Coralline Algae Growth

[Jeremy Lain]

Can someone post some pictures of what the beginning of coralline algae looks like, and then some pictures of it as it is growing?

 

[Diesel]

Oh my friend the Google tank is full of it.

 

[mcarroll]

Here's a R2R search full of coraline algae threads:
coraline

(click the SEARCH button at the bottom of the linked page)

 

[grassy_noel]

So, preface this with, "it's a bit different for everyone" based on the strains of coralline that will be taking hold in your tank. From what I hear there are all sorts of colors and textures of mature coralline (purple, pink, red...).

These aren't great photos, and my tank is still fairly new. Also, I started with dry rock that was painted purple, so finding spots of actual coralline instead of purple paint has been a bit challenging. But here are two examples:

Here the pink dot is pretty much fully formed, but that light green patch to the left of it is what my coralline looks like before it turns pink:

And here's what the pink dots look like as they get larger:

 

[rkpetersen]

This is from my most recent tank setup, when it was about 2 months old. I had made some extra effort to get coralline established quickly on pre-treated and cured dry rock.

You can see the small pink patches, flat to the rock surface, that are appearing everywhere (largest here is about 1 cm in size, here the center of the image.)

Here's the same rock (with a better photo filter), a few months later.