Coralline algae and nitrfyfication

[jeff williams]

looking for coralline algae info. Do you think coralline algae completely covering the rock surfaces in a tank will cause the bacteria in the rock to be useless in denitrifying. A fellow reefer mentioned to me he keeps urchins just for this reason ( urchin eats coralline)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Not usually. It covers a very small surface area relative to undersides and inside surface area..

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

FWIW, ammonia does not seem to be a problem in most any established reef tank, so doing things to minimize it may be unnecessary, or even counterproductive since many organisms we keep may like ammonia at low levels to be a source of N.

 

[richiero]

I take Randy’s words as gospel !!! I have a urchin in my take and the rocks have a lot of coralline algae on them with no ill effects . [emoji1]