Coralline Algae in a Bottle

Big Mistake

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Don't know where to post this so here it is.

I picked up two bottles of "Coralline algae in a Bottle" from ARCreef.com.

Both the purple and the pink.

I had hoped I would get some coralline algae from livestock introductions but no luck after 8 months.

And some sources sort of suggest need to directly add it with a piece or some such.

The bottle states "contains live cultured algae and nitrifying bacteria".

Like most things in this hobby, and it is 2020, I might go to the great beyond before I see coralline algae.

But my tank has changed, not better, or worse, but just a subtitle sense it is different.

Probably the addition of more or new nitrifying bacteria.

If I lived by the sea (say Key West Florida) I would start a business of selling small bottles of filtered and unfiltered fresh sea water.

I feel like my coral "spaceship" is missing something kind of like the ISS (International Space Station.)

-Big Mistake
 

reefwiser

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Use this which is real coraline algae grown in actual clam farm.

Good lighting and keep you alk levels up and in time it grows great.
 

Pistondog

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Don't know where to post this so here it is.

I picked up two bottles of "Coralline algae in a Bottle" from ARCreef.com.

Both the purple and the pink.

I had hoped I would get some coralline algae from livestock introductions but no luck after 8 months.

And some sources sort of suggest need to directly add it with a piece or some such.

The bottle states "contains live cultured algae and nitrifying bacteria".

Like most things in this hobby, and it is 2020, I might go to the great beyond before I see coralline algae.

But my tank has changed, not better, or worse, but just a subtitle sense it is different.

Probably the addition of more or new nitrifying bacteria.

If I lived by the sea (say Key West Florida) I would start a business of selling small bottles of filtered and unfiltered fresh sea water.

I feel like my coral "spaceship" is missing something kind of like the ISS (International Space Station.)

-Big Mistake
I had success with the arc spores. Light, and correct water are the other key ingredients.
It can take up to 6 weeks to start.
 

sp1187

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no success.
added 4 bottles to a 150.
personally, I think the parameters they set for success are absurd.
on one hand they tell you it contains nitrifying bacteria to help cycle,
but to grow coralline using their product successfully you have to have
a cycled tank set up at their designated parameters. you also have to include the
little chip that comes in the bottle. so which is it? the chip or the liquid.
that info was buried pretty deep on their site when I bought mine.
after waiting many months with no coralline growth I got coralline to grow
after getting scrapings from my lfs.
 

Fishbone

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I tried both purple and pink with zero success. Perfect stable water parameters and a fully cycled reef tank. No luck. It's been 4 months
 

Big C

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I think it worked. 6 month later (brand new dry rock) my urchins can’t keep up.....

1B31BE48-65A4-4C92-86BE-241B1C4FBEFF.jpeg

61905460-A33D-4572-86F9-159382E12A8F.jpeg

A8C3AB24-6096-48A9-92A6-0F8D42F8CCD5.jpeg
 

G Santana

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IME it comes with time, and then it blooms like crazy. I just cycled my tank and instead of buying that product, my LFS sells small live rock covered in coraline algae and that's the route I'm taking. It worked before and its cheap.
 

lba4590

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I’m in the same boat. About a month after using coralline in a bottle, I saw some small spots on the rocks. Then I had a chrysophyte outbreak and the growth slowed and eventually died. 6 months and nothing. However, in my 3 month old frag tank, it’s covered in coralline and I use the exact same water. I’ve introduced plenty of frags and snails covered in coralline as well and nothing. All params check out.
 
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Big Mistake

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Wow I hit a nerve.

These folks : : : : Indo-Pacific Sea Farms : : : : (ipsf.com) send:

You'll receive two well encrusted booster plates, each about 3" long.

One of my local LFS have some coralline growing in their tanks.

I need to ask for a scrapping next time I BUY something.

Sometimes the only access is a purchase ...

There is one LFS that is really strange. (Haunted house.)

I check myself for Aiptasia after visiting.

If they were giving away coralline ...

-Big Mistake
 

Dkmoo

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For all of you who have not had success with coraline algae - what is your PH? Most advise out there seem to always talk about "getting your Alk up" and while that is important, that advise is built on the premise that your PH will also rise and be stable at around 8.1 - 8.3. However, in reality that is not always the case. An Alk of 9 to 10 can still have PH of 7.7 if for example you have high CO2, and if most of your alk is bicarbonate instead of carbonate. Coraline algae needs calcium carbonate (not bicarbonate) in the calcification process. In lower PH, calcification rate is also, significantly slowed down. At PH lower than 7.7, Calcium carbonate actively dissolves back into the water from calcified solids - this literally means that coraline is melted back into the water.

Check your PH

I had PH in the 7.7-7.8 range for years and had very little coraline no matter now much alk dosed. It wasn't until 2 months ago when i switched to dosing soda ash (sodium carbonate) for my alk and got a co2 scrubber to get my ph to 8.3 that coraline started to grow. In 2 months time over half of my rocks are covered in coraline.

Of course your other parameters need to be good too. I currently have ph8.3, alk 10, mag 1360, calc 475.
 

PooseReefer

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For all of you who have not had success with coralline algae - what is your PH? Most advise out there seem to always talk about "getting your Alk up" and while that is important, that advise is built on the premise that your PH will also rise and be stable at around 8.1 - 8.3. However, in reality that is not always the case. An Alk of 9 to 10 can still have PH of 7.7 if for example you have high CO2, and if most of your alk is bicarbonate instead of carbonate. Coraline algae needs calcium carbonate (not bicarbonate) in the calcification process. In lower PH, calcification rate is also, significantly slowed down. At PH lower than 7.7, Calcium carbonate actively dissolves back into the water from calcified solids - this literally means that coralline is melted back into the water.

Check your PH

I had PH in the 7.7-7.8 range for years and had very little coralline no matter now much alk dosed. It wasn't until 2 months ago when i switched to dosing soda ash (sodium carbonate) for my alk and got a co2 scrubber to get my ph to 8.3 that coralline started to grow. In 2 months time over half of my rocks are covered in coralline.

Of course your other parameters need to be good too. I currently have ph8.3, alk 10, mag 1360, calc 475.
+1 on PH. I had been focused on Alk level but recently decided to hook a doser onto saturated Kalk and have been targeting 8.20. With a cheap CO2 scrubber on my skimmer a few gallons of kalk lasts almost a week on 90 gallon mixed reef. In any event, I've noticed SIGNIFICANT improvement and coralline growth in an established tank that had lost almost all he coralline. Alk and CA uptake has increased too and corals seem happier. Everything has been doing better.

I have a cheap controller (Digital Aquatics) and am running two probes, one in sump that is targeting the PH level right after the doser and one in the overflow as a safety check.
 

Dkmoo

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+1 on PH. I had been focused on Alk level but recently decided to hook a doser onto saturated Kalk and have been targeting 8.20. With a cheap CO2 scrubber on my skimmer a few gallons of kalk lasts almost a week on 90 gallon mixed reef. In any event, I've noticed SIGNIFICANT improvement and coralline growth in an established tank that had lost almost all he coralline. Alk and CA uptake has increased too and corals seem happier. Everything has been doing better.

I have a cheap controller (Digital Aquatics) and am running two probes, one in sump that is targeting the PH level right after the doser and one in the overflow as a safety check.
In case you dont know, please keep in mind that higher PH makes calcium carbonate less soluble. This is what makes calcification happen faster, but also makes abiotic precipitation happen faster. Yiu said you noticed higher alk/calc uptake - I'm not sure where your alk/cal is currently at but if you kept it the same level as before, then it may be due partly to precipitation too instead of all "due to coral growth" if that's what you assumed. When I raised ph, I also raised Mag to counteract the higher precipitation.
 
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Piranhapat

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They are a few things that will help coralline to grow. Raise your temperature. Grows better under more blue lights. Don’t chase numbers like raising Alk. Just keep the tank water par stable. Proper Ph. And make sure your Trace elements are good. Once I got back my ICP results. I was low iodine. I added just enough that I got a reading on my iodine test. In two weeks notice a few and than they really multiply.
 
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