Coraline algae doesnt grow under MH??

1journeyman

1journeyman

Active Member
Originally Posted by Fishcake
you don't have to dose at all...
Regular water changes will keep your calcium up
That depends on the amount of livestock you have pulling calcium out of the water. Many reef heavy tanks need to dose calcium.
 
ren9999

ren9999

Member
OK!
some of my LR are far deep in the tank. Some of my LR are up on top. but no matter where they are. the KEY problem here is taht all the rock under shade are covered with solid purple coraline. But the rock that is out in the light have their purple completely turned white. Whats up with that?
my complete parameter:
Amonia, nitrite, nitrate 0
salt 1.025
temp 80-82
PH 8.2
ALK: 6.4DKH 2.29meq/L
Calcium 390
phosphate 0
2x150 DE coralife MH half year old
15-20x water flow
In tank, mushroom, polyp, hammer, torch. - All look real bad, lost color.
Inverts include shrimp urchin, crab all doing excellent.
my low alk and calcium is the root of all problems? I dont understand how that explains my rocks under shade are covered solid with purple coraline thou.
 
azocean709

azocean709

Member
390 on the cal is kinna low...raise it up to about 430 or so, , that will put your alk bout 4-4.4 Meg/L which is pretty much in the ballpark of what you want. don't dump a crap load of calcium in there all at once. do it slowly. a cap a day or so to start...depending on your tank size...i think a cap does 50 gallons or something like that. keep testing your cal. and alk at the same time everyday till you reach your goal. if it is not raising much in 5 days or so. ad more than a cap a day, and check it again everyday at the same time. It will come up. My coralline is finally starting to cover the "dead base rock" after 6 months. It takes time. it will spread....oh yeah...and when i upgraded my lights to MH...the top layer turned white also. but after a few weeks it came back strong.....coraline will also turn a little white when it is growing too.
 
azocean709

azocean709

Member
also i forgot to mention....acclimating your tank to the lights.....what i did was hung the lights about 2 ft off my tank and only put the MH's on for 4 hours a day to start....every week i went up an hour on light time and lowered the canopy alittle.
 
ren9999

ren9999

Member
I will bring up the Cal and Alk. However that does n't explain why the coraline is growing very strong under all rocks that are in shade. I have part ab additive by Kent. I will be dosing capful slowly in sump.
My open rocks have been white for half a year now. no coraline has grown on any rock that is exposed to my lights. again a lot of the rocks under the shade are completely purple. maybe I should take a picture of one piece of rock where half is purple half is white.
My tank has been with MH since day 1. so not much acclimation to do now. it has been a year.
The MH light bulb are 20k, it used to be 10k.
 
dburr

dburr

Active Member
Originally Posted by dburr
Coraline does better in low lighting, this is very true.
Let me say it again.
 
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