coralline algae
- Thread starter blalocksreef
- Start date
No real secret, just keep your alkalinity and calcium nice and high. From my experience, certain colors or coralline have trouble growing in high light. I get mostly the purple and pink stuff in direct light. The nicer colors (greens, reds, etc) seem to flourish in the more cryptic areas of the tank.
Seconds Satchmo.....
I have a 72gal bowfront with live sand and live rock....gulfview. It has a frag piece of toadstool leather as well as a couple mushroom rocks. I have coralline on the back wall, all in powerheads as well as rocks. Low wattage light is key along with keeping CA and ALK up. I use two 25 watt 10K NO bulbs, along with 1 50/50 and 1 Actinic bulbs. With water changes I have to scrape small deposits of coralline alage from the front glass. Depending on what you wish to keep would determine your capacity for coralline growth.
I have a 72gal bowfront with live sand and live rock....gulfview. It has a frag piece of toadstool leather as well as a couple mushroom rocks. I have coralline on the back wall, all in powerheads as well as rocks. Low wattage light is key along with keeping CA and ALK up. I use two 25 watt 10K NO bulbs, along with 1 50/50 and 1 Actinic bulbs. With water changes I have to scrape small deposits of coralline alage from the front glass. Depending on what you wish to keep would determine your capacity for coralline growth.
I have it growing everywhere on both my 125 gallon reef and 90 gallon wanto be reef tank. On the 125 I use ESV bionic Ca and Alk. additives this tank has 200 lbs of live rock. My 90 gallon has 2 pcs of live and 10 pcs of base rock that we set up in my office with live sand for 9 months before we added anything. You should see the coraline all over the base rock. Now in this tank I don't add anything but a 12 gallon water change everyother week. The 90 has two 65 watt compacts and 125 gallon has 6-55 pc and 2-175 watt MH 10k. My 125 gallon has it growning up the side wall even with 700 watts of lighting.
Randy
Randy
You can also add Strontium and iodine to your tank to help promote coraline. On an interesting note. Some of the most encrusted peices that I come across are on the bottom sides of rocks away from the sun.