and is black like new. The powerhead was pretty well covered since I usualy neglect to clean them, so if you do them often it would be wuite easy. I've even used the rough side of velcrow and it will remove coraline with some pressure and rubbing without scratching glass (not sure about acrylic). Seems to need more force than a normal mag cleaner though. would work well for removed equipment like a powerhead.
 
If you actually have OCD and are going to be triggered by a few specks on the glass you might want to reevaluate this. Tanks are not spotless. There's all kinds of crud and bits of algae that you don't see in most of the Tank of the Month pics.
 
crankbait09 said:
OK, although my tank is not up and running, but rather under construction. I hear a lot about this coraline algae and having it is a good thing. I see a lot of photos of members tanks and the pink algae is very noticeable. I don;t recall seeing it on the front/sides of the tank, but mainly on the back.

Since I have two overflows, is there any possible way that I can keep the overflows coraline free? I'm afraid that my OCD will drive me insane trying to keep this algae off every inch of glass, including the black overflows.

my background is black, along with the overflows, so the pink algae will stick out like a sore thumb.

let's say i scrape the glass so that its algae free. how long after that, will more appear? are we talking hours, days, weeks, or months?

anyone have any advice on keeping the overflows spotless?
Click to expand...

Yeah it is gonna be hard on you mate... you'll be doing it quite constantly eventually, will be such a pain. :/
 
You'll have to keep up with the cleaning. It will get out of hand if you let it. I keep coralline off my front, sides and back wall where I can reach it. In the hard to reach spots it flourishes.
 
Cstrickland is correct. A re-evaluation is in order. Perhaps a nice neat bonsai tree? ;)
The easier softer way is to let coralline win and spend more time enjoying your tank. It is a self-defeating proposition. The more you scrape, the more it will grow in new locations as you are actually "seeding" the tank with the stuff. Algae is a natural part of our reef and is found in all healthy eco-systems to some degree. Good Luck!
 
I heard that scraping the coraline algea would cause spores to be released through out the tank and basically spread.
 
Stackemdeep said:
Cstrickland is correct. A re-evaluation is in order. Perhaps a nice neat bonsai tree? ;)
The easier softer way is to let coralline win and spend more time enjoying your tank. It is a self-defeating proposition. The more you scrape, the more it will grow in new locations as you are actually "seeding" the tank with the stuff. Algae is a natural part of our reef and is found in all healthy eco-systems to some degree. Good Luck!
Click to expand...

You actually just answered my question! lol
 
I'm going to agree with some other folks - first, if your water conditions are good for coral it's also going to be great for coralline. It's easy to scrape it off the front and sides but maintaining perfect black overflows is just not worth it. I get the perfection thing, I suffer from it myself but in a reef tank, pick your battles. There's plenty of other things to obsess over. Take a deep breath and let it go. :)
 
+1 algae will defeat your OCD, and if it doesn't you'll be going to such great lengths to kill algae that you'll take down every coral in the tank with it. These big time tank of the month winners and what not have beautiful tanks, but they are prepared for photo shoots. Sand is cleaned sparkly white, glass meticulously scraped, water polished up, powerheads sometimes turned off or even removed and a lot of tasteful photoshop used. Not because the tanks aren't beautiful, but because it's a frickin photo shoot. They don't look that perfect all the time. Even supermodels have a lot of makeup and prep work for a photo shoot. It's ok. But at some point to have a healthy reef means having a biologically diverse environment which includes a bit of algae.

Speaking specifically of coralline, tuxedo urchins eat it.
 
DaveRaz said:
Hey mr ocd. Coralline will be the least of your worries.

Signed
Mr ocd
Click to expand...


:) So true!

You're going to do what you're going to do, but just gotta say... just let the coralline do its thing. It's easy enough to keep off the sides and front glass, but the back will be more trouble than you realize. It will honestly be a full time job. Anything generating heat (powerheads, heaters, etc) will collect the coralline quicker and within days after a cleaning will have spots starting to show again.

For me, once you get a good coating of coralline on something, it pretty much looks "natural" and doesn't look spotty - the coralline just keeps getting thicker. Until it interferes with the intake of your powerheads, I'd just let it keep growing.

And yeah... the coralline will probably be the least of your worries. You can somewhat control coralline. You can't control when a fish decides to call some other corner of the tank home after 7 years and thinks it'd be cool to relandscape by moving the sand around with its tail. Or when the hermits everyone told you would be reef safe decide its favorite resting spot is on top of that delicate bubble coral you just bought. :0
 
Oh man, my hermits keep treeing themselves like cats in my Gorgonian. :P

OP, to keep the glass clean I can't recommend The Flipper highly enough!
 
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