Coraline & Others

[dankolle]

Hello all...I have recently become a "born again" salt water tanker. After losing my sting ray I decided to take a new approach and do this thing right from now on.

I am curious about coraline growth. I haven't really had a whole lot of it but I do some maybe 20% of my rock covered. The rest os covered in a much darker purple and some of it isn't covered except by some dark dark gray stuff.

I have recently achieved 5ppm - 0ppm (depending on the angle of the tube) nitrates, ph is 8.4, ammonia is 0 and nitrites are 0. My calcium is 450ppm and my light is 2x 175watt metal halide 15000k (i think) spectrum. What else can I do to encourage coraline growth?

Also, does anyone know of a cleaner fish that will eat the dary gray crap off the rocks? It's definately algea and not ditrius.

 

[BL1]

Take one of the rocks with coraline on it and scrape it off, that should help it spread

 

[crazy cajun]

+1 Brian
i had plenty coraline growth on all my rocks, and i bought a few small frags i wanted to mount on some pieces of rock so i took a peice out of my refugium that had coraline on it and i needed 3 smaller rocks so i took a hammer and chissle and broke the big rock into 3 smaller pieces so i can mount my frags on so they can grow as a colony on a nice size rock after i put all three rocks back in my tank with the frags mouted to them within one week i saw plenty of coraline all over my powerheads and the overflow i guess what im saying is if you scrape a coraline encrusted rock or break some loose it will travel through the water and spread very quickly.:twocents:

 

[dankolle]

I will give that a try! Thanks for the pointers

 

[Chris_150G]

Magnesium is also important for coraline because it affects the Calcium uptake. You should get Mg from regular water changes. There are Mg test kits and Clacium/Mg additives like Purple Up you can get if you want to be proactive. It is said that Urchins help it to spread by chewing on your rocks. If you have a skimmer you might want to shut it off for an hour or two, after brushing the coraline to help it spread.

 

[dankolle]

I used to use purple up but because my tank was so out of wack I don't think it helped any. I was thinking about using it again but I don't want to over dose my tank. I'll consider a magnesium test kit the next time I order supplies

 

[daugherty]

purple up is just calcium and crushed fine aragonite sand

 

[ccCapt]

+1 daugherty
PurpleUp is a waste of money. It's nothing more than a weak calcium chloride solution with ground up aragonite.

Just keep your calcium (380-450), alk (7-9 dKH) and mag (1200-1400) parameters in line and the coralline will grow. Have you tested for phosphate? Phosphate will inhibit calcification...which is the growth of coralline.

 

[dankolle]

I only have a test kit for calcium, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph...should I add those others to my essentials kits?

 

[ccCapt]

IMO, yes. It's always good to know where your tanks parameters are running.

 

[sen5241b]

People underestimate the importance of alk for coralline. Coralline will suck Alk (or carbonates) out of the water. Monitor alk carefully if you want coralline growth.

 

[Sunshine]

Is it true that if you have an abundance of Coraline that something is out of whack ?

 

[Bifferwine]

I don't think you have an abundance of coralline at all. Coralline tends to grow on plastic things first -- like your powerheads and overflow. It's barely on your glass at all. Do you clean the back glass (next to the overflow)? I would not say that your tank has an abundance of coralline. Coralline does use the same things that coral skeletons need, mainly alk, calcium and magnesium.

This is an overabundance of coralline (my old 240!).

 

[Sunshine]

GOOD GRIEF !!!!! That IS an abundance .... lol I was just wondering cause someone saw this same pic and said something was out of whack because I had so much. No, I don't clean my glass. Well, I clean the front glass with a mag float. That's it. I feel better now .... Thanks Biff

 

[daugherty]

who ever told you that is full of crap from their feet to their ears. lots of coraline does not mean your system is outa wack