How to keep Coralline off!

[shift_9k]

Hey guys my AP24 has been up for around 4months now. I went thru a crash, and a re-build. Right now the tank is sitting on perfect parameters. I havent added anything, I let the diatom phase pass twice over now. I've been contemplating a few things as mods. But thats another story the topic I wanted to discuss in this thread was coralline algae.

 

Since the rebuild I aquascaped so that there wouldnt be any rock touching any of the boundaries all the way around. I am not expecting coralline to grow anytime soon, but i've read from you guys its a pain to take off. I dont mind regular maintence that i'll have to do on the glass sides. But what I'm worried about is getting off the plastice false wall in the back. I dont want to take a razor blade to it and take off shavings of plastic. Is there a cover or plastic film I could apply to the back wall where, when it got too messy with coralline i could just remove it and add another piece?

 

Again I dont know what mod can be done to keep the false wall clean from the get go, I wanna make sure i'm setup for it before it starts.

 

 

Any suggestions or past projects that have worked would be great. If you want to remind me that i'm the prime minster of noobs, and point out something obvious that i've missed. That'd be great too.

[mitochondria]

You don't like the way coralline algae looks? I personally would just keep the coralline off the front glass and sides and not worry about it growing on the back wall. I like the way it looks though.

[coolwaters]

hey shift nice to see u here.

 

iv noticed that theres a lot of coral line aglae on the back of my tank so i dont care. the reason that i think its growing on the back is because i dont clean it.

as for the front of my tank i usually clean off wast stuff like diatoms and the coraline growth was minimal.

 

probably because as i clean the glass with the mag float i swipe off the small coraline that grows into the big patches. so basically i get them off in the early stages.

 

if u dont want to use razer blades your going to have to use a mag-float (thats designed for acrylic/plastic) and clean off the tank like very day...

 

anyone else have another idea?

[shift_9k]

The thing is there is no way to mag float the back of the tank, since the half thats supposed to be outside of the water would now be submerged in water.

[fewskillz]

Good luck keeping coraline off the false wall. Coraline grows very fast on plastic. I really don't know what to tell you other than get one of those scrubber things with the handle and scrub your back wall once a week. Maybe that will be enough to keep any from forming, but I doubt it.

 

Now a question about your username, do you drive an s2000?

[Pickle010]

I like the coraline on my back wall.. looks great and I don't ever try to clean it off.

[dericthomas]

just let it grow!

[shift_9k]

Yea coolwaters, i actually found this site off of MFT glad i did.

 

As far as the coralline I dont know guys i really just like the clean look of the black. The coraline looks a little "messy" to me. And it seems as if the fish are living inside of a stomach, or some other body part....hahaha im freakin weird.

 

I've always had a black backround on all of the tanks i've ever owned. Im thinkin of sliding some clear plastic and some how wedging it in the sand so it sits sort of flush with the false wall. It seems barbaric at this stage, gotta refine the idea a little bit more. That way i can pull the plastic out of the tank, give it a good cleaning and slide it back in.

 

 

OT: Fewskillz, me and my S are comin up on our 5 year anniversary. Thinkin bout some anniversary gifts for the gal. Any ideas? Vortech maybe...... hahaa.

[mitochondria]

As far as the coralline I dont know guys i really just like the clean look of the black. The coraline looks a little "messy" to me.

 

Thats cool. I didn't know if you were new to the hobby or not and I was trying to make sure you knew it wasn't harmful without being insulting.

[fewskillz]

Actually a vortech would be insane on a s2k. I have the V-9 F-trim on my 2002 miata. Vortech's are centrifugal superchargers, so they spool up like a turbo. Matches our powerbands perfectly. I love mine and would highly recommend it.

[glennr1978]

You don't like the way coralline algae looks? I personally would just keep the coralline off the front glass and sides and not worry about it growing on the back wall. I like the way it looks though.

me too.

[PieNinja]

As far as the coralline I dont know guys i really just like the clean look of the black. The coraline looks a little "messy" to me.

I totally agree with you there - I find that coralline growth on walls tends to ruin the illusion of depth and makes it look messy weird...

 

Aside from using some good old fashioned muscle power & old credit card, or one of these scrapers, I don't know of anything to adhere to the back wall to prevent coralline...

[fewskillz]

I totally agree with you there - I find that coralline growth on walls tends to ruin the illusion of depth and makes it look messy weird...

 

Aside from using some good old fashioned muscle power & old credit card, or one of these scrapers, I don't know of anything to adhere to the back wall to prevent coralline...

 

That's the scraper I was talking about in my first post, probably you're only solution.

[PieNinja]

Agreed - make sure to scrape off coraline specks before it grows to be a big ole' patch. Like another user said, it's a lot more work removing the huge ones once it's all encrusted on the sides.

[coolwaters]

Actually a vortech would be insane on a s2k. I have the V-9 F-trim on my 2002 miata. Vortech's are centrifugal superchargers, so they spool up like a turbo. Matches our powerbands perfectly. I love mine and would highly recommend it.

 

lol soo random.

[fewskillz]

OT: Fewskillz, me and my S are comin up on our 5 year anniversary. Thinkin bout some anniversary gifts for the gal. Any ideas? Vortech maybe...... hahaa.

 

^ See, not random. He asked what a good anniversary gift for his car would be and refered to a Vortech (like my avatar), so I responded.

[coolwaters]

^ See, not random. He asked what a good anniversary gift for his car would be and refered to a Vortech (like my avatar), so I responded.

 

his commit was random then...

 

doesnt the hummers have vortech engines?

[shift_9k]

Yea Im wondering if i could get a hold of a false black wall, and send it to a guy that did some carbon fiber work for me on the car. And then have him mold me a carbon copy of it in plastic, thus causing it to fit snuggly on the real false wall.

 

 

Oh and i've driven (tracked a vortech supercharged S). Sorry to say, but I was running a good half second faster than some of the supercharged Miatas on the track that day. Regardless your're right its a great kit. What are they going for nowadays? Back when I wanted one it was somewhere near 3-5grand.

[fewskillz]

his commit was random then...

 

doesnt the hummers have vortech engines?

 

His comment wasn't random either. I saw his avatar and username referring to 9k rpm and asked if he drove an s2000. Hummers have Vortec engines. So do chevy trucks, my s10 has a vortec 4300 v6. Vortec also makes alot of boat engines. Different companies, but good observation.

 

It doesn't hurt my feelings that you were outrunning the mazda's. S2000 is just far superior to a base model miata. It takes a lot of work to get a base mx-5 to on par with an intelligently modded s2k. Supercharging helps, but it really requires suspension work to balance out the extra power. A stock miata only has like 110 rwhp. The Mazdaspeed MX-5 is a little closer to the Honda, but they're still totally different cars. Plus we're only shifting at 7k. Haha. There's an S here in town, his license plate is "REVN29K".

 

Back to your coraline questions, I was at Petsmart last night actually looking at the scrapers/scrubbers. They've got a pretty decent number of options all for under 7 dollars. I would just find something that is narrow enough to fit behind your rock work, and just scrub/scrape your back wall once a week. I actually bought the longest handled scrubber they've got for my 54 because I dont want the coraline growing on it. It kills the depth of an already shallow (front to back) tank.

[Sea Slug]

The more you scrape coraline the more spores you release in the water , thus adding and speeding up coraline growth . To have a tank with no coraline on the sides or back you pretty much need a drilled tank with the overflow built into the center of the tank draing to the sump . Then the tank would need plenty of room on all four sides so you can get around it from any angle . With proper water quality coraline will grow at a fast rate , having a false wall and trying to keep it coraline free will be a losing battle in the end .

[mikeandjenn99]

I totally agree with you there - I find that coralline growth on walls tends to ruin the illusion of depth and makes it look messy weird...

 

Aside from using some good old fashioned muscle power & old credit card, or one of these scrapers, I don't know of anything to adhere to the back wall to prevent coralline...

 

I agree. I have a scraper just like this one, and it and a razor blade are the only things that work for me.

[roushinator]

I thought it is a good sign to have it growing. I just let it grow on my old tank.

[Mad Steez]

Just get a thin peace of plexi glass cut it to shape with all of the openings for your filtration sys. use a dremel tool to cut the little lines out for the filtration sys. then every week or when ever you want to clean it just pull it out and clean it and when you are done just slide it back into place. you could even make it into a surface skimmer, you just have to make the lines a little shorter and the sucktion sould keep it in place.

[Bobalouy]

I have been keeping my walls coraline free for 6 months now. As long as you don't let it get started and clean the back wall when ever you clean the glass you shouldn't have any problems.