Purple Coralline Algae Growth

bms

bms

Member
well this is my first post on this website, hopefully i can get some helpful information! ok so heres the story, i just recently (about 5-6 days ago) started a new 60 gallon tank. the rock that i have in there is about 60 lbs of uncured live rock that was sitting in the empty tank in the garage of the guy i bought it off of for about 5 months. i am currently in the beginning steps of the cycling process. also in the tank is 40 lbs brand new crushed aragonite, about 30 lbs of random pieces of crushed coral, shells, and other miscellaneous pieces of marine substrate, two cups of live sand from my 40 gallon established tank, and one piece of established live rock from my 40 gallon tank. i also added stress zyme (which is a beneficial bacteria that comes in a bottle to speed up the cycling process) i used premixed saltwater since it was so cheap (only $.59 a gallon from my lfs). so they day i purchased the tank i washed it out, washed the sand a few times in a bucket, and washed the live rock with saltwater. after about two days of the tank being set up i noticed a little bit of purple forming on a few of the rocks and now 2-3 days later there is a lot more growth on most of the other rocks as well. it appears to be a coralline algae. i also had put about 10 lbs of select pieces of the uncured rock into my 40 gallon tank also. since then i have noticed coralline growth on these rocks as well and it is beginning to spread slowly and grow on other pieces of rock in that tank as well. my question is can this algae survive on this rock after being out of water for such a long time (5 months)? is this a normal rate and period for this type of algae to begin growing or is this something i should be concerned about? i can definitely tell that this is not a brown algae and is for sure some other type of algae or bacteria. i reached in and touched it to feel the texture and it is very rough (almost like a calcification type of algae). any responses are appreciated. thanks and looking forward to reading your replies.
 
reefforbrains

reefforbrains

Active Member
Coraline is very slow compared to others.
5 months dry and it would be dry and dead.
You might try to scrape some off. If it is coralline it should be very hard to scrape with a fingernail. Like scraping off thick paint. If it comes off easily then it is NOT coralline. The live rock confusion is often widespread with new tanks.Read below, hopefull it helps with some of the goofy terms we use.
Live rock- could be cured or uncured but has the bilogical bateria sought for building the biological filtration in our tanks.
Base rock- Dry dead rock, once live? sure why not, but may not have been. It is base rock. Usually very stark and white in apearance.
Cured- Rock is healthy and full of active bacteria, ready for use.
Uncured- Rock WAS healthy but removed from water for a period of time that die off has happened. SHipping or other. A few days or so...Still has the biological bacteria but ALSO has the funk and die off along with it....smells like the warf.
Any rock that is dry should be considered long dead, and would fall into the catigory of Base. It can be re-seeded and will become live like anything else but the biological bacteria is not present.

[hr]
So my opinion, 5 month dry rock put into an aquarium for a week would NOT be growing coralline yet. And if it was, it woudl be very slow. The algae you are experiencing is red slime or other similar negative growth.
 
nuro

nuro

Member
agreed with the pics request. IME coraline cant survive long out of the water; i ha d arock that was out for a week and the coraline bleached so its doubtful soem would have survuved 5months. if it is coraline sre you sure it didnt come off the rock from your already established tank?
 
bms

bms

Member
I will Post pictures tonight but I am positive that it did not come from my estAblished tank because I did not add the rock or sand from the establishe tank for about 4 after I setup the new tank and I had already noticed the purple growth at this point. I did however add the uncured rock to my 40 gallon tank the day I got the 60 gallon tank and it starte growing the purple algae about a day or two before the new tank did but only on the rock that came with the new tank that I put in the 40 gallon tank.
 
canareef

canareef

Member
Are you sure it's not cyno or something like that? Sounds kind of wierd to already have a large bloom of coraline.
 
bms

bms

Member
heres the pictures of what is growing. i am currently using a coralife light setup that has both actinic and power compact light bulbs.

 
carlos413

carlos413

Member
Originally Posted by bms
http:///forum/post/3090743
heres the pictures of what is growing. i am currently using a coralife light setup that has both actinic lights and cfls.
I am no expert but that looks like coral line to me. I d wait for more experienced aquarist for better advice
 
bms

bms

Member
thanks for your advice. anyone else have any ideas? it pretty much sprung up over night. i think like 2 days and bam it was there. its not growing at an incredible rate so much anymore but i have always been under the impression that it takes a well established tank to begin growing coralline algae and whatever i have growing started in about 2 days in the 60 gallon new uncycled tank and began growing on the "dead" pieces of coral that i put in the 40 gallon tank in about the same period of time. i know its not something that began growing because of the rock i put in here from my 40 gallon established tank because i didn't ad the live rock from that tank until AFTER i noticed the growth in the new tank. AND there is no purple growth on the piece of rock that i put in this tank from my other tank. it just has a couple baby mushrooms that i didnt even notice til after the rock was in the new tank (which are doing surprisingly well for being in an uncycled tank). i also reached into the tank to feel the algae to see if it was slimy or hard. when i touched it, it felt hard and calcerous and took a little scraping for the pieces to "flake/break" off.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by bms
http:///forum/post/3090780
thanks for your advice. anyone else have any ideas? it pretty much sprung up over night. i think like 2 days and bam it was there. its not growing at an incredible rate so much anymore but i have always been under the impression that it takes a well established tank to begin growing coralline algae and whatever i have growing started in about 2 days in the 60 gallon new uncycled tank and began growing on the "dead" pieces of coral that i put in the 40 gallon tank in about the same period of time. i know its not something that began growing because of the rock i put in here from my 40 gallon established tank because i didn't ad the live rock from that tank until AFTER i noticed the growth in the new tank. AND there is no purple growth on the piece of rock that i put in this tank from my other tank. it just has a couple baby mushrooms that i didnt even notice til after the rock was in the new tank (which are doing surprisingly well for being in an uncycled tank). i also reached into the tank to feel the algae to see if it was slimy or hard. when i touched it, it felt hard and calcerous and took a little scraping for the pieces to "flake/break" off.

My theory:
Algae of any sort is really quick growing, when rock is being rubbed against each other coraline chips off...this makes the algae think it is in trouble and it begins to reproduce as fast as it can to survive.
That's why stressing it makes it grow. The rock was stressed and as soon as conditions allowed...it began to populate as quick as possible. So now you have spots of coraline all over!
 
big

big

Active Member
Yes it looks to be Coralline, but the stuff can also be Cyno.... Take a turkey Baster (a required must in this obsession) and blast the stuff at very close range. If it comes off it is the bacteria..........Commonly shows up in a new set up.... Along with Hair algae,diatoms and some other neat stuff too.
Good luck with the new obsession
 
bms

bms

Member
Ok so I took your advice and did the turkey baster technique and nothing came off. I tried rubbing it with my finger and had to actually scrape it with my nail to get pieces of it to break off. Hopefully the pieces I rubbed off will spread and grow on more rocks! ThAnks for your help guys!
 
big

big

Active Member
Originally Posted by bms
http:///forum/post/3091548
Ok so I took your advice and did the turkey baster technique and nothing came off. I tried rubbing it with my finger and had to actually scrape it with my nail to get pieces of it to break off. Hopefully the pieces I rubbed off will spread and grow on more rocks! ThAnks for your help guys!
If it did not come off them it is Coralline.......

One of these days you will come to despise scrapping the stuff. Here is the end I finally just gave up on...

 
gio28

gio28

Active Member
i like scarping my glass too lol (with a mag float). i only want my back to be covered in coraline...i hope my tanks front and sides dont get any on it
 
bms

bms

Member
holy bejesus thats a lot of coralline algae on that tank!! i hope it doesnt get THAT outta control. but i am excited that my new tank is already producing this. my 40 gallon that has been set up for about 8 months now barely has it spreading on rocks only because i bought a piece of live rock from my LFS that was covered in coralline and came from their 4 yr old 220 gallon tank that they were tearing down to install a 300 gallon. there must have been spores from the algae on the rocks that came with the tank since the time it was in a tank before it was sitting in the garage. i think the guy i bought it from had the tank filled with freshwater from the hose with a canister pump on it to show that it works and doesnt leak as it was for sale in a garage sale the weekend prior. this must have started the spawning or rehydrated the algae then when i introduced it to my tank with the proper water parameters it began to spread and germinate? thanks for your help guys, i will be sure to post pictures as my tank progresses. i have one more question. now that my tank is about 8 days old and i seeded with live sand and live ock from another tank AND added live bacteria and my rocks dont smell like rotten eggs anymore, do you think my tank is about done cycling? i tested my parameters and this is what i got:
Ammonia: 0-.25 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 20 ppm
pH: 8.2-8.3
 
big

big

Active Member
Originally Posted by bms
http:///forum/post/3091686
holy bejesus thats a lot of coralline algae on that tank!! i hope it doesnt get THAT outta control. but i am excited that my new tank is already producing this. my 40 gallon that has been set up for about 8 months now barely has it spreading on rocks only because i bought a piece of live rock from my LFS that was covered in coralline and came from their 4 yr old 220 gallon tank that they were tearing down to install a 300 gallon. there must have been spores from the algae on the rocks that came with the tank since the time it was in a tank before it was sitting in the garage. i think the guy i bought it from had the tank filled with freshwater from the hose with a canister pump on it to show that it works and doesn't leak as it was for sale in a garage sale the weekend prior. this must have started the spawning or rehydrated the algae then when i introduced it to my tank with the proper water parameters it began to spread and germinate? thanks for your help guys, i will be sure to post pictures as my tank progresses. i have one more question. now that my tank is about 8 days old and i seeded with live sand and live ock from another tank AND added live bacteria and my rocks dont smell like rotten eggs anymore, do you think my tank is about done cycling? i tested my parameters and this is what i got:
Ammonia: 0-.25 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 20 ppm
pH: 8.2-8.3
Thats not out of control.LOL...It is just that end is up close to something else and I am tired of scrapping 3 sides every day. Nowone but me ever looks at the end. Now I just work with 2...
As to the cycle thing.....Not yet. Give it time the ammonia although not real bad will need to past. You nitrites will go up then as they drop nitrates will rise some.............
I think the seeding with more living stuff MAY produce more die off too. Keep check on the levels. Keep up with partial changes to prevent the ammonia levels from getting high enough to do in the critters alive in the tank now in you sand and on the rocks.
 
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