CORALLINE ALGAE….. our hobby’s inconsistent mystery

[VanIsleReefTherapy]

It won't be on the glass first. It covers plastic parts like powerheads first then rocks. Then glass.

Funny, mine started on rocks, lime green, then speckles of purple and now specs of purple on my glass bottom. All plastic is completely free of coralline for now, though there's a crusty spray of green coralline on the tank walls. This QT tank is a 13.5 Evo, too

I added a piece of rock from an established tank, which brought me all kinds of goodies, including coralline. I'm only 2.5 months in!

 

[KomsCorals]

I think it has a lot to do with light intensity. I worked at a coral greenhouse and the sps tanks (high light) grew nearly no coralline algae, while the softies and LPS systems were covered in coralline. Same exact water in all tanks. To the people who don’t have coralline, do you know your PAR levels and vice versa? Also, I do know there are many many strains of coralline algae, some most likely thrive in more intense lighting

 

[Derrick0580]

My tank grows it but it is always bleached. I literally can do a water change and if it is out of the water for say 5-10 minutes it will turn the brightest shade of pink once I refill the tank, then by the next day it is back to being white. I don’t understand why this is. Here are were my current parameters prior to a 60 gallon water change tonight to try and cut down on the phosphates in a 48” 120 gallon tank.
Ammonia 0
Nitrates 18.5
Alk 7.6
Phos 0.21
Cal 400
Mag 1380
Ph 8.2 roughly
Salinity 1.026
Nitrite 0

 

[Glenner’sreef]

I think it has a lot to do with light intensity. I worked at a coral greenhouse and the sps tanks (high light) grew nearly no coralline algae, while the softies and LPS systems were covered in coralline. Same exact water in all tanks. To the people who don’t have coralline, do you know your PAR levels and vice versa? Also, I do know there are many many strains of coralline algae, some most likely thrive in more intense lighting

I have “RED” candy Apple red!!! Coralline, I like it definitely but purple and pink has yet to show up. I’m lowering my phosphates so we’ll see.

 

[Forty-Two]

It won't be on the glass first. It covers plastic parts like powerheads first then rocks. Then glass.

For me it covers rocks first - specifically older live rock first. No sign of it on my dry rock however.

 

[X-37B]

I get red, green, purple, and pink in my 3 systems. All from the original live rock.
In my 120 under halides it grew like a weed and I used 2 urchins to keep it mowed.
When I setup the 120 it was under 8 t5's and it grew quickly.
In my 45 frag system I ran a 7k 600 watt halide for a month or so. I took it down as corals and coralline was growing faster than ever.
Here is a pic of my 120 with the bottom covered in coralline after only 6 months under t5's.

 

[Forty-Two]

I think it has a lot to do with light intensity. I worked at a coral greenhouse and the sps tanks (high light) grew nearly no coralline algae, while the softies and LPS systems were covered in coralline. Same exact water in all tanks. To the people who don’t have coralline, do you know your PAR levels and vice versa? Also, I do know there are many many strains of coralline algae, some most likely thrive in more intense lighting

Reading your post - it occurred to me that mine is growing in shaded areas on the side of old live rock - so it might make sense to say it has something to do with light intensity (among other things)

 

[Lavey29]

For me it covers rocks first - specifically older live rock first. No sign of it on my dry rock however.

Yes live rocks certainly can promote it better then anything in my opinion too.

 

[VanIsleReefTherapy]

Reading your post - it occurred to me that mine is growing in shaded areas on the side of old live rock - so it might make sense to say it has something to do with light intensity (among other things)

Mine only grows on the light side of rocks.maybe different strains behave differently.

Also, all my cured dry rock has coralline, however, I used a live rock from a mature tank to seed diversity (and coralline).

 

[Forty-Two]

Mine only grows on the light side of rocks.maybe different strains behave differently.

Also, all my cured dry rock has coralline, however, I used a live rock from a mature tank to seed diversity (and coralline).

Interesting! Its fascinating stuff. It would be great to develop a baseline of the strains and determine which grow in which conditions.

 

[jhuntstl]

Mine grows like crazy under intense lighting. Blues heavier in this pic, but I run a lot of white during the day. I transferred into this tank 5 months ago. The back half of this aquascape was brand new marco rock. The other half is established caribsea rock and aquacultured Florida rock.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Interesting! Its fascinating stuff. It would be great to develop a baseline of the strains and determine which grow in which conditions.

That would be a helpful study.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Mine grows like crazy under intense lighting. Blues heavier in this pic, but I run a lot of white during the day. I transferred into this tank 5 months ago. The back half of this aquascape was brand new marco rock. The other half is established caribsea rock and aquacultured Florida rock.

Looks amazing! Thx.