Coralline algea growth

[rhinoivory]

I wish to have all my Live Rocks covered in purple coralline algea. I have been told it likes low lighting conditions to start growth. This is fine seeing that I am going to have 2 watts of light per gallon in the beggining, however, when I do upgrade, will the higher watts of lights bleach and kill the corraline or will the growth just be stunted ?

[Christopher Marks]

It depends on how much light you put on it in the future.  I had a 64w PC system on a 6 gallon, and it bleached some of the pink coralline, so I know it would kill the purples.

[RusH]

From what I have read, when you up your watts to any large degree you will get some die off of your coraline.  This happened to me when I got my rock.  The good news is, if you keep your params correct the effect is temporary and the coraline will soon repopulate and overgrow your bleached sections.

[C2187]

If your really concerned about it when you change your lights put something under them to lift them off of the tank a little. Then slowly lower them down to let everything adjust. Should help....

[trailguide]

hey man, my 20H had only 30w of NO when i started out with as a FWLR tank, and when i decided i wanted coral i added a 32w PC to it.  when i bought it, i asked my friends at my lft and they suggested i add the light and only use it for 2 hours a day for about a week or so then add an hour or so a week after that until i was at the photoperiod i wanted.  i did just that. when i started my lr was covered with pink and purple coraline. the first week i did get very little bleaching on the tips but now 2 months later my coraline is growing like mad.

 

so the moral of the story is start small and add it little my little every week or so.

 

hope this helps man.

[Kapelakin]

You can also minimize the shock by leaving your lights on for only a couple hours a day at first, and slowly increasing over the course of a few weeks.

 

The coralline will get shocked, but it will come back.  I had awesome coralline in my 40 after adding almost 300 watts VHO lighting.  It was mostly the pink, like Chris said.  You'll probably get purple on the undersides of the rocks.