Bleaced Coraline

[Nemo2007]

I just set up my new 72 Gallon Oceanic with 432 Watts of T5 lighting. Almost all of the coraline algae which had already significantly faded while being cured in a holding tank has bleached. The orange coraline was the first to go followed by the lime green. Some of the purple has remained. Should I expect the a full recovery in time? Were the new lights too bright, too soon? I used only the actinic lights for the first 35 hours or so because the only previous lighting came from the flourescent lighting in the kitchen. My wife is still looking as me sideways from keeping the curing tank in there so long.
In addition, I have noticed brown algae for the past two days after adding Strontium, Magnesium, Iodine, and Kalkwasser (dripped in over night) supplements. I imagine its a diatom bloom. I brushed it off of a lor of thr rock as it was easily removed, but it looks todayh like it was just redistributed for the most part. Should I be concerned. I know diatome are part of the normal zooplankton, but I really don't want to end up with a system out of balance leading to the dreaded red slime and hair algae blooms. Any input would be appreciated.

 

[Anonymous]

Are you testing for strontium, magnesium, and iodine?
It's not advised to dose anything to a tank unless you are testing for it and are correcting a known deficiency.

Its common for coraline to die off when introduced to a new tank. I wouldn't worry about that. If your calcium and alkalinity levels are in line then the coraline will recover in no time. And the algae blooms are just part of setting up a new tank. You just need to be patient and ride them out, but they aren't anything to worry about in a new tank.

Patience is a virtue.

 

[mr_X]

yeap....stop dosing your tank, do some water changes to remove the abundance of minerals, and wait.
i have purchased rock many times because of the colors on it. now i purchase rock because of the shape, and density. the colors you buy it with usually aren't the ones you end up with. but it will color up nicely, none the less. :wink:

 

[cindre2000]

Also, you may have a difficult time growing coraline algae on the top sides of your rocks. Coraline algae actually likes dimmer light than some people think. However, you can just cover the tops of your rocks with light loving coral (be really careful not to bleach them).

The easiest way to prevent cyno and hair is to have plenty of flow and good nutrient export. It also helps if you don't introduce a whole bunch of nutrients all at once (aka fish).

 

[Nemo2007]

Alright, I'm going to stop adding supplements except for kalkwasser. All of your points have been made manifest, today the diamtoms looked like a mega bloom and I saw what looked like green hair algae sprouts. My wife is laughing at me. I'm going to run the protein skimmer a little wetter to help remove excess nutrients and change the 25 micron sock more often along with water changes.

By the way, I read somewhere that some species of coraline algae prefer less well lit areas of the tank while others thrive in bright light. Apparently they are not homogenous in their preferences.

Water movement is maintained by a Koralia 4 (1200 G/Hr), a Seio 620 (620 G/Hr) and a Quiet One 3000 (780 G/Hr @ 0')- not as quiet as advertised, might be something wrong with it. Anyway, I'm thinking about replacing the Seio with another Koralia 4. There are two Maxijet 900's on standby to be used with a Current Sea wavemaker. I'm thinking that should be sufficient flow.

 

[mr_X]

why do you need to dose kalkwasser? do you have sps?

 

[aquarius77]

I drip Kalkwasser into my softie tank 24/7 There is 1 lps in the tank. I dripped and tested to find out how much the tank was using and then set my drip accordingly. It makes up for about half of my evap, but not all.
You dont have to have SPS to use Kalkwasser to keep your calcium and alk in check. It is a balanced supplement that makes my life much easier.

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[mr_X]

i was under then impression we were talking about a brand new tank. "i just set up my new 72 gallon oceanic" threw me off.

 

[Nemo2007]

Sorry, I didn't get a chance to check thr forum for a while due to work load. However, I am dosing kalkwasser only in the top off water to replace that which evaporates. I was under the impression that coralline algae benefits from this. In addition, it is the only method I use to maintain alkalinity which the coralline need. It also should help with protein skimmer efficiency. By the way, I went with one of the Euroreef models, the RS80. What can I say, they're catchy advertising caught my eye. It appears very efficient though I have to tweek it more than I thought as the water level in the sump varies.
The diatoms have already mostly disappeared . The hair algae is also starting to subside.
I'm not sure how this scenario is going to play out when I add more new rock next week. I'm due for a few large pieces of Marshall Island rock.

 

[mr_X]

you don't need to dose kalk to grow coralline. it will grow in an alarming rate with water changes alone. save the kalk for when you get some corals.
i don't ever have to "maintain alkalinity", with anything other than regular water changes. why are you having trouble with it? what salt mix are you using? euro-reef makes great skimmers. they are just too pricey for me. i tend to lean towards their cheaper cousins (ASM) :wink:

 

[Nemo2007]

If I ever feel my tank is stable enough for sps it will be probably 6 months down the line. I think, I'm pretty good with keeping the fish alive but I don't know enough about sps or lps to think about adding them now. I do mushrooms well but even they will have to wait for probably 2 months of cycling. By the way, those are great pictures from the softie tank.

 

[Nemo2007]

Man that was a quick response. Well, the folk that sell the rock also suggested supplements but in hind sight they probably are just trying to offload their goods. How often should I do water changes for the new tank? I have been aiming for about once a week, though the first one was probably a little over a week. With the first tank, the manager at PETCo in Philly told me to wait 2 months in order for the bacteria to replicate. I have since decided that ideas like his are probably how I ended up with 3 inch long hair algae.

 

[Nemo2007]

I left my large bucket of Oceanic salt in Atlanta. I have been buying my water premixed. I get Instant Ocean premixed from the LFS from 79 cent to a $1.29 a gallon dependent on where I go. It gets the job done, though not my favorite mix. The "real" ocean water sold by PETco was a better product but costs a lot more for 5 gallons. However you could add fish right into it in a new tank if you dared. I had done it plenty if times with my quarantine tank without issue. You can't do that with the synthetic mixes very well. It just costs too much for their water on anything more than a small tank and their prices were headed up. I no longer live near a PETco anyway.

 

[mr_X]

if you have live rock in your tank, that is the place with your bacteria in it, not the water. doing a water change won't remove it- alteast i don't think. i always did weekly waterchanges in my tank during cycling, because i didn't want any hitch hikers to die, and it seemed to turn out perfect.

 

[ChrisRD]

Different tanks have different Ca/alk demands and if the kalkwasser use is keeping your numbers in-line and your pH is not getting too high, by all means, use it.

I often use a weak/diluted kalkwasser solution to topoff evap in my FOWLR tanks since it increases coralline growth (+ few other benefits).

 

[Nemo2007]

The numbers have been in line thus far. I just took water samples to the LFS to make sure my tests are accurate. Thanks for the input.