Calcareous algae

[cbshark]

Anyone out there that could sell me some calcareous algae scrapings? I have some rocks with it but nothing seems to be spreading. All my levels are good, calcium is maybe a bit high, but everything else is good. I've read that some scraings tossed in a tank will jumpstart the process. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[bdhough]

What you need.....
Good water flow, salinity of .024,.025, or .026. Some lighting and some calcium of 400+. Get those and you should be golden. Takes a couple weeks to months.

 

[bdhough]

Other than that go to a fish store and ask if they will scrape some for you. Won't hurt to ask.....

 

[marvida]

If you have it on your rocks use a toothbrush & brush the rock with a powerhead directed at the rock. Another thing you might try is using kalk I had a tank set up for over three years with nothing until I started using kalk. Within 2 weeks coralline started showing up on the powerhead. I was also using the toothbrush technique. The funny thing is that I had never really thought about wanting it until I read how desirable it seemed to be so I conducted an experiment to see if it would work.

 

[justinx]

The toothbrush thing is an idea that works, but I used a product called Aragamilk . . . . I couldnt keep the stuff under control. A friend experienced the same results. However, the stuff isnt much good for anything else IMO.
Justin

 

[brooklyn johnny]

I second the request for the addition of kalkwasser. You will hear many stories such as Marvida's. This is not just from the buffering and calcium that kalk adds, as other two part solutions can keep alk and calcium at the same levels with a lot of difference in the amount of coralline. Coralline can take off without kalk, but in my opinion no one thing has greater affect on it than kalkwasser. Kalk has the added benefit of raissing pH and precipitating out phosphates, which at least is some of the reason coralline takes off. Check my tank pics out in this forum. Be careful what you wish for, because soon you may be scraping off of the glass on a regular basis
You say your calcium is high... what level? also do you test alkalinity?