coralline algae
- Thread starter tp1011
- Start date
kbuser92
Breeder
Hows your magnesium?
kylemack87
[Cube]
Its been my experience that the "missing ingredient" in most coralline algae posts is patience. Coralline is a slow growing algae that requires a reasonable level of calcium, alkalinity and magnesium. It tends to do better is subdued lighting. It also requires some coralline algae spoors to begin its life cycle. The calc/alk/mag you can get through regular water changes.. the coralline spoors should come with your live rock but if not you can just purchase some old coralline encrusted turbo snails and they will move around the tank spreading the spoors on their shells. Lastly ... in many cases you don't see significant coralline algae growth until your well past the nusiance algae stages .. probably because the nusiance algae stems in part from phosphates which can inhibit coralline growth
mariobrothersleeve
squirrel
+1 on mag. You need to supplement mag and cal, you are not able to achieve proper levels with just w/c's
Tim
Reefing newb
I could never understand why anyone would want it, once it takes ahold and gets growing on your glass, the amount of scraping ( it dosent come off easily ) to keep it under control is'nt worth the little bit of color. I know alot of ppl like it but personaly I hope I never see it in my tank again.
ErinCahir
Sausage Wrangler
Taking a (clean) toothbrush to some that is established will help spread it around. It also seems to do better in tanks that have bluer lights (the higher the Kelvin, the better it grows).
yote
In Memoriam
+1 everybody
There's a reason I call coralline the purple plague. It can get to be a pain in the ass.
So be careful what you wish for.:D
There's a reason I call coralline the purple plague. It can get to be a pain in the ass.
So be careful what you wish for.:D
mariobrothersleeve
squirrel
I guess im not that far in my tank, but why is it such a big issue? If i want to, it scrapes off with a staight edge. Please inform more.
yote
In Memoriam
I had to scrape it off the front glass daily. It would grow over and completely clog my powerheads within a month ( which I tried to keep buried inside my rockwork). It grew in big balls on my sand,( actually shipped a few of the balls to some of the older members ).
At one point it nearly had my overflow pipes closed off.
It got to be a problem because I'd only get one or 2 days a month to actually enjoy my tank. And scraping coralline until my fingers bled wasn't my idea of enjoying it.
