Who's eating my coraline?

[kah225]

I bought my 75g 1 1/2 years ago from someone getting out of the hobby. At the time, he had an urchin that looked neat, but after a few weeks, I noticed he was munching on the coraline, leaving white blotches. The urchin went to the local lfs. Have had no problems the last 15 months or so until the last 2-3 weeks, where I see the same splotching of the coraline again, like when I had the urchin. I have not added anything new for a few months. I have looked at night, but don't see anything. In the tank I have a larger maroon clown, a yellow damsel, and a 4-striper, also a peppermint and cleaner shrimp, some snails, and a bunch of coral. Any suggestions? I really would like to do something, whatever it is is making a shambles of my coraline.

TIA

Kevin

P.S. Could CA or ALK levels affect this at all?

 

[Rich-n-poor]

do you have any hermits ? I read a very good article about hermits turning to coralline once they had rid the tank of other algeas.
As a matter of fact this was the culprit in my case I could literally watch them eat it. However a hermit will pick a rock clean leaving a green/gray cast to the rock.

HTH

_________________
1920 recession

 

[MarkS]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by kah225:
<strong>I bought my 75g 1 1/2 years ago from someone getting out of the hobby. At the time, he had an urchin that looked neat, but after a few weeks, I noticed he was munching on the coraline, leaving white blotches. The urchin went to the local lfs. Have had no problems the last 15 months or so until the last 2-3 weeks, where I see the same splotching of the coraline again, like when I had the urchin. I have not added anything new for a few months. I have looked at night, but don't see anything. In the tank I have a larger maroon clown, a yellow damsel, and a 4-striper, also a peppermint and cleaner shrimp, some snails, and a bunch of coral. Any suggestions? I really would like to do something, whatever it is is making a shambles of my coraline.

TIA

Kevin

P.S. Could CA or ALK levels affect this at all?</strong><hr></blockquote>

CA and ALK could affect this as could your snails. What type of snails do you have?

Mark

 

[kah225]

As far as the hermits go, I have a handful of blue legs. There is other algae in tank for them to eat.

Snails: I have some turbos and astreas (?) Again, just a few

I started using a 2 part calcium supp, and the reading hit 500+, after I stopped the supp, it went to 600+. It's now 450 or so.

 

[kah225]

^^^^

 

[hgsports]

probably not relevant, but i removed my urchin for the same reason and a couple months later noticed another, much smaller, urchin in the tank. Neither of them were purchased. I'm guessing they were attached to the rock and the other one had spent a number of months on the under side of the rocks and I never saw him....


john

 

[kah225]

Whatever it is, it has decimated my coraline in 2-3 weeks, it's all splotchy now

 

[2poor2reef]

If the splotchiness is uniform throughout the tank (best seen on the glass) and the corraline disks are fading from the center towards the edges then that sounds like calcium depletion or a ca/alk imbalance to me. What is your current alk reading? Sounds like your use of the two part spiked your ca very high and it's been coming down very fast. If you alk is now very low that could be the cause IMO.

 

[esmithiii]

FWIW, the coraline is not necessary for tank health (nor is there any evidence that it is even beneficial!). It is simply a sign of gool Ca/Alk levels. I love my urchins inspite of the fact that they topple rocks and eat coraline. I think we fixate too much on coraline growth in this hobby.

E

 

[FishHead1]

crabs