Requirements for alge

[marco333]

Are their any special requirements besides lighting to grow coraline alge, such as iodine or calcium?
Also, I have 2 wats per gallen, is that enough?

 

[beth]

Calcium, and more than 2 watts per gal of lighting.

 

[wrassecal]

My corraline algae spread when I had less than 2 watts per gallon. My experience.

 

[j21kickster]

yes, you may have seen a little growth- but noting that compares to coraline algae growth in tanks with higher light levels.

 

[marco333]

I also have some wierd purple slime growing in my tank?
Is their any other way to get rid of it besides scrubing it off because it grows back in less than a day

 

[surfnturf]

Marco, are you talking about cyanobacteria? You can redirect, or add more powerheads to increase circulation in the areas that it is forming. Check the tank for phosphates, if they are not extremely low, run a chemi-mat or polyfilter to get them out. If your bulbs are more than 6 or 7 months old(regular fluorescents last about 6-12 months, PC bulbs last 1.5 years or so), you may consider replacing them, they may be putting out a poor spectrum of light. You can also try running 10,000K bulbs, I like the coralife bulbs myself. The idea there is that if your bulb spectrum has shifted (happens on all bulbs with age) there is less light available in the band of the spectrum that things like coralline need, and more light in the spectrum used by cyanobacteria. HTH