coralline algae

Hoolin

Hoolin

New member
Ive been haveing troubles growing coraline alge in my aquarium,
its jbj 28gal with metal halide lightning about 20lb of live rock .
i used to have problems with high phosphates but now its all gone.
my calcium levels are a little bit high
and alkanity is at 10
ph is stable, no nitrates
the tank is running for about 6 months

even when i got nice mushroom rock(that was purple) , after few days it had small spots left of purple coraline alge and the rest is white,yellow.

and i dont think there is anything that could eat that, i only have snails, blue and red leg hermit crabs, and a cleaner shrimp

what should i do ?
 
You could test for Magnesium. Coraline takes up a higher percentage of Mg than most other corals. If you really, really want it you can buy and add Purple-Up or Purple-Tech supplements (which I believe are mostly made up of Mg).
Also, try scrubbing what's left of your ca with a toothbrush. This will release spores which can travel and grow in other places.
 
Not much you can do other than what you already have. Coralline is funny, it will be really really slow and then all of a sudden EXPLODE. Keep everything stable and it will grow eventually.

There have been some studies that show coraline grows better in blue light than other parts of the spectrum though. What temp is your halide bulb? Also while entirely uncorroborated, many people have said that they noticed explosive coraline growth when switching from halide to T5.
 
EricTheRed said:
You could test for Magnesium. Coraline takes up a higher percentage of Mg than most other corals. If you really, really want it you can buy and add Purple-Up or Purple-Tech supplements (which I believe are mostly made up of Mg).
Also, try scrubbing what's left of your ca with a toothbrush. This will release spores which can travel and grow in other places.
Click to expand...

i have purple tech and so far i really dont see much effects
ill try scrubbing it with toothbrush,
should i scrub it often or ?
 
Ive heard from some people they also have a very difficult time growing coralline under Metal Halide lighting. Perhaps it is certain MH color wavelengths that deter it from thriving? All just speculation from here-say...
 
SkullV said:
Not much you can do other than what you already have. Coralline is funny, it will be really really slow and then all of a sudden EXPLODE. Keep everything stable and it will grow eventually.

There have been some studies that show coraline grows better in blue light than other parts of the spectrum though. What temp is your halide bulb? Also while entirely uncorroborated, many people have said that they noticed explosive coraline growth when switching from halide to T5.
Click to expand...


i wish it could just explode
its 150W, 14k hqi
 
FishBeard said:
Ive heard from some people they also have a very difficult time growing coralline under Metal Halide lighting. Perhaps it is certain MH color wavelengths that deter it from thriving? All just speculation from here-say...
Click to expand...

so would it help if ill replace a ligth bulb for a different temp ?
 
I'm running 3 150 watt MH with 8 pc bulbs 4 white 4 blues and I have so much purple that I dont want anymore
 
You know I have amazing coraline algae and I have crappy pc lighting what i do is i dose my tank everyday with Reef Solution its everything in a bottle for all elements i keep my calcium at 500-550 my alk at 9 not sure mg as i have never tested or dosed for that. but I do just fine everything in my tank has it on it and i have to do bi weekly scrappings on the front and sides of my tank!! hope that helps and i have been somtimes using tap water!! but I dont reccomend that lol
 
Navycook2 said:
You know I have amazing coraline algae and I have crappy pc lighting what i do is i dose my tank everyday with Reef Solution its everything in a bottle for all elements i keep my calcium at 500-550 my alk at 9 not sure mg as i have never tested or dosed for that. but I do just fine everything in my tank has it on it and i have to do bi weekly scrappings on the front and sides of my tank!! hope that helps and i have been somtimes using tap water!! but I dont reccomend that lol
Click to expand...

what kind of reef solution ?
so u not adding a and b ?

bi weekly ? whats bi ?
 
Hoolin, why do you want coraline alge? I also run MH and have a few spots in certain places. But don't miss it at all.. When I had my T5's in my 45gal it was all over the place and didn't like it at all.
 
I havn't had much problem getting coraline algae to grow. I even had some growth with a tank I had in the basement with not much for lighting. What I have noticed is they don't like my LED's much. I could only get green coraline to grow up high near the lights. I had one large rock up near the top that was just solid green. Everything underneath it was purple.
 
my old tank under t5's had great coraline... but after i changed everything over to my 75gal with 500watts of MH lighting, the coaline on my rocks started getting lighter and lighter in color. There is still coraline on the glass but nowhere as much and nowhere as purple.
 
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