Algae coralline

Kodiak

Kodiak

Lovin it
Aug 13, 2007
516
0
0
36
Columbus, OH
I have noticed alot of growth on my Powerheads. It has also started on my rocks and some colonies on the glass.

My question is i have 15g, with a T-5 4-24w/ will that be enough to generate enough light to grow algae coralline all over my back glass and rocks, ect...

I try to keep my Ca2 around 400 and dkh between 10-12.

I stopped dosing the tank for about a week and noticed a die off in the Coraline on the Power heads, it went from a pink to white. It wasnt much of a die off. The Ca2 dropped to 340. dkh went to a 9.

Any advice/comments would be great.

Thanks
 
Yes, that is more than enough light for Coralline to grow an flourish. You can speed it up by scraping a bit of your glass every once in a while.

Have you checked your magnesium level?

If you do weekly water changes, you might want to look into small daily changes instead. Every bit of added stability helps.

High phosphate levels can inhibit coraline growth as well. Any nuisance algae problems?
 
No nuisance algae problems. I dont check any levels but Ca2/DKH/then the basic bacteria.

I do a 60% water change once a week. I also just add DT/Ca2/DKH/food to the tank no trace elements or anything. Would it be worth me checking for magnesium and adding trace elements?

why does scraping it off help?
 
Scraping some of the coralline helps to spread it around and seed the rest of the tank.

60% water change is very excessive. Any reason why you're changing this much water? Average water changes are 10% per week.

The main reason to check magnesium is because it has a direct affect on maintaining calcium and alkalinity. Mag should be in the 1300 range.

No, don't add trace elements. If you can't test for the trace elements, don't dose them. Any benefits from dosing trace elements are anecdotal, at best. Water changes replenish any depleted trace elements needed.

Kodiak said:
No nuisance algae problems. I dont check any levels but Ca2/DKH/then the basic bacteria.

I do a 60% water change once a week. I also just add DT/Ca2/DKH/food to the tank no trace elements or anything. Would it be worth me checking for magnesium and adding trace elements?

why does scraping it off help?
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schigara said:
Scraping some of the coralline helps to spread it around and seed the rest of the tank.

60% water change is very excessive. Any reason why you're changing this much water? Average water changes are 10% per week.

The main reason to check magnesium is because it has a direct affect on maintaining calcium and alkalinity. Mag should be in the 1300 range.

No, don't add trace elements. If you can't test for the trace elements, don't dose them. Any benefits from dosing trace elements are anecdotal, at best. Water changes replenish any depleted trace elements needed.
Click to expand...


Its a 15 gallon nano reef. 60% is 10gallons. Which is a quick and easy change. I use to have bad nitrate problems since i have no fuge So i got use to doing that much.

I have started to cut back on how often i do the change. I am in the works of trying to make a HOB refugium
 
i wouldn't cut back on how often you are doing your WC in that size tank, but i agree that the 60% is def excessive. try 25% weekly and keep feedings to a minimum and you shouldn't have any nitrate problems, and a HOB fuge certainly wouldn't hurt! i agree as far as the coraline goes, you have plenty of light but you may want to dose calcium again to get it up around 400 if you are seeing a decrease. as schigara said scraping def helps to spread it... oh and was the coraline that went white exposed to air for a while?
 
salty420 said:
i wouldn't cut back on how often you are doing your WC in that size tank, but i agree that the 60% is def excessive. try 25% weekly and keep feedings to a minimum and you shouldn't have any nitrate problems, and a HOB fuge certainly wouldn't hurt! i agree as far as the coraline goes, you have plenty of light but you may want to dose calcium again to get it up around 400 if you are seeing a decrease. as schigara said scraping def helps to spread it... oh and was the coraline that went white exposed to air for a while?
Click to expand...


When the water gets low, it does actually get very close to the air, maybe it does come in contact with it.
 
Yup and if you have a sump, turn off the return pump and skimmer for about 15 minutes or so so that it all stays in the display and settles on the rock.

It's also good to get coralline scrapings from other peoples tanks and introduce it into your own.

Kodiak said:
When i scrap it off, so i just let it get blown around in the tank?
Click to expand...
 
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