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Purple, red, pink, yes. It's the hard encrusting algae that grows on your rocks, and eventually everything else in your tank, if you have the right conditions. 8)
if all your rock is base rock, you'll need to "Seed" it to get it to grow. You should buy 1lb of "real" live rock and scrape a bit of the purple off into the tank. that will help.
You will see very little, if any, coraline growth if you keep the lights off. What kind of lights do you have on the tank? How long a day do you leave them on?
Lights will not cause other algaes to grow if your tank is well maintained. Ie: Frequent water changes, skimming, or RO/DI usage, etc.
I just started cycling it yesterday and I havent turned the lights on at all. I just have the lights that came with the hood. I think it is a compact strip.
i just set up my tank last week and have been cycling it since friday. 3 out of the 6 rocks i have in my tank all have coraline algae on them (purple, greenm, and some redish). well i noticed starting a couple days ago that its faintly starting to grow on the other rocks which had minimal if any coraline on them. the weird part is, the algae on my already seeded rocks has gone almost entirely dark red/brownish in color. is that bad or good or doesnt matter? thanks
I'd turn the lights on for at least 3h/day even though coralline doesn't need much light. That won't be enough to grow much.. you'll probably get diatoms anyway.