My tank is still in its first six months, but remarkably lacking in “ugly stages” so far. Diatoms are gone and I haven’t had any hair algae issues. I attribute that to a long, lights-off cycling time, nutrient control, and some additional maricultured live rock I added to the base dry rock. I already have purple and red coralline growing on some of the dry rock.
However, I have also had green spots growing quite a bit over the past few weeks, exclusively in lower PAR areas. It doesn’t blow off with flow, and I can’t scrape it off. My initial thoughts were that it was green coralline that I’ve seen posted about, and that it would eventually start to turn purple with time. Yesterday, I noticed a couple of air bubbles (assuming from photosynthesis) that caused a bit of the green to tear off and eventually float to the surface. This threw a wrench into my assumptions.
Is this green coralline or some other kind of algae? Bear in mind, it grows in shaded areas, but does coralline photosynthesize and produce oxygen bubbles?
Water: SG 1.026, pH 8.2, Ammonia 0, Nitrate 5ppm, Phosphate .04ppm, Alkalinity 8.2, Calcium 440ppm, Magnesium 1360ppm
The last photo shows two of the oxygen bubbles I am talking about. The second to last photo does NOT have bubbles—it’s just the shape of the rock. The bubbles aren’t fluid filled, they’re gaseous and only in one or two spots, so I’m 99% sure it’s not bubble algae.
However, I have also had green spots growing quite a bit over the past few weeks, exclusively in lower PAR areas. It doesn’t blow off with flow, and I can’t scrape it off. My initial thoughts were that it was green coralline that I’ve seen posted about, and that it would eventually start to turn purple with time. Yesterday, I noticed a couple of air bubbles (assuming from photosynthesis) that caused a bit of the green to tear off and eventually float to the surface. This threw a wrench into my assumptions.
Is this green coralline or some other kind of algae? Bear in mind, it grows in shaded areas, but does coralline photosynthesize and produce oxygen bubbles?
Water: SG 1.026, pH 8.2, Ammonia 0, Nitrate 5ppm, Phosphate .04ppm, Alkalinity 8.2, Calcium 440ppm, Magnesium 1360ppm
The last photo shows two of the oxygen bubbles I am talking about. The second to last photo does NOT have bubbles—it’s just the shape of the rock. The bubbles aren’t fluid filled, they’re gaseous and only in one or two spots, so I’m 99% sure it’s not bubble algae.
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