Snake's Methods for Growing Coralline Algae
This is just a general guideline for those of you who really want to see that pretty pink and purple calcareous algae start growing in your aquarium. There is a lot that you can do to ensure that this algae will grow, and this article will explain it for new hobbyists.
Here's the recipe:
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
Phosphate: less than 0.03ppm
Salinity: 1.022 – 1.026 constant
Temp: 74 – 82F constant
Calcium: 440+ppm
Alkalinity: 10 dKh
Magnesium: 1350ppm
Internal flow rate: min 20x volume
Lighting: Any light in the 10k daylight and 420nm through 460nm actinic light. A combination of both actinic and daylight do best.
It requires a tank that has undergone the initial cycle, proper lighting and clean water. Make sure you have some rocks with coralline algae growing on them. A good variety of colors on a piece of live rock is a good starter culture. Take a new toothbrush and scrape it over a piece of liverock in front of a powerhead. Place the just scrubbed live rock in front of a powerhead so that the spores can disperse and be released throughout the rest of the aquarium. (post 5)
Set your heater for a certain temp and make sure the temp doesn't swing. Also, regularly check your salinity with a properly calibrated refractometer to make sure you are not getting any salinity swings. Temp and salinity swings can really affect the health of your aquariums livestock. It should go without saying that temp and salinity swings also affect the growth of coralline algae.
One of the first places you will notice coralline algae starting to grow is on anything plastic in your aquarium. (post 6) Powerheads and overflow boxes will start to be encrusted in it and may have to be soaked in a mixture of 1 cup white vinegar to 1g of warm water, and scrubbed with a brush until it comes off. Straight vinegar works even better to dissolve the calcium deposits. (post 9)
Glass is much harder for coralline to grow on because there isn't any rough surfaces for the spores to stick to. Over time, other calcerous algaes will grow on the glass, giving it a much more rough surface area and allow coralline spores to latch on and grow. Once attached, coralline will grow very well on glass, as long as your parameters and lighting stay constant.
Keeping your calcium and alkalinity constant and always above 460ppm calcium and 10dKh alkalinity, by dosing your tank with kalkwasser (which doses equal parts calcium and alkalinity) or by using a two part solution of calcium and alkalinity, you will ensure that coralline algae has enough to start spreading.
The other key to the coralline puzzle is to keep as clean of water parameters as you possibly can. Coralline algae hates phosphate. So, by limiting the amount of phosphate to barely detectable levels, you will create good conditions for coralline algae to start growing.
Make sure you get those accurate test kits! Also, a side note is that you should not worry about chasing completely clean water parameters. Although coralline algae spreads quicker with cleaner water, it's not an absolute necessity.(Post 6) As long as your water quality stays up for reef conditions and everything stays constant, then you should start to see some coralline algae growth.
If you would like to read more of my articles and threads, please visit this link: Snake's Methods.
Edited by SnakeBlitz33 - 12/10/11 at 2:14pm
