Am I ready for coralline

[BaileysTank]

Hello and thanks for looking at my post, I have some nuisance algae in my tank and I wanted to remove it so I contacted brs and asked what they thought they pretty much told me that I don’t need a Uv sterlizer or anything but rather should start trying to grow some coralline in the tank, is this a good idea? Also should mentions becuase of the volume of algae my phosphates and nitrates just don’t show up becuase it eats it too fast again I believe a UV sterlizer would be great but brs tells me to just forget that and try and grow some coarlline


Should also mention I own two clowns and a damsel along with a assortment of snails that’s been In there for around as long as the tanks been up (1 and a half years) along with one zoa colony and a candy cane colony




water parameters
Ammonia:0
Phos:0
Nitrate:0
Ph:8.1
Dkh:11
Cal:460
Pictures of my tank…

 

[BaileysTank]

Should also mention I own two clowns and a damsel along with a assortment of snails that’s been In there for around as long as the tanks been up (1 and a half years) along with one zoa colony and a candy cane colony

 

[kevgib67]

Hello, I added a uv sterilizer to my aquarium about four months ago and noticed a much longer time between glass cleaning. But remember a uv only removes algae from the water column and won’t remove what has already settled on your rock. Coralline algae is slow growing and is a nice pink/purple to your rock and nuisance algae has difficulty growing on it. I’m surprised a 1 1/2 year old tank doesn’t have any. Your candy coral and zoas are going to struggle with 0 nitrate and phos. A larger clean up crew will help. My tuxedo urchin is a work house keeping my rock clear and my Tiger conch keeps my sand white along with my other cuc. I’d suggest doing all three approaches for best and quickest results. Good luck.

 

[BaileysTank]

Hello, I added a uv sterilizer to my aquarium about four months ago and noticed a much longer time between glass cleaning. But remember a uv only removes algae from the water column and won’t remove what has already settled on your rock. Coralline algae is slow growing and is a nice pink/purple to your rock and nuisance algae has difficulty growing on it. I’m surprised a 1 1/2 year old tank doesn’t have any. Your candy coral and zoas are going to struggle with 0 nitrate and phos. A larger clean up crew will help. My tuxedo urchin is a work house keeping my rock clear and my Tiger conch keeps my sand white along with my other cuc. I’d suggest doing all three approaches for best and quickest results. Good luck.

Just to be clear, you suggest getting uv expanding my clean up crew and trying to grow coralline algae?

 

[\m/reefsnmetal\m/]

There's nothing wrong with trying to grow coralline, just buy a rock or something with it and toss it in there. The snails and stuff will spread it. Usually it just starts to grow on it's own but you can seed it that way.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

did they tell you how to "grow' the coraline? I think its easier said than done.
It grows on my glass and machines, but not on my rocks, I wish I wish I knew how to make it grow on my rocks.

 

[kevgib67]

IMO, that should get you where you want to be quicker. Works well in my tank. However, all systems are different. What works in one may not work in another. Remember, this helps a lot for the symptom, but stable water parameters and sufficient nutrient export ( not over feeding, increasing WC frequency etc.) will be the key.

 

[\m/reefsnmetal\m/]

I pretty much gave up on "growing" coralline. I did notice that if I had issues keeping it I also neglected to test/ maintain magnesium. Once I fixed my mag it would start growing again. Now it doesn't matter to me because if it grows my urchin or giant turbos will eat it anyway. But I don't have GHA in the DT anymore lol so I'll take it.

 

[reeftankdude]

Oops