Accelerating Coralline Algae?

[Anonymous]

Hi
Jason again...a quick? how do i speed up coralline growth or better yet encourage it to grow 8)

 

[ChrisRD]

Keep your Ca and Alk levels up and wait. What lighting are you using? It seems to establish quicker under moderate to lower light levels IME.

 

[Len]

My coralline will die off when my Ca reactor goes offline. Ca and alk levels are definitely the two key "ingredients" to their growth. Kalkwasser works very well for most people, in addition to B-ionic or C-balance.

 

[cdeakle]

Coralvital has worked wonders for me! Purple growth all over the place.

Make sure to follow directions to a "T"

-puff

 

[Anonymous]

In my experience, lighting is very important as well. Under MH lighting, my coralline turns white, while it covers pipes and tank walls in lower light spots. Of course, the Ca/Alk is high in both places.

 

[mountainbiker619]

I use both B-Ionic and dripping Kalc and can not seem to get it growing. I have a 30g acrylic sump and it has not once spec of coralline in it. My lighting is 350w of 12K MH's. I will test my Ca/Alk tonight.

 

[Anonymous]

I had some bleach out when placed close to the lights but then came back in a almost flourescent blue when under actinic lighting.

 

[Anonymous]

Ummm... interesting.... but isn't almost all white things (e.g., aragonite sand) look blue under blue actinic light? :?

 

[Anonymous]

My Ca is fine...keep in mind guys i have a 20 gal tank...so im not using MH...for where im at ie an apt... its not wise...i dont plan on living here forever..i have 10000k flourscent light...my corals do fine....but so does the brown diatoms...hence lack of coralline, which is over run by diatom...btw this particular 20 gal is 6 going on 7 months...but i was just curious on when i cure the diatom problem....and yes things look lighter under actinic...i have used an actinic light previous... :wink:

Thanx for all the advise...The more i receive the better i feel...


Thanx guys 8)

 

[danmhippo]

Oh, and get a piece of fully coralline covered rock from someone else, and use a stiff plastic brush and brush it hard in front of a powerhead. The pores will disperse all over the tank.

Oh, and be sure that rock has no aiptasia on it, otherwise...........................................(gulp).....

 

[Anonymous]

Do what damnhippo suggests.

Also, you can just get some shavings from the walls of a friend's or LFS tank and just drop them in your tank. This has worked for me in the past. Also, the suggestion of lesser light seems correct IME. I usually only use a majority of actinic for the first month or so. In my tanks, I notice that the portions of rock most exposed to intense lighting rarely have much coralline growth in those areas...

 

[Anonymous]

i did use the lesser light for a couple months....and as for coralline covered LR or shavings, i would love to do it, but unfortunately im the only around me that seems to do marine...i dont know who to ask...and i dont really know of anyone in carson nevada??? but i will keep it in mind....

Thanx 8)

 

[mountainbiker619]

I use both B-Ionic and dripping Kalc and can not seem to get it growing. I have a 30g acrylic sump and it has not once spec of coralline in it. My lighting is 350w of 12K MH's. I will test my Ca/Alk tonight.

Ca 374-400 mg/l (testers are so hard to read)
Alk 50-75 ppm / 1.0-1.5 meq/l

 

[Anonymous]

will someone link to a pic of coralline algae please, not sure if that is what I have growing

thanks

Bryan

 

[Anonymous]

Ummm... interesting.... but isn't almost all white things (e.g., aragonite sand) look blue under blue actinic light? :?

So thats what it was..........LOL. Just checked it out. My 50/50 is very close to the rock and you are right.it was just the light.LOL Well now I noticed I got a good patch of Green Hair growin. Got go to my Battle Stations. Bye!

 

[Anonymous]

Bang bang...Ill trade ya hair algae for the brown crap that i have...(Its not macro either).... :twisted:

thanx 8)

 

[Anonymous]

btw, what is {squat}...????

8)

 

[mountainbiker619]

a squat is 1,000 forum post.

 

[Anonymous]

ok...only 981 more to go then.... :wink:

 

[JohnD]

Patience is one thing this hobby teaches all of us. You are well on your way to squat land.