The Secrets to great Coraline

wester97

wester97

Member
What are the secrets to getting the great coraline color in your tank? Hypothecially, if you had bare rock - what would you do to get the pinks and purple coraline algae back?
What is the secret?
Calcium? Lighting? etc ...
I havent lost mine, but I havent added any either. I see people with it all over their glass and pumps ... I want some too!
Help!
 
T

thomas712

Guest
All are important:
Lighting, get the best you can.
Calcium 450-500ppm
Alkalinity - I prefer about 11 dKH
Magnesium - about 1300 ppm
Drip Kalk to maintain.
DO a search on coralline algea there have been many threads about it over the years.
THOmas
 
wester97

wester97

Member
Im searching right now - they are hard to sort though. Maybe i can just search for posts with 'coraline' in the title.
Has anyone tried the Coraline Booster found on saltwaterfish.com's website?
 
krishj39

krishj39

Active Member
Keep correct calcium levels, also remember that growth is something close to exponential. Growth will take a while in a new tank, but once you have a lot of of it, it will keep growing very quickly. Sorta like this: 2 square inches of coraline takes a month to turn into 4 square inches. Those 4 square inches take another month to turn into 16 inches, which takes a month to turn into 256 inches. In the first months, you really don't see much growth because you don't have much to work with, but in a little while, you have so much that you can see a lot of growth. My mushrooms have been growing the same way, I used to have maybe one new mushroom every few months, now I have probably 20 new mushrooms a month, even though I haven't actually added any new mushrooms to the tank.
 
wester97

wester97

Member
Thanks, good advice. Too bad you cant propigate coraline. What do you do to keep it from taking over your tank and it's glass?
Calcium is the main ingredient, what are the runners-up?
 
I

iluvfish

Guest

Magnesium - about 1300 ppm
Do you add something to get this level? This is one test kit I don't have. What do you think mine would be with just water changes?
 
overanalyzer

overanalyzer

Active Member

Originally posted by Kip4130
you may need to wait 2-3 months.. then it will just bloom outta nowhere.
What they have all said above, plus if you have a good rock - then scrub it with a hard bristled toothbrush and get some of it to flake off a bit.
I have to use a razor blade to get it off of my front glass!!
Don't get discouraged. Put the LR in with it on there and you'll be hating life because no purple then all of sudden ....
BOOM :jumping: purple algea everywhere!
Good Luck!
 
gatorcsm

gatorcsm

Member
I find that the most important thing is time....
The color you get will depend highly on water conditions and light. Obviously purple is the most common that we achieve. The others must require ideal water conditions to allow them to flourish quite as much as the purple.. I have some blue, orange, red, a pinkish colored and a little green here and there.. With a bunch of purple.
Anyone have experience with no or little purple with another predominent color?
 
007

007

Active Member

Originally posted by Kip4130
i tested some IO a while back and found magnesium to be lacking.. at around 900ppm... magnesium isnt used up terribly fast... so once you get it high... it will stay there for a while... be careful and dont overdo it.. you may end up with catatonic fish and inverts.
any Mag stats for Reef Crystals?
 
smarls

smarls

Member
For some obscure reason I have a tough time getting corral,ine to grow as well (tank has been up for over a year), although everything else in the tank flourishes.
I do seem to get patches of green corraline though? Don't know what that means...if anything!
Stewart
 
wester97

wester97

Member
Ive had a hard time getting it too - although i was using 'blue bulbs' I just bought an 03 actinic to replace that blue business. is the blue spectrum more important in coraline growth?
 
smarls

smarls

Member
Kip,
Yeah PC lighting (it is mainly a softies tank, with a few LPS).
I think I am going to try switching to the true actinics...you really think that will make a difference?
Stewart
 
wester97

wester97

Member
i use a seperate resevoir of water (5 gallon jug) to keep my tank at a constant level. i use a float switch and a powerhead to add water to the sump when it is low. I just started adding calcium to the resevoir - i know it isnt as good or precise as a kalk drip - what do you think?
 
sonic

sonic

Member
for around 9 months all I got was pink and lots of green coraline, after I started dripping kalk at night the purple stuff started to grow more and more. I'm using 50/50 PCs
 
gatorcsm

gatorcsm

Member
I've actually gotten better coralline growth in the lower lit areas and/or in tanks that have pc or vho lights. The MH tanks do grow it, but doesn't seem to be quite a prolific.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top