Coraline algae

[Rscomia]

In your opinion does coraline grow beter under some lights then others?

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

I think it grows better under weak lighting, it grows like crazy in my seahorse tank which only has 96 watt compact fluorescent lighting. I've read it grows better in bluer light as well.

[Rscomia]

Reason I ask my 55 gallon tank has been set up since september last year with t5s and I see some growth in there but it is slow my 90 gallon has been up since march of this year with halides and Im already seeing spots of it all over the place

[carey]

I've got immense amts in my 55g under t5's, aquablue bulbs and 460's actinics....I have a nice amount growing under 2 pc lights in my cube...so i can't see the difference really..the cube has only been up a month. I think alot has to do with your water parameters as well. Soon as I hit 0 nitrates in the 55g the coralline really took off.

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

Yes now that you mention it, my metal halide 28 gallon also has a lot more coralline than our 260 with t5's. The coralline still grows in the 260 but is slower.

[Rscomia]

Originally Posted by 0o.Kelsey.o0

I think it grows better under weak lighting, it grows like crazy in my seahorse tank which only has 96 watt compact fluorescent lighting. I've read it grows better in bluer light as well.

When you say bluer correct me if I am wrong but 14k would be bluer then 10k right because my halides are 14k

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

yah 14k is bluer than 10k im pretty sure, and then 20k is even bluer. That's my understanding of how it works anyways haha.

[Rscomia]

Maybe that is why it is growing better under my halides Do they make a 14k t5?

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

You can replace your white T5's with blue or purple T5's, I like the blue ones personally. We just replaced two more of our white ones with blue so we have about half and half, a little more blue actually.

[Sarcothelia]

Lots of blue helps IMO. I had just the stock 50/50 PC lights on my 24. When I upgraded and added another acitinic the coralline grew 2x as fast.

[Rscomia]

Originally Posted by 0o.Kelsey.o0

You can replace your white T5's with blue or purple T5's, I like the blue ones personally. We just replaced two more of our white ones with blue so we have about half and half, a little more blue actually.

This is actually how my t5s are 2 actinic and 2 white

[Rscomia]

Originally Posted by Sarcothelia

Lots of blue helps IMO. I had just the stock 50/50 PC lights on my 24. When I upgraded and added another acitinic the coralline grew 2x as fast.

Should I try more actinic?

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

You could but all blue is kind of dark, we have our timers set for our 260 now that in the morning its just the whites on, then both white and blue are on for a few hours, then the day finishes with only the blue on. I don't think you can do that with your light though.

[Rscomia]

I might be able to but I would have to change the bulbs around right now there is 2 ballast and each has a blue and a white on it

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

Yah but if you changed them around wouldn't only half of the tank be all blue and then the other half all white?

[Rscomia]

I wouldnt think so because they are a 48 inch bulb which is the length of the tank but im not totally sure about it

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

OHHH I see, I was thinking it was two shorter bulbs on each side. You could totally replace one more white with a blue then. If you don't like it you could always swap it back.

[Rscomia]

That is true I would like to find 14k t5 bulbs if they even make them

[Mr. Crabs]

I had a hard time getting it to grow on my first reef. I wasn't use RO water at the time and the municipal water where I had lived was terrible--I just didn't know. The switch to RO water really got it going. I was running T5's at the time. I really like coralline. Lots of purples and reds.

[Rscomia]

I hate to admit it but I use tap water in both my tanks I tried using some ro water for awhile but the best I can figure is where I was getting it from never changed the filters on or something because I started having cyano outbreaks like crazy It took multiple water changes with my tap water to get it under control