Coraline...

[Anonymous]

How come I dont have purple, red, orange coraline growth?? All I have is green. There is plenty of colors on my rock but on my plumbing, overflow, and back glass all the coraline growth I have is green. How come??

 

[vair]

Do you use a UV light? What are your calcium and magnesium readings?

Dave

 

[AnotherGoldenTeapot]

Different species of coraline require different amounts of light.

In my tank the green coralines grow in the brightly lit areas. The purples and reds seem to prefer more shady areas.

 

[jandree22]

i have orange that only grow on the underside of rocks.

maybe get one premium show piece with a lot of different coralines to seed your current rock.

 

[EB847]

MY FIJI GREW GREEN ALL OVER IT. I WAS TOLD THAT IT WOULD TURN PURPLE AFTER SEVERAL MONTHS. IT HAS BEEN 4 MO. AND THERE IS A SMALL (PEA SIZE) AREA OF PINK THAT IS SLOWLY GROWING. IT IS A SLOW PROCESS, ALTHOUGH, MY TANK MAY BE MISSING SOMETHING ESSENTIAL FOR RAPID GROWTH.

 

[jandree22]

IT IS A SLOW PROCESS, ALTHOUGH, MY TANK MAY BE MISSING SOMETHING ESSENTIAL FOR RAPID GROWTH.

EB, I read somewhere on this board where someone suggested that by scratching coralline algae with your fingernail kinda helps it spread and seed other areas of rock. No clue if it works, but can't hurt to try. :wink:

 

[tangir1]

Every tank is different when it comes to coralline algae. Heck! it is different for the same tank at different type. There is not much controll you can have over the color.

FWIW, I have a BIRGHT PINK coralline in a totally neglected tank (no circulation, no skimmer, no heater, no electric light), but it just won't live in my regular display tank...

 

[EB847]

I HAVE HEARD THE SAME. RUB WITH TOOTHBRUSH TO RELEASE SPORES, ETC. I AM EXPERIMENTING BY DOING THE SCRAPE THING WITH A ROCK IN MY FUGE. SOUNDS VALID.

 

[pcragg]

How long has your tank been up?

IME, the coralline doesn't spread until the tank has been established a while.

 

[EB847]

IT HAS BEEN UP SINCE NOVEMBER, HOWEVER, TRANSFERRED TO ANOTHER TANK AND RECYCLED IN THE BEGINNING OF JAN. I HAVE EXCELLENT GROWTH ON BULKHEAD, BUT NOT SURE ABOUT LR.

 

[psiico]

In my tank I mixed liverock, dead base rock and homemade aragocrete (aragonite sand and white portland cement) in approximately equal ratios. Red started to sprout first on the base rock, nothing on the aragocrete at that time. Then green started and quickly overran the red. About this time the red started appearing on the aragocrete. Purple is starting to spread on the live rock, growing and new patches appearing and it's showing up on snails and hermit shells but still no purple on the base rock or aragocrete. The tank has been up for about 3 months, has 40watts NO light. Just pointing out that different corallines grow at different rates. The live rock with new growth, the growth is over green patches, so you may yet see purple pop up in time.

 

[ScottbytheSea]

Question,

Is it seeded with the color your looking for..........It has to be introduced in if it isn't already......Water prams must be favorable.........

I WASTED TIME WHEN FIRST STARTING OUT BY not having test kits that worked up to specs you need for this hobbie(sailferts from now on).

Once I got the water right it exploded exponentailly...Oh and the tooth brush on an established rock is highly recomended from me............turn the skimmer off for awhile or you will lose the lot in the cup......

Hope this helps

ScottbytheSea

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks it helps a good amount. My tank should have been seeded with kinds of coraline. The rocks have all different colors on them. I do see a bit of purple but not on overflows and other places like I see the green. I see it on snail shells and little by little on the rocks. I guess the green just loves the light. I will however turn off the skimmer once in a while and I already do the tooth brush thing but not to help it spread more to get rid of nuisance algae. Thanks for you help

Ohh and the tank has been set up for over a year now.

 

[J.Howard]

I don't know if this helps but IPSF has coraline seeding pegs you can order and throw in. I think they are about 3" long or so. I have some growth in a re-started used system I bought and have been considering using these to get it going faster.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't know if this helps but IPSF has coraline seeding pegs you can order and throw in. I think they are about 3" long or so. I have some growth in a re-started used system I bought and have been considering using these to get it going faster.

They are just peg covered wtih it. Same effect you get with live rock.

 

[J.Howard]

That's what I figured too. I've got too much live rock already and the stuff at most LFS by me doesn' t look much better than what I've got. Kinda liked the idea at first, but now... Know anybody who has tried them?

 

[Anonymous]

Nope

 

[J.Howard]

I noticed the other day the existing coraline in my tank have started to show that tell tale white fringe of new growth. Then I heard the voice...Patience Grasshopper, when you can walk on the rice paper without leaving a trace....