coraline turning purple to green

[Anonymous]

hi all,
i setup a 55 gal in mid march. all sand and rock from my old 38 gal tank. i also went from no fluoresents to vho with 660 ballast. now all my purple coraline is turning a lime green. temp 79, ph is 8.4, alk is 3.5mg ltr. cal about 350. no readable nitrates.
candy, colt, xenia,open brain all look good. any thoughts?

 

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to recall from one of Dr. Ron's books, but I think green coralline algae occurs under brighter lights.

I'm sure I'll be corrected if this is not the case.

HTH

Matty

 

[Anonymous]

Coralline algea is a catch all phrase. There are many different types with varied colors and varied needs. Some are lower light, some are light loving. I would hazard a guess here and say that the purple kind you have/had is a lower light species and is being killed by the higher light, while a new green type is taking over.

Mark

 

[Anonymous]

I may be wrong but in my tank (16 months old) the green & maroon coralline algaes appear to be much slower growing and started much later than the purple coralline. It might also be that the coralline spors were not introduced until I added live sand about 4 months ago which had some coralline rubble in it...........RR

 

[Anonymous]

Some species of coralline like different light intensities so you probably had that green coralline but it really spread out with the higher light.

 

[Anonymous]

Well not to prove you all wrong but I have 15w 10k and 15 actinic in a 25 gallon, I have all kinds of lime green growing on one rock and all kinds of purple on another. THe one with the lime green is Pago and had lime green on it, the purple is Fiji.

 

[Anonymous]

I am not saying that All purple is lower light, just in this case. I have both growing in my tank and I am running 11.3 watts per gallon. Scott Michaels or Delbeek (I forget which) had an article on this very thing a couple of months back in Aquarium Fish magazine and said basically the same thing. Saying that you have coralline is like saying you have and Angel fish. There are many types each with it's own needs.

Mark