What will eat coraline algae?

[joshd123]

I know most people want to have this in their tank. But, I am having a hard time keeping my calcuim up. I have this stuff growing everywhere. I know that some urchin will eat coraline but they will also eat some corals. Is there some kind of small snail that will eat it?

 

[rcoultas]

Coraline algae does not utilize that much calcium - it is likely that you have some other problem in the system. do you test your alk, dkh and Ph ? What are your CA test results saying?

 

[joshd123]

Well, I dose 2 gallons of Kalk and 12 oz of home made 2 part a night. My cal will go from 380s to 320 in 24 hours. Alk is 4 and will drop to 3. My Ph stays arround 8.0 to 8.3. I do not have the time to dose all day. I plan on getting a cal reactor but they cost a lot.

 

[joshd123]

I did not have this problem when I first really started dosing. It keeps getting worse and worse as the back wall of my tank gets more and more incrusted with coraline.

 

[rcoultas]

are you running a skimmer? what kind of water movement do you have? particularly at the surface. Possiby a CO2 issue? I have to go for tonight - I'm sure sep or one of the other mods will follow up with you - GL

 

[geoj]

Check magnesium

 

[joshd123]

mag is good. I am running a skimmer. Nothing major becausemy zoas like it like that haha. I have lots of water movement. I have 3 waterfall filters, and a mag 5, reo 1400, and 2 power heads for water movment. Humm no ideal what it could be.

 

[geoj]

Try Seachem Reef advantage calcium and Reef builder for Alk. How many SPS do you have. You are not yo yoing are you.

 

[joshd123]

Originally Posted by GeoJ
You are not yo yoing are you.
Are you trying to say Over doing?
I have some sps and lps but nothing like what you see in some of these guys tanks. The Co2 is making more and more sense. How often do you guys/girls dose 2 part or kalk? Maybe I need to compare what I am doing to others.

 

[earlybird]

I think if you had a CO2 issue your pH wouldn't be where it is.

 

[dischirm]

I had a long spine urchin that came as a hitchhiker when he was tiny. He got very large and ate all the coralline from my tank.

 

[dischirm]

oops sorry just re-read your post and you knew that! I dont have corals so I dont know.

 

[kanicky]

Originally Posted by Joshd123
Are you trying to say Over doing?
No, he/she meant yo-yoing as in your parameters aren't doing a major yo-yo (up and down; drastic change) are they?
Ah, gotta love lingo!

 

[geoj]

I mean to say that if you add too much of one mineral at once it will fall out of suspension. Or if you add minerals at the same time that want to bond with each other they will. You need to raise your alk first and give it 24 hours to come up. Then raise calcium. If you don’t you likely yo-yo: you will add alk then add calcium then alk falls out you add alk to bring it up the calcium falls out. So wait 24 hours and test to see what happens between adding alk or calcium.