This has me stumped

[trouble93]

A guy called me today, he has a 110gal reef tank 4'x30"x18" I think . The tank has been up for more then a year now and it has no coralline on the glass at all just a few places on a few rocks. I took my Cal Akl and Phosphate test over Cal was about 490 Alk was 8 dkh and he said the cal was going up he just tested Cal last week and it was about 460. Other problems high Nitrates 40ppm and Phosphates almost 2ppm and he has hair algae growing on the sand it looks like sea grass it was so much. Lighting is 4x54watt T5's and 2x54watt for Actinic. Any idea why the cal would be raising and why no coraline. The nitrates and phosphates a few 20% water changes should bring that down and he will be adding 2 more power heads for some more flow. Thanks.

 

[nissan577]

remember many tanks are different. maybe his tank doesnt love it. example this:
my 29g was only set up for 6 months i believe:

now my 95g has the same rock the 29g had and everything is were it needs to be and its been 6 months as well and look:

nothing. all the tanks are different. i wish that help a little

 

[trouble93]

Originally Posted by nissan577
http:///forum/post/3198344
remember many tanks are different. maybe his tank doesnt love it. example this:
my 29g was only set up for 6 months i believe:

now my 95g has the same rock the 29g had and everything is were it needs to be and its been 6 months as well and look:

nothing. all the tanks are different. i wish that help a little
I understand that and yes it helps, but as long as I have been doing this I have never seen one take this long

 

[stanlalee]

my tank has been up 1.5yrs and grows virtually NO coralline on the back wall or side panels (I stopped scraping the back wall because none grows there). dont have much on the rocks either. Only place it grows is the (bare) bottom and places I dont want it to grow like the powerheads and overflow box. I keep calcium, magnesium and alk constant at appropriate levels.
glass panels except bottom coralline free with no scraping(if I had sand all panels) . rocks dont have much either (thats nasty red turf hanging on to life you see)

Biocube 14 been up about 8 months. tested for ca and alk THREE TIMES total. Weekly or biweekly changes with instant ocean. NO supplementing but coralline is not a problem (I think the weaker light has alot to do with it)
April 09'

Dec 09'

In other words ca, alk and mg are the least of factors assuming they are adequate and lack of coralline on glass panels is not neccessarily an indication of something right or wrong. last time I checked the phosphates on the BC14 they were around 0.5ppm. the 30 gallon test yellower (yellow= zero) than every source of distilled and RO water I've tested.
I would simply chalk the 30ppm of calcium difference as a variance in testing. its not significant anyway and any minute difference in absolute water volume tested, testing solution used or procedure timing could cause that sort of change in testing. I would expect even normal accepted test variances to be +-20ppm so 30ppm test difference doesn't mean anything really changed from before

 

[flower]

Hair algae everywhere indicates bad water or bad bulbs. He may be using tap water, or he needs to change his bulbs.. Also if the Calcium and phosphates are too high coralline won’t grow. My test kits say over 450 is too high. Nitrates that is at 40, is too high for a reef tank.
I have had my tank for over 4 years and I only have coralline on the sides of the glass not the back, but it is on the rock. I had very high calcium for a long time, I didn’t know better and I was dosing the tank. When I lowered the calcium, the coralline started growing.

 

[bmkj02]

Try some Purple Up. It works great. Once it took off I stopped dosing but I always used it on new set ups to get it going.

 

[trouble93]

Originally Posted by Flower
http:///forum/post/3198423

Hair algae everywhere indicates bad water or bad bulbs. He may be using tap water, or he needs to change his bulbs.. Also if the Calcium and phosphates are too high coralline won’t grow. My test kits say over 450 is too high. Nitrates that is at 40, is too high for a reef tank.
I have had my tank for over 4 years and I only have coralline on the sides of the glass not the back, but it is on the rock. I had very high calcium for a long time, I didn’t know better and I was dosing the tank. When I lowered the calcium, the coralline started growing.
From what I understand the bulbs are about 3 months old and he is using ro water, I agree 40ppm is much to high for a reef tank me personally I never had a problem with coralline I thought all tank got it within a few months. There are many under laying problems with this tank and IMHO coralline is the least of his worries.