coralline................algae or bacteria?

[NJtuna]

hey, i've heard people call coralline an algae before but i thought it was a bacteria. which is it? Does phosphates in the tank influence its growth? and what are the best corallife light bulbs for it to grow under?

 

[tjara03]

coralline algae is the hard purple, red, or green algae that grows on your rocks and spots on your glass... to influence the growth try and keep your alk and iodine levels in good standing and also have really good water flow throughout your tank... i have heard lots of people here have had good luck with Purpleup but i myself have not used it... HTH.

 

[seaham358]

Phosphates in a tank is not good for coral growth and it promotes nuisance algae and cyno bacteria. IMO flow does not have much to do with coralline algae, I have it in high and low flow areas. Keeping you calcium and alkalinity levels up where they should be will help growth. Never heard of iodine having anything to do with CA, what ever you decide to use NEVER put additives in before testing for them first.
There are plenty of posts on coralline algae on the site, do a search for it..
coralline is hard, cyno bacteria is soft.

 

[tjara03]

Sorry i meant Calcium not iodine... ooops.. Thanks for the correction Seaham!!!

 

[NJtuna]

ok so it is an algae, yea i already have phosphate controls working and pretty good water flow. I've got corallife 50/50's on it now and i don't want any corals, just live rock, so is that the right light to get the coralline growing? and your saying i should test my alkalinity and calcium levels and make sure theyre correct.

one last question: is it ok to mix live rocks from different places? i've got a chunk of tonga in to start and i was thinking of putting in some fiji or marshall island just to compare them. can i do this?

 

[Brenden]

Mixing rock is fine. IMO proper CA and ALK is more important to coralline growth than light. I have coralline growing in my fuge with less than 1 WPG (plant light from walmart).

 

[NJtuna]

ok, so basically just check my alk and calcium levels. And what are the best supplements to use to get my levels where they should be? i heard about purpleup a few times?

 

[Brenden]

I use turbo CA and superbuffer, and also baking soda. Many choices. If you have a smaller tank my choices may be too concentrated. I have never used purple up but have hear it works well also.

 

[NJtuna]

yea its a 10 g

 

[seaham358]

I use Bionic 2 part additives made by ESV, great stuff.

You may not need to use anything if you keep up on your water changes. Using different LR is good and lighting is not that important with coraline.

Get test kits and post some numbers....

I have a 55 fowlr and I never dose anything and I have tons of coraline..

 

[malkore]

Like seaham says, for coralline you really shouldn't need to dose alk and calcium. Regular water changes should keep those levels reasonable for coralline growth.

 

[NJtuna]

actually i do my water changes with gallons of distilled water to avoid phosphates. is this a problem?

 

[seaham358]

Nope that is better then tap water.. Over time you may want to save up for a ro/di unit, you will save $$ in the long run. And the RO part is great to drink.