Healthy signs of calcification in the new reef aquarium.

[lmattix]

I have a 75g setup with 120 lb of live rock, a corner overflow, 3 AquaClear 301's for circulation plus the return from a mag 7 in a 20 gal sump with an Aqua C EV-150 skimmer. I have 48" 4x65w PC lighting (2 actinic and 2 daylight). It has been setup since August. Up until Tuesday, I just had 4 damsels, a 4 " colony of star polyps, and about ten ricordea polyps. Yesterday (at the insistence of by 11 year old son) I added two small percula clowns and a medium size bubble tipped anemone. Everything seems health and the corals all fully extend towards the light all day. I have no algae blooms (not for four weeks now). I have a little green algae on the back wall and on the rocks (but the snails and hermits keep it down) and a few bubles of bubble algae. I supplement to maintain my Ca at 420-450, Alk at 4.00 (meg/l), magnesium at 1250-1270, PO4 under 0.03, and, of course no ammonia, nitrates, or nitrites. I use salifiert test kits.

What I don't have is a healthy growth of coraline algae. In fact, from time to time I see deposits of a white powder on the rocks, which I think may be either the coraline algae (already on the rocks when I bought them) deteriorating. Either that or calcium carbonate precipitating out, I don't know.

How long should it take for a new tank to stabilized and develop a good growth of coroline algae. What am I doing wrong?

Larry

 

[SnowManSnow]

Hi Ima,

I've had my tank up, a 37g reef with all the frills, for about a month longer than yours, and I'm still waiting on coraline growth. From what I understand it does take some time to get started, but once it does it should out compete for the nutrients in your tank and spread nicely.

I guess I'd like to know the same thing though.. how long DOES it take?

B.

 

[Anonymous]

I am by no means an expert, but I noticed that in my different systems, the coraline growth took off between 4 and 6 months. It was as if someone flipped on a coraline switch.

 

[Anonymous]

I think that there is a chemical trigger that helps it get started. In my limited experience, people who use tap water tend to see coraline algae (as well as all the other kinds of undesirable algaes unfortunately) very quickly. I had spots at 6 weeks and I have lots of spots now at 8 weeks. I remember reading other articles that also had the same sort of luck with coraline. I have to wonder if there is something missing from the RO/DI water that is not provided until your tank matures and settles in (6-8 months sound right?)

OR

I always try to buy LR that came from an established tank. Therefore I have more coraline to start with?

OR

I am really lucky???

I remember reading on the GARF page about their bullet-proof reef concept that their tanks start seeing coraline very early.

 

[Unarce]

Larry,

:welcome:

Do you have any purple coralline on any of your rocks? If not, you'll want to obtain a piece with healthy coralline on it, perhaps from a fellow reefer or your LFS. Then you'll want to place it in a high flow area of the tank to spread the spores.

Some tanks, it may take up to 6 months, but it certainly helps to start off with coralline to begin with. For example, my .5 pico has been running for a month and already has tiny patches of purple on the back glass.

Good luck. :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Coralline takes a while to establish, but one trick I've had luck with is to (as reefnutz said) get a rock that already has tons, and take a razor blade and carefully flake off some of the coralline into the water column.

Sort of like 'seeding' the rest of the tank.

 

[lmattix]

I do have lots of coraline on many of the LR in my tank but it is not growing. I wil try the shaving idea.

 

[Anonymous]

Good luck, and welcome Imattix!

 

[lmattix]

Thanks Lawdawg.

 

[blastermqn]

The most aggresive growth I've ever seen of corralline in a reef tank was a friends 30gal.

He never dosed with calcium of any sort, but he was fanatical about frequent water changes and using enriched salt mixes. He also didn't use RO, but city tap instead, so the mention above about tap water encouraging corraline growth has some validity.

My friend also had two crappy 24" normal florescents as lighting. Other things of note were he over fed his fish, but never had any nuisance algae, and he had NICE live rock that came with healthy corraline encrusting. The bottom 1/3 of that tank was a solid mass of corralline in less than a year, and it grew extremely fast.

My experience with corraline is that it likes warm lighting (loves 6500k halides), isn't particularly fond of 10K PC's regardless of intensity, likes some nitrates, and likes water movement and either constant water changes or heavy calcium additives. I'm convinced there's some other nutrient stack that encourages it's growth, but I'll be damned if I can find it. It also competes with nuisance algae, because I rarely see tanks with rapid corralline growth and hair algae problems. Plus, when I had my last hair algae problem, I noticed corrallie growth was strongest directly under the areas where I scraped off the hair algae. Can't figure that one out either.

While it grows really strong in my 30 everywhere, it grows the fastest in of all things my filter pipes.

 

[Anonymous]

Ya know I always thought it was a fluke but I used tap on my old 12 gallon to do water changes (not for topoff though) and it had great coralline growth. Maybe there's something in there, who knows...

 

[lmattix]

I don't know about yours but my tap water has a lot of phosphates in it, among other things. Do you think it likes phosphates? What an interesting variety of experiences. Eventually an established tank will get some nitrates too.

 

[Fastmarc]

In my tank, once I got rid of the phosphates, it took off.
I'm told, taking a tooth brush to a rock that has a little will help spead it.

 

[Unarce]

That is interesting. I buy water from those water emporium places for both topping off and mixing. Never really bother to ask how their water is filtered, but I wonder if it also fuels coralline growth. I've got several sheets of coralline overlapping eachother in my sump.

 

[blastermqn]

I've seen corralline go bonkers with both quality RO and basically well water. It just seems tap water is a common denominator in getting it to take off even though your acros will protest.

I don't think it's phosphate either.

Funny thing is that when I switched from my 12K MH to a 6500k MH I had to double my calcium top offs because within a week increased corralline growth was depleting it in my tank at a rate that blew my mind. Once that stuff starts taking off, it sucks calcium out of your water like you wouldn't believe.

 

[Anonymous]

Coralline takes a while to establish, but one trick I've had luck with is to (as reefnutz said) get a rock that already has tons, and take a razor blade and carefully flake off some of the coralline into the water column.

Sort of like 'seeding' the rest of the tank. icon_wink.gif

A toothbrush also works well

 

[ChrisRD]

My experience with corraline is that it likes warm lighting (loves 6500k halides), isn't particularly fond of 10K PC's regardless of intensity...

Funny thing is that when I switched from my 12K MH to a 6500k MH I had to double my calcium top offs because within a week increased corralline growth was depleting it in my tank at a rate that blew my mind.

That's interesting - I've always had better coralline growth under the bluer halide lamps and fluorescent lighting as opposed to the really bright, daylight-type halides. Seems like you've had the opposite experience.

 

[Anonymous]

One local LFS has so much coraline in his tanks, it totally encrusts all rocks. The live rock looks like someone dipped it in purple pain. Over each tank he has 2 URI VHO, one super atinic, one true atinic. He has 5 or 6 tanks plumbed into the same system, all but one of these tanks has great coraline growth. That tank has PC lighting, and looks very "white" compared to his other tanks.

He is also a Kalk dripper, and does frequent water changes (especially when sales are good).

 

[Tackett]

I never really paid much mind to it untill I read this thread, but come to think of it, when I had my little thirty, I had a crapload of nasty hair algae because I used tap water. But I also had coraline algae spread like wildfire under it. STrange no...

 

[Fastmarc]

What this thread seems to suggest to me is that there is no exact science to doing this.
Coralline didn't start developing in my tank until I got my hair algae (and it's source) under control.