Disappearing Coraline

[primetime]

I bought some LR that was full of coraline algae. It has been slowly turning to white from a bright pink and purple. What should I check for to see why this happening? Thank you in advance.

Prime

 

[Unarce]

There going to be an adjustment period where the different strains of coralline will either flourish or die off with a change in lighting. What most report, is that a rise in lighting intensity will usually kill off the purple strains.

Like stony corals, coralline needs stable calcium and alkalinity levels to grow.

HTH

 

[primetime]

Thank you Unarce for the reply. I kind of suspected that was the case. I use B-Ionic and Purple up to maintain proper levels. Should I use anything else?

Prime

 

[Anonymous]

Stop using the purple up!

 

[primetime]

Is the purpleup a bad thing or is it overkill?

Prime

 

[Anonymous]

Its mostly calcium carbonate which won't dissolve properly in a reef tank, so its basically adding a not good sand to your tank. There are also reports of people losing corals while adding it. I tried it once and my corals were very unhappy with the grit all in the water.

 

[primetime]

Thales,
Would that "grit" be of the greyish color sand?

Prime

 

[Anonymous]

Its the calcium carbonate in the purpleup, not sure what the color was. It felt like I was sandblasting my corals.

 

[primetime]

well.. I will take your advice as gospel... I dont want to take any unecessary chances... Thank you very very much for the information

Prime

 

[Anonymous]

Prime,


I have a large concern for anything that offers 'miracle' results that most seasoned reefers aren't using.

 

[Anonymous]

No chemicals! Chemicals bad! Water changes good


Seriously, avoid anything other than a buffer and MAYBE a calcium suppliment like Liquid Calcium. Kalkwasser and waterchanges are the best way to go, IMO.

 

[EB847]

I bought some LR that was full of coraline algae. It has been slowly turning to white from a bright pink and purple. What should I check for to see why this happening? Thank you in advance.

Prime

ime, uncured lr always turns white when you get it home and into your tank within a day or two. I even tried taking some incredible looking pieces covered in orange, pink, green, etc. home submerged in water. Two days later: white. (How it made it's week-long trip across the planet in that condition and couldn't make the 30 minute trip to my house is a mystery to me) A while back, I purchased a large piece of cured lr from a lfs that had been brought in by a customer that had it in his tank for a year. It was completely covered with purple coralline. In an effort to prevent the whitening I have always dealt with, I asked them to fill the bag with water. The bag was about 95% full with about 1" of air pocket at the top. The next day, the top 1" of the rock that was exposed to air for 40 minutes was white, and the rest remained purple.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't have any coraline and it is not a big deal. The tank looks clean and all my Ca and Alk additives go to the corals.

 

[primetime]

Well.. its good to hear that its not unusual for this to happen, but I personally like the colors of coraline algae. I hope it comes back soon.

Prime

 

[EB847]

as stated before, just keep your ca and alk up and it will come. remember, if you want particular colors, you need to seed the tank with them. (although from what I have read, one color -usually purple- will become dominant over time and be your only color.)

 

[blackcloudmedia]

It is because you touch yourself....that you lose your coralline. But in all seriousness coralline is some weird stuff. It pretty much is hard to determine what it like. My coralline for instance grows in the shady parts of the tank( purple) and I have some annoying green coralline that I cant scrape off, and it grows on the bottom glass.