How important is coralline algae to you and how long did it take?

[gbroadbridge]

"Coralline Algae is a type of red Algae in the order Corallinales. It is a desirable algae to have in a saltwater aquarium and its growth is an indication of a properly matured marine fish tank. It is commonly introduced into an aquarium by placing live rock into the aquarium. Coralline Algae enters the system as one of the many beneficial “hitchhiker’s” on live rock as well as on the shells of snails." - ARC Reef

Let's talk about it today!

1. How important is having coralline algae present in your aquarium to you?

2. Would you measure the maturity of a reef tank by the amount of coralline present in the tank?

3. How long did it take you to start seeing coralline in your first reef tank?

image via @trioledeployment

No.

I scrape the horrible stuff off everything except the rocks.

It just uses up useful macroelements.

 

[99gtbaby]

No, I have a tank that I acquired, tank was 10 years old at time of purchase, there was some coralline on the rocks but not much of it, it’s growing more coralline now tho.

 

[cryptodendrum]

1. How important is having coralline algae present in your aquarium to you?

It's a nice to have, not a necessity.

2. Would you measure the maturity of a reef tank by the amount of coralline present in the tank?

I used to, back when I was younger in the hobby. Now 30 years in this year, I would say it's an indicator combined with other things, but the lack of it or presence of it is not an absolute indicator of maturity on it's own.

Why? Because I have a multi-tank system with a common sump, refuge, etc. that I scale up and down between 7 to 12 tanks based on demand and my needs. The overall core of the system has been running since 2005. The big 1000L Reef tank has been part of the system since the beginning and for the last few years has virtually had very little to no Coraline Algae. The youngest display tank at just 4 years old (underneath my main 1000L reef tank) is chock full of Coraline Algae, and completely covering the back glass and side panels - despite all tanks sharing the same water supply. To be continued under next question....

3. How long did it take you to start seeing coralline in your first reef tank?

Back when I set up the main system & 1000L Display tank in 2005 & migrated all the livestock from a smaller 250L we started with in 2003, it took just 5-ish months before Coraline was growing all across the back glass. That Coraline stayed there for a few years and very slowly started to recede away.

What changed over all those years since 2005? Why does Coraline Algae grow in my 250L dedicated Anemone Tank like crazy, but grows very little in my other two Display Tanks? But it does grow in some of my livestock tanks in my dedicated fishroom - despite all tanks sharing the same water supply & having rock solid stable parameters?

Light temperature. In the beginning, I started with T5 lighting, and just two kinds - 3 rows of Actinic bulbs, and 3 rows of warm whites (tank is 2.5 meters long, thus the rows). By 2009, I'd switched 2 rows of Actinics, 2 rows of 10K bulbs and 2 rows of 14K bulbs. Each row was switchable, so I could bring the lights up first with Actinics and then the Warm Whites. When I went to three types of bulbs, the On / Off switching using the three different types of bulbs made the light cycles more graduated, and phased cycles bluer.

Looking back now, I realize I didn't make the connection in my head at the time, but this is when the Coraline started not doing as well as it used too.

In 2015, I migrated a smaller cube display tank to AI 26HDs. And in 2017, I migrated the big 1000L and the 250L under it to AI 26HDs as well. Shortly after this, I noticed my Anemone's weren't as happy under those lights, but anemone's in my fishroom that were illuminated under 6000K LED lights did surprisingly well. Over a longer period of time, I finally started to notice there wasn't much Coraline in these two tanks left. But all the other corals were doing well.

In 2018, based on that observation, I rescaped my 250L for my Anemones and switched the lighting to the cheap 6000K LED lights they'd shown to do well under in my fishroom. Pretty quickly, I noticed the Anemone's were doing much better under this new setup. And over the course of a year, it became pretty apparent that the Coraline algae was growing like gang busters in this tank; there were very large patches all over the back glass & rocks. Today, the entire back glass and side panes are covered.

Based on some of this and a presentation I watched Julian Sprung give about color temp (including the quote: 6000K makes it look like someone peed in my tank, but it makes my corals grow the fastest) which correlates with my own experiences, it is in my agenda planning to program my AI 26HD lights to spend less time in the blue when coming on, and more time in the 6000K-8000K range, which I hope will change the amount of Coraline under those lights.

The only thing I am waiting for is to complete some home renovations we currently are working on, so that I when I do switch, I'll have more free time to observe any / all changes that result.

 

[Marie7]

"Coralline Algae is a type of red Algae in the order Corallinales. It is a desirable algae to have in a saltwater aquarium and its growth is an indication of a properly matured marine fish tank. It is commonly introduced into an aquarium by placing live rock into the aquarium. Coralline Algae enters the system as one of the many beneficial “hitchhiker’s” on live rock as well as on the shells of snails." - ARC Reef

Let's talk about it today!

1. How important is having coralline algae present in your aquarium to you?

2. Would you measure the maturity of a reef tank by the amount of coralline present in the tank?

3. How long did it take you to start seeing coralline in your first reef tank?

image via @trioledeployment

I love coralline and would love to have it on my tank, but in my tank there’s more of a clean rocks concept than coralline, I have urchins that clean my rocks extremely good so coralline don’t grow there, I have seen apstasia no clue where it came in I assume that on something I bought, my anemones are doing great as many of my corals and mushrooms are doing good I do have seen also some sponges forming on my rocks and some corals coming back, my tank crash some time last year and loss all my fishes due to something that nobody was able to identify I had empty it completely and start all over again so is good but this apstasia is worrying me

 

[reefsaver]

I would say the maturity of your tank depends on how many, I would call them stages. Like the ugly phase but you may not have an ugly phase, you have different, I call them micro-stages because they happen fast. You know, things like an algae winning out the war of the rock so you don't see any others, no more black or dark patchy surface algae covering the white rock.

 

[Nhjmc]

My tank (RSM 130D) is almost two years old and my LR has a lot of nice purple and maroon coralline algae but the glass/back glass only little sections do.

 

[Stain]

It took me under 4 months to see coraline growing on my wavemakers (dry rock/sand start, sps dominant). I scrub my back glass so it wont form there. Its not important for me to have it everywhere, but it is a good 'beacon' for many factors, so I like a little. I also think an excessive amount is also detrimental to your system in certain ways.

 

[saltyfins]

I personally hate coraline algae and wish it didn’t grow in my tank.

judging maturity on coraline can be deceiving, i had a hair algae outbreak that covered and killed a large portion of my coraline. My tank was 4 years old at the time.

I'm with you on that. I hate the stuff, and it grows WAY too fast in my 125! My 2 month bio is also covered in it ;Meh