Jspires688
Aquarium Advice Freak
My coraline seems to come and go sometimes it will really start to grow on everything then it seems to disappear anyone else have this problem or know what causes it
Coraline algea
- Thread starter Jspires688
- Start date
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.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
deepseadan
Aquarium Advice Activist
Jspires688 said:
I have come to the conclusion that no one (including myself), really knows much about coralline algae. We see patterns but the more research I do, nothing makes sense when it comes to coralline. Until just the other day I thought coralline grew best in tanks with pristine water quality, until I saw one of the worst maintained reef tanks ever at my local Petco. It was covered wall to wall with coralline and hair algae as well. I asked for a small water sample and took it home and tested it. The results scared me (very high phosphates and nitrates, 180 on calcium, and 5 on the kh). I then went and tested one of my coral only tanks, which always has perfect conditions, but basically little to no coralline at 4 years of existence. A little on the powerheads but that's it. That doesn't make sense, sps grow just fine but not coralline. My latest "guess" is that coralline (or some types of coralline) feed on something that's left over in uneaten fish food. In my tanks it seems, the more I feed (within reason) the more coralline grows. This goes hand in hand with the petco tank as well, and with my coral tank that never sees growth or food other than giant mysis for Orange cups. I've read people's posts where it's stated coralline will for sure eventually grow no matter what, but in one of my best maintained tanks it hasn't after nearly 4 years. But I my 1 year old tank, I can't get rid of it. And, yes I tried seeding the coral tank with many different kinds. Can't seem to figure it out. But to your question, is it possible that the coralline growth pattern coincides with periods of heavier feeding.
Are you sure it was coralline? I went to a petstore and saw a couple of tanks that I thought had a lot of coralline but at a second glance it was cyano, aka red slime algae. Most tanks have some sort of cyano but outbreaks occur when there are constant fluctuations in parameters. Which is what happens in fish stores, with constant additions, subtractions, deaths, ect.
deepseadan
Aquarium Advice Activist
Sergie said:
Yeah I'm sure it was coralline, but there was tons of cyano, green algae, hair algae, and diatoms as well. It's sad it used to be a really good looking well maintained tank, but they let it go. It wasn't a tank they sell from, just a show tank to get people to buy. Doesn't convince anyone anymore though. I hate it when people, especially pet stores (Petco Temecula) treat animals in such conditions. It's off the topic, but I'll never shop there again because of that tank.
OP
OP
Jspires688
Aquarium Advice Freak
Honestly it seems like it does grow best when I get lazy with maintenance and now that you bring that up I have a good friend who has a tank that he does almost no maintenance to and it is solid coraline he never does water changes just tops it off when it's low
deepseadan
Aquarium Advice Activist
Jspires688 said:
Yeah a while back my brothers tank had very poor maintenance and he always bragged about his coralline growth. In fact it got so bad that hair algae was in the sand, rock and everywhere. He just kept feeding like crazy. Eventually the tank crashed, but just before the crash coralline went absolutely crazy. There must be some connection to the nutrients in fish food. Maybe it feeds on fat, protein or fiber. That's my latest theory.
Similar threads
