Coralline Algae Halt?

[SuperScro]

It seems that recently my coralline algae has made a sudden slow down or stop or growing in my tank. It used to cover my glass a ton, and was surprised how much grew over a couple months. Now it is different. I haven't seen much difference in color, especially my rocks. I was wondering why this has happened. My Caclium is high around 440 and my KH is about 9. Magnesium is also 1250.

I was thinking that my past algae bloom could have caused a halt? I fixed that problem, but I still have red bubble algae I believe it is, all over my one rock, and growing on some others. Its mostly a bunch of colonies of small red bubbles together on different areas. Its not one large patch, but multiple ones. I figure I would have to pop them all, but thought there was too many and they would just keep coming back. Could they be doing something? They do also cover a lot of my coralline on my one rock. The rest of my algae has disapeared, its just this algae left.

Can the protein skimmer also prevent reproduction of coralline? My skimmer has recently been going crazy. I only feed once every two days.

 

[Grins]

Someone more experienced can hopefully answer the coralline question but I thought I'd mention that I've read not to pop the algea spheres because you'll just spread them. The following article explains how to control the various forms of bubble algea:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-02/hcj/feature/index.php

 

[SuperScro]

I meant when I popped them I would have a syphon right there to suck it up. Even though some would escape.

I believe that I have is the Botryocladia skottsbergii. I can take pictures, might not be the greatest but possibly can help. LIke i said the bubbles are smaller and in small patches or colonies. It like a zooanthid group but with red bubbles. I suppose you know what I mean. Is it normal for this bubble to look like this?

I might consider running more mechincal/chemical filtration. It helped me with my other algae problem, but maybe this is too strong? The lighting staying out does not help. I didn't think there were many animals that would take these out. I will need to get pictures.

 

[Germanman]

just to see what are ALL your water requirements and have u changed or added anything?

 

[SuperScro]

Here are some of the parameters I checked earlier. Ph. 8.2, Mg 1350, Caclium 400, Nitrate 10, Phosphate 0, Salinity 1.026. Need to test Kh. I also noticed a while back that my coralline was starting to turn white near the top of the tank glass and slightly below it in the back. This occured when I upgraded my lighting. Could these be a cause, just thought of it today when I looked around in my tank.

 

[Reefscape]

i would suggest it is just the coralline adjusting to your lighting...As the lighting does play a part in the colour..i would just blow it off with a powerhead if it needs it...

Niko

 

[drew2582]

Keeping your light on during water changes (while the water level drops - leaving the coralline exposed) can kill your algae. Have you been doing this??

 

[Germanman]

Keeping your light on during water changes (while the water level drops - leaving the coralline exposed) can kill your algae. Have you been doing this??

i have never had that be a problem in over several years but it is a possibility. i agree with Niko that is is just adjusting, since everything else looks perfect. just give it some time and keep us updated.

 

[SuperScro]

I do keep my lights on during water changes, never heard of something like that either. Except my lights would normally be on in the past when I didn't have the upgraded lighting during a water change, and my coralline started to grow rapidly for a couple months.

Any suggestions on what lights to keep on at certain times during the day? 10ks from 8-4 and actinincs from 2-8 something like that. I have a timer, just haven't decided on what to do.

I will keep updated.

 

[drobes]

As to your coraline dying off, the truth is there are many different kinds of coraline and they have different light requirements. It is common that when lighting is upgraded the light will be too intense for your current coraline and it will slowly die off, especially in high light areas. It should eventually be replaced by a coraline type that has a higher light requirement.

Broad genralizations from my observations:
Dark red coraline = low light
Purple coraline = mid / high light
flourescent green and pink coraline = high / intense light

I don't doubt that there could be multiple species of coraline with the same color and different light requirements so these generalizations may not be accurate for you.