CORALINE BOOSTERS PROS AND CONS

[Mical]

This is what I used when starting both of my tanks - https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/red-sea-coralline-gro-500-ml.html

 

[Hermie]

It says use within 2 weeks and there is no way to overdose.

just to add... my understanding is that the coralline spores will attach to the bottle progressively until the 2 week mark, but what I would do if it's been 2 weeks is just cut the bottle in half and take off the sticker, toss that in the tank somewhere because there will be a lot of spores still attached to its walls.

 

[rkpetersen]

I bought the arc reef stuff but am hesitant to turn off my return for 2 hours. Seems risky not knowing how it will effect the coral.

2 hours isn't very long, although I doubt it's actually necessary either. I'd perhaps turn off my skimmer and remove the filter socks for 2 hours instead.

 

[Hemmdog]

2 hours isn't very long, although I doubt it's actually necessary either. I'd perhaps turn off my skimmer and remove the filter socks for 2 hours instead.

Yea because to keep the tank heated it needs to flow through my system. Hmm lol

 

[Tom Giddens]

I was planning on asking them about orange and yellow

 

[ryeguyy84]

I just dumped a bottle of Arc purple into my tank tonight. My tank only has pink Coraline so I figured why not try it. Subbed to update over the next 8 weeks.

If it works and they come out with an orange version I'm in.

 

[Hermie]

One interesting thing I'm noticing... so I had existing dry rock in my tank, before adding the pink fusion, that existing rock had diatoms on top of it (still does). When I got the pink fusion, I soaked a few "dry" dry rocks in it in a zip lock bag, just to see if they "coral" up faster. So I put those three little rocks on top of my existing rocks and a week later and they still have no diatoms on top of them... even though the existing rock has increased in diatoms (I can tell by the opacity/thickness/darkness). So, of course those three rocks could just not have enough diatoms seeded on them like my existing rock, Or, my hypothesis is that the pink fusion spores + bacteria all soaked up really good into the "Dry" dry rock and now that it's in the tank, it can fight off the diatoms easier... I guess I will know better in a few weeks. I think that's something I always see missing from tutorials or what-not about new setups. It's better IMO to soak sponges or rock (or whatever) in the concentration of your bacteria booster products before you put them in the tank, so that they dont have to rely on the natural dissipation of your tank's flow to get a high concentration of bacteria population their micro-nooks, crannies and crevices.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

I know the coraline will come back on dry rock. I took down a tank once and the rock sat in a pile outside my garage for at least 2 years and I rinsed it and within 2 months in the new tank the coraline came back without adding anything but the salwater and live sand.

Hi Tom; in my experience whats most important for growing coralline is low PO4, & that certain mystical amount of system maturity.
Light isn't important. Coralline can grow at unbelievable low light levels. I have it growing out of direct light - in the shade.
Stable cal & alk are not important either, they just need to be maintained somewhat so there's enough there for calcification.
I've used the Purple. It's just a cal & alk mixture, nothing magical. I wouldn't bother with them myself.

 

[Hermie]

One interesting thing I'm noticing... so I had existing dry rock in my tank, before adding the pink fusion, that existing rock had diatoms on top of it (still does). When I got the pink fusion, I soaked a few "dry" dry rocks in it in a zip lock bag, just to see if they "coral" up faster. So I put those three little rocks on top of my existing rocks and a week later and they still have no diatoms on top of them... even though the existing rock has increased in diatoms (I can tell by the opacity/thickness/darkness). So, of course those three rocks could just not have enough diatoms seeded on them like my existing rock, Or, my hypothesis is that the pink fusion spores + bacteria all soaked up really good into the "Dry" dry rock and now that it's in the tank, it can fight off the diatoms easier... I guess I will know better in a few weeks. I think that's something I always see missing from tutorials or what-not about new setups. It's better IMO to soak sponges or rock (or whatever) in the concentration of your bacteria booster products before you put them in the tank, so that they dont have to rely on the natural dissipation of your tank's flow to get a high concentration of bacteria population their micro-nooks, crannies and crevices.

5 days ago:

Today:

 

[Hermie]

Here's an update from my tank... the most notable thing to me (read: interesting) is that there are a few spots on the dry rock that have zero diatoms on there. I know that I mentioned this before regarding the "tiny chunks" of dry rock I soaked in the ARCReef solution, but they have started to grow diatoms to some degree. I have some hypotheses on why the bare spots are present,

1. the rock could have been cleaned by me using a toothbrush and the diatoms haven't had time to repopulate there. I am not totally sold on this reason because the spots are fairly uniform in their lack of diatoms. If I used a toothbrush to clean the rock, inevitably some diatoms would have survived in the crevices and cracks that I couldn't get to, so some green should still be there.
2. Rocks could have been covering those spots that I have since moved. I don't think this is true because the spots are not only in the places where I previously had those tiny chunks of live rocks. There are a few white spots that have always been exposed to light.
3. The molly could be eating the algae to bare rock. I don't think this is true because the molly would have to eat the rock down to bare rock... secondly I don't see any of the "scratch marks" indicative of a molly scraping their lips against diatoms. I do see those marks on some rock at the bottom of the tank, but not on the spots I am talking about above on the dry rock.
   
4. Something is fighting the diatoms from growing in those spots. So I am hoping this is the "phenomenon" I am seeing, and I am hoping that something is coralline algae getting established... I am colorblind so I'm not great at determining if white is pink or light blue which I assume are indicative of coralline algae, so someone else may be able to tell me better if the spots look like the beginnings of coralline.

 

[Hermie]

Clearly something is growing here... and it doesn't behave the same as the diatoms covering the other parts of the rock. Today is about 20 days after adding Pink Fusion to my tank, and uping the salinity + alkalinity to 1.025 and about 10.5 dKH. No frags, creatures or anything has been added to the tank that could have carried it in my estimation

and taken on 1/15/2019: (not even diatoms are covering the areas)

 

[Rakie]

I gotta be honest.. None of them seem to do anything in my experience. Add some from another tank, that's the easiest way.

 

[Hermie]

These aren't the same angles or lighting, but you can sort of see the "skull" in the rockwork. Just on the forehead of the skull, there's what I think is coralline growing, it's a light pink color, like a pastel pink:

(had wrong date, these are 2 weeks apart)

 

[Gnomie]

When I set up my tank, I added the arc product, I went with the purple helix strain and waited almost a month before adding anything else. Within 2 weeks, I started seeing tiny pockmarks of red and purple on my rocks. I’m sold on it!

 

[Clarinuto]

Just curious how things are looking today!

 

[Tom Giddens]

I have not set up my tank yet, still buying parts and pieces. I learned on previous tanks it is better to be patient and have everything you need before set up.

 

[Hermie]

I have more of the "bright green" algae but nothing coralline yet.
I will admit that my salinity dropped to 1.021 which may be impacting it.
Also, those "spots" I was seeing I am pretty sure is just rotifers eating microalgae to reveal clean rock. I need more copepods I think to keep cyano/diatoms etc off the rock so that coralline can grow. I'm probably going to introduce Tigger pods soon.

 

[Hermie]

 

[Hermie]

Personally I like the bright green algae. The diatoms/cyano (not sure) were introduced after I put some sponges in the tank.

They come off the rock with a light brushing from a toothbrush, however the bright green algae does not come off except by removing rock.