Need help with coralline algae !

[Blesson87]

Hi guys . . . My 30 gallon is almost five months old now. Has plenty of live rock with coralline on it in spots. I have a 150 wts metal halide. Had a few spots on the back of the tank but then my bicolor blenny chomped them off ! Will increasing the flow rate and magnesium levels help in more coralline ? I want a nice purple backdrop. Calcium levels and alk is on the normal amount. Pls help !

 

[fshfrk58]

I'm not to sure about that, but I have had success with purple up.

 

[thincat]

Don't waste your money on purple up. All you have to do is take that LR with the coralline algae on it and scrape some of the coralline off the rock in front of one of your PH's. This will spread the coralline all over your tank. In a few months you'll curse me for telling you about how easy it is to do.
Here is a picture of a DIY rock I put infront of a ph and did that. ~two or so weeks. Oh, the arrows show my brittle stars moving throughout the rock.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

...Will increasing the flow rate and magnesium levels help in more coralline ? I want a nice purple backdrop. Calcium levels and alk is on the normal amount. Pls help !

I don't think flow will really do anything for you, and magnesium levels are probably not an issue assuming you're using a reputable salt mix. Magnesium levels should be about 3x your calcium levels.

What exactly are your calcium and alkalinity levels? "Normal" means different things to different people!

 

[Blesson87]

Well thincat already did the brushing of the LR thing ! Did it with the skimmer and filter off bout a month back. Didnt help ! and yeah i know what a waste of money the purple up product is supposed to be.
Kurt my calcium is in the 450 to 480 range. And alk is at 8 dkh . . . MH bulb is 10000k. One of my friend suggested i move onto 14000k so that i have more of the blue spectrum. So have ordered for one.

 

[ccCapt]

Your calcium and alk is fine. Have you tested phosphate? Phosphate can inhibit calcification, so anything that uses calcium to grow (hard corals, coralline algae, etc) can stop growing with high phosphate levels.

I think your issue is the lighting. Coralline doesn't like intense lighting, so you may have better luck dropping down to the less powerful 14k bulb. The color of the bulb (10k or 14k) has nothing to do with it, it's the intensity. In general, 10k bulb have alot more PAR than 14k bulbs.

 

[Blesson87]

Well my phosphates re round 0.5 . . . And yup hoping the 14k bulb will help me out. Have any of you guys heard of bicolor blennys eating coralline ? Cos i kinda saw mine at it ! It made short work outta the few spots i had on my glass in the shadows. And oh btw if its worth mentioning . . . The coralline seems to be growing only in the shaded areas of my live rock. The rock which is exposed to the light is kinda bleachin !

 

[ccCapt]

Your phosphate is very high. The recommended levels are 0.03 or lower. I suggest you look into getting some GFO (Granular Ferric Oxide) to drop the phosphate levels in your system.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Agree with ccccCccapt... your calcium/alkalinity are fine, but those phosphates could be an issue.

As you're noticing, it doesn't like a lot of light. It won't grow in areas that have no light, but it will do best in shaded areas out of the direct light. My tank tends to have less coralline the higher in the tank you go... and I have power compacts for lighting - not metal halide. Again, as ccCapt mentioned, I think the high output of your lighting is doing in your coralline.

Not sure about the blenny eating coralline... maybe it was picking at algae that was growing on it, or some pods that were hiding on it?

 

[Blesson87]

Yup i had been thinkin of gettin some GFO . . . Getting some chaeto or gracillaria wont help as my tang ll make short wrk of it. Any advice on how much GFO to add and how often to change it ? As for the blenny eatin the coralline . . . The coralline spots wr growing along with some diatomaceous algae. Maybe he got confused or somethin. Ders no more evidence of tat coralline ne ways LOL
So hopefully changin the bulb and the GFO shud do the trick . . . Keepin my fingers crossed

 

[ccCapt]

You want to use aprox 1 tablespoon of GFO for every 10g in your system. Test your phosphate before you add the GFO, then test in about 1 week, wait another week and test again. Your phosphate should now be down low enough where the test kit doesn't detect any. At this point change the GFO and then change it every 6-8 weeks.
For best results GFO should be run in a reactor like this. You can also put it in a media bag and place in a high flow area in your sump, but it doesn't work nearly as good like that as it does in the reactor.

 

[thincat]

Do you have a sump? If so you can put your macroalgae in the sump and the tang can't eat it.

 

[Blesson87]

Nope i dont have a sump space constraints in my dormitory . . . Keepin the 30 gal itself has been a miracle without being thrown out . . . I think i ll go with the GFO mesh bag thingy. Can this be placed in the main tank if possible ? Thats how m running my carbon right now And is there any specific type of ferric oxide ? Cos i dont think the phos reducing ones meant for aquarium use are available here in India. But m pretty sure i can get my hands on some granular ferric oxide from a chem supplier. Wat d ya guys think ?

 

[thincat]

Good question. I think it's the same thing, but I would hate to have you use it and it's not, so I'll wait for someone else to answer that Q.

 

[cabezon]

some sort of DIY fuge might be in order for your tank.

 

[ccCapt]

The reactor I linked to in my previous post can be hung on the side or back of the tank. Just placing a bag of GFO in the tank will accomplish very little. It needs water to flow thru it.

 

[Blesson87]

Wat is a fuge ? Sorry m a noob in this aspect of the hobby is it a kind of refugium ? Cccapt . . . Since you say you need water to flow thru the bag of gfo, i can always put it in my external canister filter . . . Wat say ? Im ashamed to say my tank has been thru quite a bit of neglect the past few days. Been havin my academy exams i lost a blue tang in quarantine ! The lil guy jus refused to eat ! Could i ve done anything to save him ? I tried all the food the other fish jus pig out on with no success

 

[ccCapt]

i can always put it in my external canister filter

Maybe you can, but it might have too much flow thru it. You only want maybe 100 gph max flowing thru the gfo. A higher flow rate can pulverize the gfo and spread the dust (gfo is really just rust) all over the tank.

 

[Blesson87]

K maybe placin it in the last chamber ll reduce the force cos of all the baffling and not crush it. Will try it out and let you guys know. Thx for all the help and advice