Coralline Growth

[ooja3k]

I have some coralline algae starting to grow on the back glass of my tank... the back is painted black, really making the color of the coralline "pop"...

anyway...

my question is this... should i allow it to grow over the back wall of the tank??? or scrape it off and keep the black look...

does anyone have any pictures of a back wall covered in coralline algae??? any advice would be great!

thanks!

 

[atarax]

let it grow. helps control phosphates and is much better looking than algae. I personally like the look of the coralline, but some of my friends prefer the clean glass look. its all personal preference really. but it will help maintain unwanted algae growth. in the picture u can see its completely covered my clear acrylic intake. and a majority of the glass, but i had recently scraped away a TON of green corallione because it didnt look how i wanted the glass to look. so my coverage is kind of slim in the middle of the tank.

 

[ooja3k]

i already have phos-ban in the sump... so phosphates are not an issue...

sometimes ive seen it look good, but other times coralline just looks horrible...

i think having a black background helps show the color of the coralline...

 

[reavesinc]

there are different coraline with differing colors. I like the look, but, like stated above its preference. The benefits are all there.

 

[clown-lover]

I agree it really boils down to a preference in how you want your tank to look. I have coraline starting to grow on my overflow box and the back of my tank and the sides. I personally am going to leave most of it to grow out except for the front glass..

 

[wantvws]

I have some green coraline starting all over my tank, and some nice purple here and there. I plan on leaving it (maybe not on little bits like shells) but not the front and sides of the tank itself. My LFS has a display tank with a ton of reddish and greenish and purpleish coraline and it looks great IMO.
And I have some nice purple coraline on one of hermits I think
Robbie

 

[reavesinc]

yeah I think it's awesome when the crabs and snails get it. They're like walking filters.

 

[fsn77]

I let it grow on the back of our tank, 1 side, on 1/2 of the other side, and on our overflow box. It's mostly pinks and purples, but there's a little bit of red in some shaded areas and some green in brighter spots. I wish we had some of the pastel orange looking coralline.

Personally, I think it makes our tank seem less "sterile" or new. However, a clean black background probably gives more of an impression of the tank continuing back into the distance -- kind of like looking into a cave and only being able to see so far, but knowing there must be more beyond that.

 

[ddbriggs]

is there anyway of forcing or atleast speeding up the growth of coraline algae?

 

[ooja3k]

i don't know...

ever since i began testing for calcium, i found it was really low like 300ppm... i started dosing calcium and instantly coralline sprouted up everywhere... I don't know if they are related or not...