Coraline Algae, Nuisance?

[SSalty]

Anyone else concider Coraline algae a nuisance algae? Well, I do (to a point). It is nice having coraline on the live rocks but I hate when it takes over the glass, overflow, powerheads, mag float, etc..

I am sure most people love it, but maybe I am just weird.

 

[Piggy]

I'll trade you the headache of coraline algae for red algae anyday.

 

[Altohombre]

when you rocks were bare I am sure you weren't thinking like that.

 

[cthegame]

all i care about is that it doesnt grow on my front glass.:grumble: I already lost the battle for the side glass...only a few inches left to look thru on the side...so yea, i consider it a more brutal nuisance algae.

But hey there is always chaeto to cheer us up! :Dhttp://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...0&ct=result&cd=1&q=chaeto+macro+algae&spell=1

 

[Bifferwine]

Get yourself a MagFloat with an Easy Blade attachment. Coralline on the glass doesn't stand a chance.

 

[cthegame]

Ill get one for the front glass. But now i think if i attempt to remove this coralline from the side, it will ruin my tank. Its looking cool but my tank is now limited to front view only.

 

[chaosfinity]

Wow i didnt know they made a magfloat with a blade on it I want one! I would consider coraline a nuisance as it grows everywhere i dont want it to and no where i want it to. Doh.

 

[fatman]

More hard corals to compete for calcium means less coraline algae. Scraoing or scrubbing algae back into tank leaves all the nutrients in the tank to be quickly taken up by replacement algae. Ifyour going to scrape coraline algae off the glass do it when your pulling water for a water change. Scrape algae and siphon out with the water. If scrubbing soft algae use a scrub pad, reach in tank to bottom of area to be scrubbed, scrub upward and remove scrubber drom water. Rinse scrubber out side of tank and repeat. Export your algae or it will be back very quickly. Skimmers sre not that great at removing ll the nutrients. Scraped or scrubbed algae readily become dissolved organic compounds. They make a lot more products to make reefing "chores" easier (IE magfloats), but veryfew products to make reefing "husbandry" better.

 

[yote]

Coralline does get to be a pain in the butt.I'm about to the point of hating it myself.

 

[Doc]

You are all candy-asses!!! Where coralline is....hair algae ain't!!! I would take a mild scraping of my glass once a week to get rid of the spots than having to battle that hair algae crap ANYDAY!!!

It is all about keeping on top of it. A good scrape once a week takes care of mine. Having a good cleaning crew crawling on the glass helps as well as my mag float. if the spores are disturbed, they just don't seem to grow. I seem to run my mag float daily, whether I need to or not, just to keep the coralline down

-Doc

 

[hotimportknight]

Mine isnt growing on rocks worth a crap, it just grows all over plastic things, I'm almost worried about my overflow box becoming plugged... Gotta pull out the mesh that keeps fish from going down it once in a while to keep it from clogging up... I wouldnt mind my full back glass being covered then it can stop. Does anyone have any issues with koralias or overflows being too covered in coralline?

 

[cthegame]

Mine grows on Glass 1st, then the plastics, then the rocks...

Its on my overflows too but it hasnt been a problem yet. Even my fuge is being taken over by it.

 

[cravinmohead22]

your all so lucky. i have scrubbed my rocks to spread the spores and i still dont see it. just the two rocks i bought and my snails. calcium is 420. alk is 11.

 

[Doc]

your all so lucky. i have scrubbed my rocks to spread the spores and i still dont see it. just the two rocks i bought and my snails. calcium is 420. alk is 11.

Try to increase your calcium. Yote always tells people to try a bit lower heat - like 78 or so. I just have been lucky. All my tanks are coralline playgrounds

-Doc

 

[fatman]

Most coraline does not like really intense lighting. What are you using for lights? Yor water is already super saturated with calcium with a calcium level of 420 so lack of calcium should not be a problem. If you do regular water changes your trace elements should be good unless your heavy with soft corals which tend to take up a lot of your iodine which coraline need. Coraline only grows in shaded areas and the edges of my tanks. My tanks are near super saturation levels of calcium with daily Kalkwasser ATO water, and halide lights with twice weekly water changes of 5 percent. I have way to many SPS to be able to consistently keep calcium levels any higher than the 400 range.

 

[cthegame]

Most coraline does not like really intense lighting. What are you using for lights? Yor water is already super saturated with calcium with a calcium level of 420 so lack of calcium should not be a problem. If you do regular water changes your trace elements should be good unless your heavy with soft corals which tend to take up a lot of your iodine which coraline need. Coraline only grows in shaded areas and the edges of my tanks. My tanks are near super saturation levels of calcium with daily Kalkwasser ATO water, and halide lights with twice weekly water changes of 5 percent. I have way to many SPS to be able to consistently keep calcium levels any higher than the 400 range.

I really dont think there are specific rules to its growth that we can figure out. Each tank as its own unique growth pattern. For example, in my tank, bright or dark areas dont make any difference. Low lights, it was growing and when i increased my lights, it was also still growing. Its just growing no matter what i do. Even my fuge is being taken over by it now...and i barely have any light there. its extremely hard to pinpoint the cause...

 

[fatman]

I really dont think there are specific rules to its growth that we can figure out. Each tank as its own unique growth pattern. For example, in my tank, bright or dark areas dont make any difference. Low lights, it was growing and when i increased my lights, it was also still growing. Its just growing no matter what i do. Even my fuge is being taken over by it now...and i barely have any light there. its extremely hard to pinpoint the cause...

:^: Most, nearly all, live rock harvested now is from fairly deep depths where light intensity is low. It is even stated on a lot of the live rock adds that their live rock is being harvested from deep sites. This is because that live rock has much more coraline algae which is a huge selling feature with live rock. There are strains which like intense lights. Unfortunately these shallow sources of live rock are not being regularly harvested and placed on the market. I am sure with more people going to intense lighting from large numbers of closely placed T-5 tubes there are first going to be more complaints about diminishing coraline algae followed by more swapping of bits of live rock having intense light tolerant strains of Coraline algae. I only state this is one potential problem with coraline algae , not the only or even the main reason, however it is becoming more prevalent. The fact that your poorly lit refugium is being overgrown with coraline supports what I am saying, "suppliers are purposely having deep water live rock harvested," I believe this is because most people under light their tanks (especially a lot of the LFS's) and the shallow water coraline will not grow in a dimly lit tank, and coraline sells live rock. Some people think live rock means rock with coraline algae growing on it, rather than rock with proper bacteria for bacterial filtration on and in it. Deep water coraline will not grow well in the brightly lit areas of brightly lit tanks. :bounce:

 

[daugherty]

almost all of the coraline in my tank is on the under side of rocks and the back of my tank is white. i do get some that is a pinkish purple but that is it i wish i could find some highlight coraline rocks.

 

[Altohombre]

The white parts of my rock are now slowly turning purple. It's very fun to watch, but like watching paint dry.

 

[fatman]

More often than not, white algae is an existibg algae that dis have color but that is breahing down as its being taken back up in the waters nutrientpaerl. Howevwer, there is some coraline taht starts out white and stays white. If that is the case in your tank there relly isn't a strong reason indicating your not being able to grow coraline, at least not with the limited info you have supplied. An answer, guess or opinion can only be as good as allowed by the data supplied to work with in obtaining it. Coraline is an algae which have very basic requirements, however they at times tend to want tank standards lower than what is being supplied through good husbandmanship. It is not a replacement for the coraline you desire, but you can at least probably safely say, because of this situation, that you have a healthy tank.