Coralline Growth

[realhiphop]

I'm still being plagued by hair algae. I'm running a whisper filter with carbon to try to combat it. Any suggestions? Should I take the carbon out and replace it with some type of phosphate sponge? Also, how do I promote the growth of nice color coralline in my tank. I haven't really noticed any, and my tanks been up and running for 3 1/2 months.

Thanks

[BCOrchidGuy]

Hair algae competes with coraline algae for space, the coraline algae does really well in low light areas or under actinic light.

 

Get rid of the carbon and try the phosphate sponge if you want but you should test your phosphates first and find out if the algae is using phosphates or nitrates as its nutrients. Your light may be the wrong colour or the right colour for the algae as well.

[TStaut]

Running the carbon may be doing more harm than good, by trapping particles in the water column leading to more nitrates/phosphates.

 

Suspend feeding for a few days, double your water changes, practice strict nutrient control for a few weeks and you should see some progress.

 

Travis

[jburke30]

Originally posted by realhiphop

I'm still being plagued by hair algae.  I'm running a whisper filter with carbon to try to combat it.  Any suggestions?  Should I take the carbon out and replace it with some type of phosphate sponge?

 

I use regularly use carbon in my tanks, and it always seems to help with water clarity. Many people here don't recommend it because of the possibility that it removes trace elements from the water.

 

Personally, I would continue to use the carbon, and add poly filter pads. If the hair algea is nice and green then adding some grazing critters might help also (Hermit crabs come to mind, but, as others have pointed out and I've experienced, they can eat snails). Rinse out your filter pads more often, and DON'T do anything drastic since decaying algae releases phosphate which will only make the situation worse.

 

A few other tactics are to reduce photoperiods, and nutrient sources (nitrate, and phospates) by reduce feeding and doing a large water change.

 

In my opinion, the only bad algae is red dinoflagellets

 

There are a lot of really good articles on the net for controlling algae growth. Check out www.reefs.org and do a search on www.google.org to find out more.

 

Also, how do I promote the growth of nice color coralline in my tank.  I haven't really noticed any, and my tanks been up and running for 3 1/2 months.  

Thanks

 

Check your calcium levels. Calcium is a big contributor to good growth. Good salt can help a lot also (I use Bio-Sea and I noticed increased growth with it). Reefs.org has an article or two on this topic also.

 

Good luck.

[flaunt]

i'd cancel the idea of the phosphate sponge. i have used phosguard (seachem) and while it removed the phosphates very well, it had a negative effect (bleached) a few stony corals that i have. after removing it they colored back up. anyway, there have been other people who have had problems with phosphate sponges so you might really want to try to eliminate that problem through biological means. after removing the phosguard i had the expected bloom of all types of algae, but they're subsiding rapidly now due to macro that i began growing and increased coralline growth.

 

my aquarium didn't have much coralline growth until i made some adjustments over the past several months. here's a list of changes, and i'm not prepared to claim that any one change caused the coralline to grow better:

1) started testing my kH and CA like a madman, basically every day for several weeks while i adjusted these parameters with b-ionic. i brought my kH up to around 12 dkH and CA to around 450.

 

2) changed out small amount of live rock with new live rock containing (hopefully) different species of coralline

 

3) ground up chunks of coralline and coralline-encrusted rock and sprinkled them all over the other rocks where i wanted it to grow

 

4) increased the water temperature to 81 degrees

 

5) added a 36W PC actinic

 

6) began dosing iodine (for the pulsing xenia), vitamins (to soak food in for corals and fish), and iron (for the macro)

 

my aquarium had been set up for about a year before making these changes, without much coralline expansion, but now it's really taking off and even begining to grow on the walls of my aquarium (i always wished for such a problem but now i'm not so sure i want it). in addition most of my corals have experienced increases in growth rates.

 

btw, i did NOT reduce feeding, and actually increased nutrient input. in spite of this my algae "problem" has slowed drastically over the past month.

 

 

 

 

hope this helps.

[tgrupert]

if I ran just a actinic lamp over a tub full of dead rock what else would I need to do to grow coraline?

[realhiphop]

whats a good phosphate test kit? what should my phosphate levels be at?

[tgrupert]

If you want to get rid of phosphate you could get macro algae. My LFS gave me a peice for free on monday and it has doubled in size already. espi and crakeur have both offered to give me some more. I bet you could find some in your area for free too.

[BCOrchidGuy]

If you want to run an actinic over some dead rock just get a chunk of live rock with good coraline algae growth and scrape off as much of the coraline algae as you can, add it to the dead rock and watch your calcium levels.

[kovu]

did you add the macro algae right into the main tank or did you add it to the sump/refugium?

[realhiphop]

what's a good test kit for phosphates? what is the recommended level for phosphates?

[flaunt]

i use Sera test kits for phosphate, and i like them. theoretically, the "best" phosphate level is that which is undetectable by your test kit.

[tgrupert]

I have alarge refugium I put it in, but you can put it in the display. yesterday Dave espi gave me some very interesting macro algae.

 

 

Originally posted by kovu

did you add the macro algae right into the main tank or did you add it to the sump/refugium?

[Dave ESPI]

realhiphop Came out of the closet to say TWICE

what's a good test kit for phosphates?  what is the recommended level for phosphates?

 

its basic Aquarium "read a book 101." info. We saw it the first time, just chose to ignore it cause the answer is quite easily found.

 

For the sake of being nice .... Salifert and Dry-Tab make great Phosphate test kits.

Whilst many try for a level of "0" I try to keep just a trace of Phosphates, as it is an important building block element to some of a fully stocked reef tank Biota. if you have issues with slimes and other things that are fueled by phospho- Amino groups, chances are your tank is rich in other nutrients.

 

ALGONE is a product that some of ya might want to try.

 

CORALINE algae of different strains require different light requirements. Chances are you are in the grey area, and dont have enough intensity, or too little. try getting some scrapings from someone (or LFS) and adding it. Also, Marc Weis REEFDNA is a coraline addative booster. It has some enzymes (Which is bassicaly Apple Juice) that help pigment coraline algae. You might also need to be adding a 2 part buffer/Ca like B-ionic to get levels up.

 

TINY REEF if you read this, it also might help with your coraline patching issues.

[tgrupert]

i'm not sure, but can I just dose a little apple juice ocationaly? organic pestice free of coarse. Not because I'm a hippie or somthing, I just don't want to put preservitives in my tank.

 

could I just put some apple in the tank? It would be like a maquarium to the next level.

[tinyreef]

dave,

i've always been rather suspicious of weiss's products tho. : i tried Black Powder and had a neutral reaction. i'll try the DNA.

 

you've got a point on the different light requirements of the coralline. i'm noticing a greater instance of cyano lately. that's usually my sign for changing bulbs but they're only 6 mos. old. or the cyano could be from the auto feeder during those two weeks (2x/day). the confusing thing is that the other hot pink coralline is now beginning to grow over the black 'dead' spots of the dull pink coralline. ??? i'll eventually figure it out.

 

back to hiphop's issue:

i agree with BCGuy, limit the phosphate, boost the ca/alk (b-ionic), and keep your pH high 8.2+. i also agree on favoring the blue light. it keeps the nuisance algae from utilizing the nutrients as fast (i.e. out competing the coralline). dave also notes the possibility of other nutrients, make sure you're skimming well (i.e. maintenance). pull out whatever algae you can too (direct export).

[tgrupert]

Originally posted by tinyreef

dave,

i've always been rather suspicious of weiss's products tho. :

 

I know exactly what you mean. the dude looks like ron jeremey or something.

[jfumia]

Keep the calcium and alk up and watch the coraline grow!

-Jeremy

[Nishant3789]

about corraline algea, at least from my experience, the algea doesnt take off for the first few months, after you raise ure alk and all it takes about 4 months to really start growing not sure why this happens but it does. hth

nishant