Jump to content
Cultivated Reef

No Coralline Algae Growth...Why?


reeferx2

Recommended Posts

My reef has been established for about 3 years now. It is a Fluval Edge 6 that I de-rimmed about 6 months ago. Before I de-rimmed it, I had slight coralline growth, like minuscule, after the de-rim it all disappeared and never returned. 

 

My parameters are steady at:

 

1350 

430

9

.2 - .5 NO3

.015   PO4

 

Filtration: 

AC20 w/ sponge/chemi-blue/chaeto

 

Lighting:

AI Prime with Royal Blues @ 40% / Cool White 15% @ peak values. 12 hour light cycle. 

 

Even though I know coralline can be a nuisance, I'm still incredibly intrigued to know why I have no coralline growth.

 

My reef is mixed, 18 corals in total and counting, I have softies, LPS, and 1 piece of SPS, all of which are doing great. 

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
flatlandreefer

My tank lacks coralline as well. It has been up and running for 1.5 yrs and started with dry rock. I have noticed small specks of coralline starting to appear on the glass from time to time but it has never take hold. I'm curious to hear input from other members. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment

When I first setup my 40 gallon in 2012 and had no idea what I was doing I had coraline all over.  Now, in both my tanks, what little coraline there is is not very showy.  So no clue.

Link to comment

I think your nutrient levels are too low. Beyond that, consider seeding the tank with coraline algae. That's as simple as finding a chunk of algae you like and placing it into the flow of the water column. With water passing over it, it will spread coraline algae spores throughout the tank. An old timer technique is also to take a chunk of coraline, put it in a cup of tank water and blender it up in a clean blender. Then, pour the coraline algae soup into your tank and let it spread.

 

Since other algaes compete with coraline for nutrients, you might have to remove those algaes with a CUC or manually until the coraline takes hold and spreads. Once coraline starts spreading, you might regret your decision to encourage the growth because it's much more difficult to scrape off of places, like your tank glass. Just saying.

Link to comment

I’ve got minimal growth as well , my tank has been up for more than 2 years.

I think it might be a combination of too much light in places (noticed it grows more in darker areas) , low magnesium, unstable CAL and ALK, etc

Now with that said, there’s some that can’t scrape it fast enough and some that can’t grow it...each tank is different and I do not believe that the lack of coralline indicates an unhealthy tank...

I’ll probably try the coralline in a blender though and see what growth I get.

Not too worried about scraping it, my nano flipper scraper is working well on crusty stuff.

I like the coralline because it looks more natural and kinda blends in the back glass with the rocks etc...without it everything looks more sterile.

Link to comment

Yea, my nitrate and phosphate read .2 and .015 respectively almost always. I even gave my chemi nano an extra week of duty with the same result. I might just end up running chaeto only and seeing what happens.

Link to comment

Interesting. Not sure LED’s are the problem. There’s plenty of tanks with them full of coralline. I think switching lights stresses the algae and either bleaches or disappears then comes back under another form or color. 

 

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

Coralline needs to be introduced to the tank. 

When using dry rock upon start up, there is nothing on it, it needs to be brought in. 

 

Most get it via coral plugs, some get shavings from other hobbiests, others get it from using liverock.

 

It's pretty but it's a pain to control.

 

 

Link to comment
On 1/4/2018 at 5:48 PM, Kellie in CA said:

Ever since I switched to LED I've had virtually no coralline.  I've even seeded it twice.  My MH and CFL tanks were overrun with it. 

 

I have often wondered about this. My old 40b was MH / VHO and coraline grew well and was plating it was so thick. Moved to AI Vegas and it started to recede . Moved to the 65g with LED only same issue, switched to NanoBox Hybrid and started getting good coraline growth after T5 addition. Now in the 90 with LED only ... nothing. Switching to 6x54w T5 next week, so we shall see what happens . 

Link to comment
  • 6 months later...

It is most definitely the LEDs that is the problem. Since I switched from compact T5 to an Ai prime most of the coraline has died off and disappeared. I use coral pro salt and maintain Cal and alkalinity so conditions should be perfect for growth. I have adjusted the he Ai prime to be closer to 10000k and I'll see if this helps with coraline growth.

Link to comment
1 minute ago, Recci said:

It is most definitely the LEDs that is the problem. Since I switched from compact T5 to an Ai prime most of the coraline has died off and disappeared. I use coral pro salt and maintain Cal and alkalinity so conditions should be perfect for growth. I have adjusted the he Ai prime to be closer to 10000k and I'll see if this helps with coraline growth.

 

9 month thread rez.  :)  I suggest it's spread, not frequency.  T5 lights up the tank walls, lots of spread, LED is pretty direct, especially with lenses, so not much light on the tank walls.

Link to comment

If it was spread then surly there would be coraline on the rocks that were getting lit directly?  Also on the magnesium point, my magnesium is spot on and so are other peoples who use LED's and have seen their coraline algae growth drop off. I suspect its more to do with the way LED's such as the AI prime allows the exact frequency of the light to be controlled so therefore we never get it perfect unlike T5's which are set by the manufacture to be exactly where is its supposed to be. Also although led's have their good point such as lower power consumption and more control ability and other fancy features its really all just hype and unnecessary the truth is they simply are not as good for growth as T5's are per amount of par!

 

A prime example is I had a nano cube with only a Dennerle Reef Light 24W 2:2 10,000 kelvin plus actinic blue light compact fluorescent  and I used plain old Instant ocean salt. I never dosed anything and let my alk drop low and generally neglected the tank a bit yet I had corraline all over the tank on every surface. It was a constant battle to keep it down.  Yet i have now switched to a tank with an AI prime and use Red sea coral pro salt and moved over all the rocks and stuff from the old tank that were covered in corraline. I monitor alk, ca and magnesium and dose accordingly yet no sign of new corraline and most of what I had as died off apart from on the rocks that are shaded from the AI prime. I even toned the AI prime right down to 50% as its so powerful and have adjusted it to be 10000k yet still not growth. It has to be the light that is the issue here!

Link to comment

Theres plenty of tanks running leds with tons of coraline, so it's definitely not leds in and of themselves. Could be the spectrum of specific leds. Coraline likes heavy blue light and a shorter max intensity period. I got that info from atlantic reef conservation after using their purple helix coraline spores to seed my tank. 

 

Also there are plenty of tanks not running led that lack coraline. Every tank is different and it takes off in some while never showing in others. Light spectrum/intensity and water parameters are likely the reason not a specific type of lighting. I'm a nood so take this info for what it's worth but that's the conclusion I've come to. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment

I agree but the AI lights such as the prime and Hydra's seem to have something about them that is in some way negatively affecting corraline growth. The intensity of the led's probably have something to do with it but many people who used to MH lights back in day say the same thing that it died off when they switched. 

Link to comment

admittedly i've been dosing fairly blindly lately, recently tested last night and my alk was at 10dkh with around 1420 mag, corraline growth has been in action for about a week now. 

Link to comment

This tank, like my previous tank, has never had issues with coralline even though it's such a young tank.

 

Tank saw water on 4/2/18 with all dead Tonga branches. A few snail shells and the rocks that were encrusted with zoas made it over from the old tank to the current. Bone white rock as in this picture.

2018_04_02_fts.jpg

 

Coralline also came over from the plugs for the SPS. (4/10)

2018_04_10_rvs_yellow.jpg

 

12 days layer (4/22), the specklings of coralline can be seen. You also see the greenish bases that usually precedes coralline growth in the picture.

2018_04_22_crystal_jade.jpg

 

Fast forward to 2 months later (6/22) and I had ~60% coverage of all the Tonga.

2018_06_20_rvs_yellow.jpg

 

Picture from last week (8/15), In the background is my overflow box, which is covered in coralline. The back wall is also ~50% covered in coralline, and the rocks is 90% covered in coralline. Secondary types of coralline and other algaes are also showing up at this stage. 

2018_08_15_algaeonrocks.jpg

 

Link to comment
27 minutes ago, Ebn said:

This tank, like my previous tank, has never had issues with coralline even though it's such a young tank.

 

Tank saw water on 4/2/18 with all dead Tonga branches. A few snail shells and the rocks that were encrusted with zoas made it over from the old tank to the current. Bone white rock as in this picture.

2018_04_02_fts.jpg

 

Coralline also came over from the plugs for the SPS. (4/10)

2018_04_10_rvs_yellow.jpg

 

12 days layer (4/22), the specklings of coralline can be seen. You also see the greenish bases that usually precedes coralline growth in the picture.

2018_04_22_crystal_jade.jpg

 

Fast forward to 2 months later (6/22) and I had ~60% coverage of all the Tonga.

2018_06_20_rvs_yellow.jpg

 

Picture from last week (8/15), In the background is my overflow box, which is covered in coralline. The back wall is also ~50% covered in coralline, and the rocks is 90% covered in coralline. Secondary types of coralline and other algaes are also showing up at this stage. 

2018_08_15_algaeonrocks.jpg

 

Well don't just come and brag, bro. Give the deets to get that sweet purp. 

 

Alk? Using kalk? Filtration? What light is that?

 

I think my re-started tank is coming up on 2 months and just have tiny specs on back wall and black plastics. 

Link to comment

The big three:

Alk: 6.85 (as tested yesterday). Down from my target of 7.7ish. Need to up my calcium effluent to account for the growth still. 

Ca: 400

Magnesium: 1320

 

Not using any kalk in the tank and not dosing anything out of the ordinary. Used BRS 3 part solution until ~6 weeks ago when I switched over to a calcium reactor. The coralline was already in the tank so the 3 part or calcium reactor argument is moot if it's even there. Light is the Maxspect recurve 36" model running in SPS mode. 

 

SPS Mode - aka preset 1 on the fixture

image.png.51786f26d8d5605bf29efa0c3603e9c4.png

I didn't altar or change any of the default settings that the fixture is set up with. It runs itself based on the program. It peaks with highs with the following settings:

 

Channel A (cluster) - deep blue: 90%

Channel B (cluster) - cool & warm white: 70%

Channel C (strip) - deep red: 90%

Channel D (strip) - cyan: 70%

Channel E (strip) - blue: 90%

Channel F (strip) - violet & deep blue: 90%

 

The settings produce a predominantly 12k'ish look over the tank. 

 

Filtration is nothing special. DIY sump that I made using 1/4" acrylic with 3 compartments. Synergy Shadow overflow feeds into the left compartment, which houses a BK Mini 160. Middle compartment houses 1 Marinepure plate (8x8x1), 1 Marinepure brick (8x8x4), 2L of siporax, and 2x150W Eheim heaters. The plate and siporax were used in the old tank, but the brick was brand new. In essence the bacteria was transferred via the plate and siporax from the last tank. This was to ensure that the sps and fish would be alright (all livestock went right into the tank on day 1). 2 cups of sand was also used from the old tank to seed the 60# of Fiji pink sand used (approximately 1" in overall depth). Right compartment is the return chamber, which houses the Neptune COR-20 return pump. The COR-20 runs at 50% back to dual 1/2" returns which has RFG ends. It also feeds a chaeto reactor. 

 

Flow-wise, other than the returns from the COR-20 pump, 2 gyres are used. 2 Jebao CP-40s sits on opposite ends near the top of the tank and battle it out. There's a ton of random flow caused by both gyres as they crash into each other. 

 

5 gallons of water (system volume is ~100G) is changed on a weekly basis (when I remember) using plain 'ole IO salt. 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment

I use Hydra 26 HD on my tank, and coralline is growing well, mostly purple, but there is some dark red mixed in as well. My light is set pretty random, I just flipped the different options until I got a light I liked, tank also seems to like.

 

Ca is kept around 440

Mg is around 1300

Alk is kept around 8.6

 

The only thing I dose is ESV 2 part manually each day 10ml.

 

I use H2 Ocean salt with salinity kept at 35ppt.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...