Hi all,
I had a discussion with the owner of my LFS today about coralline algae. To be honest I try to take what this guys says with a grain of salt because he's made some strange claims in the past that I've found from my own experience, and from that of others, to just not be true at all. At the end of the day, however, he seems to have some healthy looking reef tanks on display. Anyway, I got some Pink Coralline algae spores from the ARC reef foundation a couple months ago. Their handout tells me that although Calcium, Magnesium, and Alkalinity levels are important, consistent Salinity and a pH of 8.1-8.4 will be the most important parameters. They even claim that the spores will not grow until these conditions are corrected.
So I asked my LFS owner if there was something I could do to correct my pH of 7.7 other than what I've already done (air out my room, increase dKH etc). Well, all he can tell me is what I didn't even ask in the first place haha. He told me that the most important element to grow coralline algae is strontium. I use IO reef crystals and test for Mg, Ca, and dKH regulary and dose these as needed, but I don't dose strontium. I also don't dose Molybdenum... or iodine... Which he didn't mention but it got me thinking.
So what do you guys think? Should I start dosing strontium? Other stuff? I don't have the means to test for strontium (do I need to test for it or can I blindly dose?)
One reason I'm skeptical is because it seemed like he was really just trying to sell me stuff... I don't think his business is doing very well. He also told me this exact thing "Strontium comes from Calcium" which makes absolutely no sense since they're two very different elements (granted they come from the same group on the periodic table).
Let me know what you guys recommend/think
I had a discussion with the owner of my LFS today about coralline algae. To be honest I try to take what this guys says with a grain of salt because he's made some strange claims in the past that I've found from my own experience, and from that of others, to just not be true at all. At the end of the day, however, he seems to have some healthy looking reef tanks on display. Anyway, I got some Pink Coralline algae spores from the ARC reef foundation a couple months ago. Their handout tells me that although Calcium, Magnesium, and Alkalinity levels are important, consistent Salinity and a pH of 8.1-8.4 will be the most important parameters. They even claim that the spores will not grow until these conditions are corrected.
So I asked my LFS owner if there was something I could do to correct my pH of 7.7 other than what I've already done (air out my room, increase dKH etc). Well, all he can tell me is what I didn't even ask in the first place haha. He told me that the most important element to grow coralline algae is strontium. I use IO reef crystals and test for Mg, Ca, and dKH regulary and dose these as needed, but I don't dose strontium. I also don't dose Molybdenum... or iodine... Which he didn't mention but it got me thinking.
So what do you guys think? Should I start dosing strontium? Other stuff? I don't have the means to test for strontium (do I need to test for it or can I blindly dose?)
One reason I'm skeptical is because it seemed like he was really just trying to sell me stuff... I don't think his business is doing very well. He also told me this exact thing "Strontium comes from Calcium" which makes absolutely no sense since they're two very different elements (granted they come from the same group on the periodic table).
Let me know what you guys recommend/think