Coraline........almost depleted

[Enrique]

Hey guys, maybe you could give me an opinion on this based from your experiences. The live rock I bought from my LFS are beautiful....were beautiful. I've had them in my tank for 2 months now since I got into the hobby and I've noticed that the coraline on them arent as purple as they were before when I first purchased them and am having bald spots on my rocks. This happened about almost a month ago and now it seems to have gone from bad to worse. My water parameters are fine except for low nitrate readings that show up every now and then. I asked my LFS and there were 2 comments, 1. lack of calcium, and 2. too much calcium. I was also told that water changes would counter over-calcium dosing. I also read that heat or high temps are the cause of depleting corals. Could high temps also cause the depletion of coraline? I dont have any corals yet in my tank as I am taking it slowly, thank goodness I dont. I would really appreciate your opinons on this. Thanks in advance.

[ReefMonkeee]

to be honest with you, im not an expert with coraline but there has been time when my tank went up to the 90's and my coraline was still growing. Maybe it's one of your clean up crewer just eating them. Turbo seem to find a great interest in coraline from my own experience.

[icenine]

More details might help. What is your lighting like? Temps? Are you dosing anything? you mention overdosing calcium, are you testing for it? What is your stocking like? You said you don't have fish but what do you have?

[Enrique]

ReefMonkeee- Thanks, thats good to hear...Whew!!! I have 4 astreas, 3 bumble bees, and 1 cerith, 1 cleaner shrimp, 2 hermits (scarlet and blue), 3 mussels, and 1 maroon clownfish, no turbos.

 

Icenine- I'm using the stock lights that came with the tank (12DX), temps have been at 82.5 at an average without the ICA, 78.7 with the ICA. No, I havent been dosing anything since I really dont know how to do that yet. But I would if I knew how to. Livestock is as I mentioned above. No corals.

 

Keep em coming, a solution is bound to come up....Thanks guys!

[agent1923]

dude relax, its obvious you just set up your tank. Just like you I thought my corraline was dying after I put in my live rock with corraline. I got all paranoid and started constanly testing thewater like a mad scientist and dosing w/calcium strontium etc. After a while I gave up with all the testing and dosing becasue no matter what i did i thought that my corraline was dying. Then one day I saw speckles of corraline on the powerheads and the corralline is blooming ever since. The stuff grows slow, so be patient. Whats probably happening is your corraline is adjusting to your lighting. For instance the corraline under the rocks I have is a deep purple and the top of the rocks are light pink with speckles. Dont let the white speckles freak u out thinking the corraline is dying. By the way I have a power compact 36w half white half actinic. One thing I do religously though is change my water weekly. I have a 12 gallen and change 2 1/2 gallons every week. I use Instant Ocean for salt mix, not even Salt Crystals. Dont beleive any of the hype out there, forget all the dosing products(assuming u have soft corals). But make sure u use reverse osmosis water. I've never used tap water. So rellaaaxxxx,

[ReefMonkeee]

maybe your clean up crew is eatting them? get your water tested maybe?

[agent1923]

by the way, here is a hint when mixing your salt water, put the water in the bucket first and then add the salt. If you do the reverse it apperently depletes the calcium in the salt. Who know if it is true, but just go with it......... I use 1 1/2 cup of salt per 2 1/2 gallons of water which yileds 1.022 sg.

[Enrique]

Agent1923- Hmmm, that sound very reassuring....are you sure? Well if you are okay, i'll try to simmer down on my worries. In a way youre actually right, the coraline under my rocks are more intense than the coraline on top. And yes I did notice some or many white specs that look like mini crescent or small round stuff which I though were some kind of growths of some kind. I use RO only.

 

ReefMonkeee- Yeah i've been wanting to have my LFS check my water but i've been very hesitant.....they're a bit obnoxious in some ways. Soon though when the tide goes down. I'm still trying to get used to them.

[scd]

I wouldn't worry too much. Coraline is a living thing and hence if it is not acclimated properly can be shocked and die. I assume that is what happened in your case...

 

Just as an aside, I personally look for rock that has little to no coraline growth... I also don't add extra calcium to my tank that could spark excess coraline growth (among other reasons). Basically, if a rock gets covered in coraline, the water is prevented from getting inside, and the filtrational capability of the live rock is severly limited (much less surface processing area (imagine putting plastic wrap on a sponge). So, on the bright side, this incident may set you tank off to a better start! : )

[Enrique]

Okay, sounds good to me....I guess I was worrying too much. I wonder how worried i'd be once I start adding corals...but I thought prime pieces of live rocks are supposed to be covered with coraline? So which is which? And how long would it take for my coraline to return to is former state...provided that they are good or bad?

[scd]

Coraline grows at differnt rates depending on the tank... So it would be impossible to say how long it would tank to come. It does grow slow however.

 

Coraline looks good and adds color, usually the only color, to a new tank. Without it a new tank would look pretty bland... On the other hand, it smothers the live rock as it grows, meaning a tanks ability to process ammonia, nitrate and nitrite is reduced which can lead to problem algae, etc... down the line. Also, when your tank is stocked with corals, after some time of course, you really don't see much of the coraline anymore.

 

So, like most things, coraline has it's good and bad sides. Personally, I think it is almost exclusivly desired by new reefers for decorative purposes. I never hear people with established tanks talking about their coraline. But if the tanks didn't look good ASAP who would want to keep them? And a nice piece of coraline covered liverock looks great!

[Enrique]

Lol!!! Yup I am a new reefer no doubt about that. Though I am close to adding corals, I just dont know when would be a good time to add corals...I thought I would last month but I didnt. Maybe this month. So the bottom line is I shouldnt worry about the coraline and just focus on keeping my livestock alive and happy....and add corals. Wait I reread something you mentioned, "On the other hand, it smothers the live rock as it grows, meaning a tanks ability to process ammonia, nitrate and nitrite is reduced which can lead to problem algae, etc..." I do have algae growing where there used to be coraline,my ammonia has always been zero and so has my nitrites, ever since I started my tank. I have had no ammonia spikes ever....or am I just being paranoid again? Oh never mind. Thanks for the info.

[scd]

Algae is normal and unavoidable. If there was none your snails would starve to death. It's a major bloom you need to avoid.

 

The tests reading 0 and algae growing is normal also. Basically the algae is uptaking the bad stuff in the water.

 

Some corals are very hardy... Mushrooms for example. When you think the tank is ready you can start with one of those. Remember to acclimate well! I would do at least an hour.

[Enrique]

SCD, I really appreciate the info that youre sharing, but I have a question, being new to nano reefing, how would I know if its the right time to add corals? I've read 3 books as a reference and so far it says it'll take something like 4 to 6 weeks before the tank would be considered established. And yet I've seen some posts with tanks that have been running less than that with corals and livestock full to the brim. It totally contradicts what i've read. Could you me some of your insights on this. And is it okay to add a small brittle star to my tank? I saw this fancy serpent brittle star and the color looks really nice (and cheap). Though it is nocturnal, i'm sure i'll see it any other way. And its supposed to stir up the substrate and eat detritus right? I bought a cerith snail to do that but it keeps going up the glass.

[scd]

To be honest, I have not cycled a tank since 1999, so I would not be the best person to get advice on that. And at that time 4+ weeks was the norm. I didn't see any people risking going with shorter times... However livestock was more expensive then so a mistake would be costly. I would advise taking it slow. You'll be happier if you have few casulties! Do a search on the site for people who have done their cycles more recently.

 

Don't add a brittle star yet. They are very sensitive! Particularly to salinity changes. I would wait until your tank is established and running smoothly for months. Also, a new tank will have virtually no food for them. They are relatively big animals (for a nano) and you will need to feed it a lot. This amount of food could lead to problems in a tank that is just trying to get established (algae!).

 

Personally... I would say leave the brittle star out. However, I also really like brittle stars! But I would not add a large brittle star to my tank. My solution was to get mini brittle stars. They grow to a max of about 1.5 inches from tip to tip. These breed in our tanks so I have a whole crew of them now cleaning up my detritus. (see IPSF.com or Inlandaquatics.com if you are interested in purchasing them). Mine are red and white striped, however I typically see them as solid white.

 

Ceriths snails eat algae so expect them to be on the glass a lot. If you want snails that will stay in the sand, try a couple nassarius. Get Nass vibex, if you have a choice as they stay very small so are better for a nano.

[Enrique]

Thanks for the info on brittle stars, i'll check out the site you mentioned. Sounds good to me!!! No wonder my cerith never stayed on the sand, but its a good thing I decided to test it out first and therefore bought only 1. As for cycling, well I did opt to cycle my tank for 6 weeks before adding any livestock and the wierd thing is I didnt have any algae blooms, that happened when I added livestock a little over 2 weeks ago. Would it be I added the livestock still too soon?

[scd]

No, I wouldn't say that. Animals give off waste... When this waste breaks down it feeds the algae. Sounds like your tank is progressing naturally.