10 Months = NO Coralline?!

[Pete polyp]

Dosing kalk seems to help grow it

 

[CastAway]

I've read that coralline likes blues and Mg. I like the look of it myself, and notice that in the brightest areas of my tank the coralline is not as deep purple as in the darker areas of my tank. I also notice the GHA, when I have it, does not grow on the coralline. It will grow on the bare rock, and stop at the edge of the coralline. Thus I agree, and suspect the coralline surfaces do not harbor the same numbers of bacteria as the bare rock - it can apparently protect itself to some extent. In this respect, I'm glad my rock is so porous. My LFS was nice enough to give me several large sheets of coralline when I first started - out of a system that was decades old. I still have some one year later. On occasion I took small pieces of those sheets and crushed it between two spoons and circulated it in my display without my main circ pump on.

 

[NanaReefer]

Whites 15% max blues 60% max. I'm just surprised at the lack of coralline growth. Compared to how much I had of it in my last tank. Definitely a difference between T5 & LED's.

 

[dangros]

was this ever resolved b/c I have the same

 

[Edsel Santoni]

That is very strange. Usually coralline prefers a moderate range of led lighting, so in other words not to high and not to low. Anybody who struggles growing coralline should really consider seeding the tank. Basically buying live rock with coralline which will spread to other objects in the fish tank. Buying products like PurpleUp will only help grow coralline faster if present in the tank. If not it is a waste of money.

 

[dangros]

I seeded. I had about a 7" size chunk of live rock FULL of pink and dark purple in mine and it didnt help. Most of it faded out. I've since thrown it out due to persistent aiptasia. What's interesting, however, is that the coraline under the mushrooms that were on it seemed to retain some of it's color. My tank looks pretty good now but no pink & purple anywhere. Some coraline is growing on the glass and a powerhead but it's white and not growing rapidly. There's also some light color on the shells but it's not really spreading.
Initially, I had some forming on the rocks when I first set it up 6 months ago but that eventually turned to hair or vanished. My phosphates are 0 ppm (hanna checker) now and all levels well within range. Hair is no longer an issue although a small amount does seem to be on the powerheads and on the overflow wall but it's not spreading and no longer on the rocks.

I even got a sea shell from a local reefer which was full of diff coraline colors. I scraped it and dropped it in the tank. In a few days the coraline on the shell, has faded as well. Any day now, my Triton tests results will come in so I'm hoping to get some info there.
https://goo.gl/photos/LA4dTemLRa31SpQi9

 

[NanaReefer]

Well it's now been over a year and finally the coralline is beginning to show up on the tank walls [emoji45] Yet nothing on the LR. However the rock in my sump/fuge is completely covered. Go figure that one out [emoji12]

 

[dangros]

mine wont even grow in the fuge. What is your hardware @NanaReefer ?

 

[NanaReefer]

DT lights are RR LumenTek Pro 180. My corals love this light. My fuge light is the RR DM-7e my chaeto and coralline love this light-lol. Skimmer is an SCA-301. Flow is the Gyre-XF130. Return is Sicce Syncra 2.0. Phosban Reactor running SeaGel.

 

[dangros]

I was curious to see if there were any hardware similarities. Nope!
I just added a filtersock hoping to cut down on some of the organic junk. I noticed my plumbing has an orange film in it. I'm suspecting it comes from the dying cheato. I also got a small shipment of frags. Some of their plugs had nice coraline on it so I placed one on the powerhead hoping to blow seeds all over. The corals and anems look really good in the tank so it's hard to fathom what could be preventing the C. growth in my case. Right now, my Ca is at 420, Alk at 3.3.
-----
update, my Triton Tests came in and they show no reason for Coraline to be suppressed either. Now I'm really baffled. Anyone see anything unusual in them?
I've also changed my fuge bulb today from a white 6500k bulb to an led plant growing one with reds, blues, greens, oranges in it. Pretty dramatic color! Looks like I nuked the fuge
The Triton test does explain my dying cheato!

 

[NanaReefer]

I'm not seeing how these test showing why your chaeto isn't growing.

 

[dangros]

The phosphates were at .015. You normally want them around .03 from what I gathered.

 

[NanaReefer]

That wouldn't stunt your chaeto growth though. I don't think so anyways. I was looking for low iron, which you don't have. All in all your test look pretty good. Little high on the mag but that's no biggy.
Might be your chaeto is starving?

 

[Big Larr]

I was curious to see if there were any hardware similarities. Nope!
I just added a filtersock hoping to cut down on some of the organic junk. I noticed my plumbing has an orange film in it. I'm suspecting it comes from the dying cheato. I also got a small shipment of frags. Some of their plugs had nice coraline on it so I placed one on the powerhead hoping to blow seeds all over. The corals and anems look really good in the tank so it's hard to fathom what could be preventing the C. growth in my case. Right now, my Ca is at 420, Alk at 3.3.
-----
update, my Triton Tests came in and they show no reason for Coraline to be suppressed either. Now I'm really baffled. Anyone see anything unusual in them?
I've also changed my fuge bulb today from a white 6500k bulb to an led plant growing one with reds, blues, greens, oranges in it. Pretty dramatic color! Looks like I nuked the fuge
The Triton test does explain my dying cheato!

Your alk is 3.3 wow dude that is way low

 

[jt17]

A LFS I go to has beautiful 300 gal tank that doesn't grow coaraline either. They told me that tank doesn't grow coralline algae because the flow was too slow. There are only 2 mp40s on that tank and the corals all look amazing. That said, if your alk is truely 3.3 then that's most likely the cause.

 

[ssdawood]

Coralline likes a little less light. Try turning your lights I'm DT a little less and see it spread.

I bet you have very intense light in DT.

That's why it is growing in overflow probably a low area of light.

 

[The Kahnasaur]

Do you have any asterina stars? They eat corraline and breed like rabbits.

 

[dangros]

@NanaReefer - yeah, I was thinking it was starving. I fed a the anems a LOT the other day and put on a new plant bulb that has purple and red light - hopefully that will help.
Sorry guys, the alkalinity # was in meq/L so by 3.3 meq/L = 9.2 dkH. That's a pretty good #.
As for flow, I have a good amount. Between the return pump which is a big jaebo 12000 (on setting #3) and two jaebo rw-8's on ea end... the flow isnt too bad. If that were the case, the coraline would grow on the rocks in front of the rw-8s.

@The Kahnasaur - now you are onto something. I DID have them. I went in and plucked every one I could find out. If I saw one, I would throw it out. I havent seen any in weeks but you never know. I would THINK that if the cause was asterina stars, I would be able to see at least a few.

 

[dangros]

@ssdawood I turned the intensity down from 80+% to 75% in my apex. Lets see if that helps. I have a feeling the almost 90% I had was a high in spite of the corals doing well. I also adjusted the goosenecks an inch or so higher. See if that helps! The thing is, most people seem to move their WE's up to 90% or so.

 

[Luke.Fraizer]

I had crazy growth of coraline in my last tank under Kessils, however I changed to 400w mh and the coraline that was in the light went away almost immediately while the areas in the shade stayed dark purple. So I would say high light is not something that promotes growth of the algae. Like said previously I would not want it to grow. I would rather see SPS encrust or montis grow over my rocks!