Coraline Algae Growth

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Brodie

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Apr 21, 2005
Messages
346
Location
Gainesville, Florida
If water parameters are good in my tank & under MH, about how long would it take for Coraline to start growing on the glass? Not asking for an exact date, just an estimate of months.
 
Hate to burst your bubble but here I go. Coralline does not like MH very much its to strong of something and doesnt grow as quickly as you may have noticed the bleaching on the tope pieces. Also it grows slower on glass than it does on plastic. I have my MH light running for 4 months now and still no coralline growth so from 4months till whenever for me. Although you may have different results!
 
I have about 100lbs of rock and saw that the coraline was starting to bleach. I don't have good lighting (Just 1 NO Actinic and 1 NO 50/50) I decided to try and get back the color so I am monitoring the calcium levels and adding turbo calcium. It's been about 2 weeks (My level is at 460) and the coralline is starting to proliferate on the plastic and glass.
 
Are you testing for alk and cal? Numbers.. If so what addiditves are you using?
Do a search on this site for coraline and you will find tons of info on this.
I just saw a tank with the most coraline algae I have ever seen in a tank and he was running MH and his tank was about 1.5 years old... He was dosing kalk.. And there was no bleaching. So it is possible to get it and keep it with MH. He had a 125 and was selling it off because they were moving. It was an awsome tank.
 
Ca is good... There is now way anyone can give a time all tanks are different.. I want to say that my 125 took about 6 months till it started to take off. My LR was totaly white/gray when I set up my tank. Do you have any LR with coraline on it? If you do scrub it in the water till you see some pink dust in the tank, they say that this helps seed the tank. Does it work?? can't hurt..
 
I have about 30 pounds of LR, and 30 pounds base. I've never heard of scrubbing the LR to seed the tank. I'll see if it works..kudos.
 
I have given coraline chunks that I scraped off my fuge wall to people to help them get a jump start on coraline. I have to ask them if it helped at all... They were going to crumble it up and put it in there tanks.
 
Corraline growth has everything to do with the nutrients in your tank... if your tank has the minerals this algae likes, it will flourish in regular NO or MH lighting.

Do a search for PurpleUp. This stuff'll make it grow everywhere in a couple weeks!
 
Ca levels aren't as harmful as alkalinity spikes. Just add the recommended amount and test your alk levels to make sure they stay within appropriate levels. Should only be something ~1 capfull every week / 60g....
 
Brodie said:
just worried about raising Ca too much.
Which is a good way to approach any additions in your system. If you cannot test for it, do not add it. High Ca definately will impact many species of invertebrates quite negatively. Not to mention making an awful mess of the tank if it precipitates.

Cheers
Steve
 
Back
Top Bottom