how much light to get good coraline algae growth??

tacks

tacks

Member
Well, I can tell you that I have 3.7 watts per gallon in my 125. Mixture of Actinic, White, and 50/50, all VHO. I have a real nice purple coraline going and its spreading. I don't add any supplements. Just good circulation.
 
broomer5

broomer5

Active Member
Here's pic of my 55 tank - 13 months after setup.
Coralline needs good levels of calcium to grow and spread. I try to keep my levels around 400 mg/l. Lighting is 220 total watts PC - 50% actinic - 50% 6700K.
If you want to get it to spread more - take a small piece of LR rubble you can live without, that has good coralline growth - place it in a plastic zip lock bag - crush it with a hammer - and seed your tank with the frags. Keep your calcium levels up - and it will spread.
Good luck,
Brian
 
sheshe

sheshe

New Member
I have an existing tank and feed it, monitor it put Iodine etc in it and no coraline growth, I then set up a new tank and after two weeks theres coraline growth all over it, so think sometimes it's in the lap of the gods!!
 
jimi

jimi

Active Member
Light does not play as big a factor in coraline growth as does strong current and high calcium levels.Broomer hit the nail on the head. I have broke off pieces of coraline and crushed it up at the intake of my sump pump to spread it. Or you can take a piece of covered rock and put it in front of a powerhead.
 
sheshe

sheshe

New Member
Just to throw the preverbial "spanner" in the works, what about the level of salinity. The major difference between my two tanks other than one I "feed" regulrly is the salinity, the one with coraline growth is the "saltier" anyway just an idea!!!
 
S

slk3599

Guest
I have good coraline growth in my FOWLR tank with only 2 flourescent lights - 1 actintic and 1 10,000K but the water here comes out of the tap at a pH of 8.2 and we have very hard water (lots of calcium). I think the most important consideration is your calcium levels. I don't think salinity levels matters. My own 2 cents for consideration
 
burnnspy

burnnspy

Active Member
I believe calcium and alkalinity in combination has an affect on its color.
When I was fighting to buffer my calcium and alk, I was growing green coraline algae.
Now that it has been stable for many months I only grow only purple algae but I still have green coraline spots that are slowly getting eaten by my as of yet unknown type of snails.
BurnNSpy
 
ironreef

ironreef

Member
good alk 3+meg good calcium is all thats needed. different coralline with different lights theres low light and higher light species. I added 600w of lighting to my tank my coralinne died came back a different darker purple.High po4 can slow growth of coralline
[ May 30, 2001: Message edited by: Ironreef ]
 
paulytee

paulytee

Member
Broomer- Your tank is BEAUTIFUL! Im just hoping I can get mine nearly as pretty! BTW- any more pix or a homepage?
In awe... Paulytee
 
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