Anyone else have the "problem" of not getting any coralline algae growth?

[tang daddy]

pretty clean tank...

I can see what you mean about no coraline which is odd as you set up the tank 4 months ago.

I was going to say that maybe the Mg was low but your elos test kits shows otherwise.

I was doing some reading on Mg and found out that it plays a huge part with stabilizing alk and Ca, also it is the 3rd most abundant ion in salt water and apparently the coraline algae has high magnesium content.

If you are intrested read this article: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/oct2003/chem.htm

I use to have nice coraline algae under the rocks with my MH and when I switched to t5 it all turned to algae, at first I thought the new light was to blame but now think otherwise with lots of calcium in my tank aswell I couldn't understand why the coraline was not so plentiful after reading the article on Mg I understand alittle more....

Btw what lights are you running and what salt are you using?

[awa1979]

I set my tank up in August and only recently started getting coraline on the rocks, but its taking a liking to anything plastic, my pumps are becoming covered in it, but the rock is showing it very slowly.

[reeferious]

just love that image of your rockwork reflection off your tank bottom.is it true that aragonite sand releases other trace elements such as strontium useable by inverts and possibly coralline and that different coralline strains prefer different light level? maybe dosing trace elements and putting in assorted coralline scrapings might kickstart process.

[marie]

I have enough coralline algae for my tank, your tank, and everyone elses tank . It's not because your tank is sps dominant because mine is too maybe its because of the clams but I suspect it has more to do with nutrient levels, it is an algae after all

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

I don't think its nutrient levels either though. Well I mean I don't think your going to get more coraline in a higher nutrient tank. My tank is always at 0 nitrates, 0 phosphates and I don't have a speck of nuisance algae but am getting a lot of coraline on the rocks. The only other algae in my tank is a ball of chaeto that doesn't really grow much.

I never got as much coraline until I started adding Kalk in my top off water (since kalk precipitates phosphates, that would explain 0 reading I always get). I think I agree that the corals/clams will out compete the coraline. I know before Kalk I was only using two part and would test the Ca every few days. I noticed that I would dose in the morning and get a Ca reading of around 400 and by the next day if I did not dose two part again, it would be mid 300's. And this is a tank with only frags. So the corals are using up a ridiculous amount of Ca each day. I think my clams are a big part of it too.

After dosing kalk though, the Ca never drops below 400 even when I forget or choose not to dose two part.

Just my observations...

[i have crabs]

calcium polygluconate which is what is used in most liquid calcium supplements is supposed to be the best way to grow coraline

[Aquattro]

Andrew, I have more coraline than I could ever want, I scrape the side and it's covered again in weeks. I do notice that my SPS don't grow like they should. While they encrust heavily, they don't elongate at all. This may be due to elevated Ca levels (>500ppm) over a few months, but I do notice that as I drop Ca, the corals are starting to grow, and it's possible the coraline is slowing. If you really want coraline, come by and we can scrap soe off to seed your tank with, this has always helped me.
Nutrient wise, I have really no other algae to speak of, other than some small patches of wafer algae. I don't think it's a nutrient issue.
My 150 used to grow coralne like crazy, even though the SPS needed pruning monthly. However, my 75, with equally strong SPS growth, didn't have any coraline whatsoever. So hard to say, from experience, I have yet to determine what causes it to grow, or impedes it.

[christyf5]

My tank had coralline a couple of years ago for a short while. Then suddenly it all died off for some reason and that was the end of that. No coralline on glass/pumps but I still have some on the rock. I'd love to have it grow but I dunno, I guess all my sps are sucking the Ca up too fast.

[marie]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

...
Nutrient wise, I have really no other algae to speak of, other than some small patches of wafer algae. I don't think it's a nutrient issue.
...

It's possible the coralline algae is using the nutrients and thats why you have no other algae.

Something everyone forgets is that everything including sps corals need nutrients of some kind in the water column to grow, if one organism is using it all up before others can grab it then the others growth suffers.
I happen to have a ton of coralline, fantastic coral growth, cyano out my ears and a healthy ball of cheato in my sump. I also have very fat fish who get fed too often .

Originally Posted by christyf5

Coralline definitely does better in lower lighted areas, I find it used to grow best under my eurobracing and under various powerheads and such. Don't talk to Marie about that though

I do find different colours of coralline like different levels of light. The pinks and lavenders like higher light and the reds and purples like it better underneath. The branching kind doesn't seem to care and the plating stuff is definitely low light

[brizzo]

Originally Posted by i have crabs

calcium polygluconate which is what is used in most liquid calcium supplements is supposed to be the best way to grow coraline

I'm going to put support to that, personally my tank maintains around 380ppm with consistent water changes. Once I started dosing small amounts of kent liquid calcium once a week, I got coraline out the wazoo.

Maybe you want to try some purple-up?