Coralline algae in a bottle? Does it work?

[CC13]

Who said that?

Post #5 - "Could you scrape up enough to get full coverage of 100lb rock in 4 months? Doubtful."

I have a large tank. Started with dead rock. My tank was full of Coraline in 5-6 months. Added 1 LR and a couple sail shells with Coraline and placed them in a high flow area.

 

[PerplexyHexy]

Post #5 - "Could you scrape up enough to get full coverage of 100lb rock in 4 months? Doubtful."

I have a large tank. Started with dead rock. My tank was full of Coraline in 5-6 months. Added 1 LR and a couple sail shells with Coraline and placed them in a high flow area.

Plenty of ways to get coralline algae growth... Ive heard many methods... Anyway, back to the OP... The coralline in a bottle from ARC worked for me. I would suggest it to anyone... people still call me crazy though... I just followed the instructions... temp, light, and parameters are extremely important in the beginning phase of the seeding... BOOM... I sense its gonna be a big problem here in a few more months!!!

 

[Undertaker]

I would buy anything from this company. They are crooks. Bought his “premium “ aquaculture rock that was crap. I’d hate to see what their regular rock is like.

 

[PerplexyHexy]

I would buy anything from this company. They are crooks. Bought his “premium “ aquaculture rock that was crap. I’d hate to see what their regular rock is like.

Should start your own post then... has nothing to do with what were discussing

 

[Reefbuds]

Put a piece of purple live rock in and dose purple tech. Easy
Altho this does not answer OP question. Sorry for off topic

 

[Undertaker]

I already have just don’t want anyone to get ripped off. This hobby is to expensive to get screwed. Just looking out for fellow reefers.

 

[Undertaker]

Should start your own post then... has nothing to do with what were discussing

I already have just don’t want anyone to get ripped off. This hobby is to expensive to get screwed. Just looking out for fellow reefers.

 

[User]

Post #5 - "Could you scrape up enough to get full coverage of 100lb rock in 4 months? Doubtful."

I have a large tank. Started with dead rock. My tank was full of Coraline in 5-6 months. Added 1 LR and a couple sail shells with Coraline and placed them in a high flow area.

Thanks. 5-6 months> than 4 months.

 

[User]

Post #5 - "Could you scrape up enough to get full coverage of 100lb rock in 4 months? Doubtful."

I have a large tank. Started with dead rock. My tank was full of Coraline in 5-6 months. Added 1 LR and a couple sail shells with Coraline and placed them in a high flow area.

That’s not what I said though, but ok.

What if you QT your inverts, like I do?

And don’t dose the tank because it’s a snail and hermit QT tank. I have a 40w incandescent light I use for them- because anything more is a waste. I have 120 snails and 18 hermits that came out of QT 3 days ago. Not one of them has any coralline algae growth on the shell. One guy does have a cool hair algae Mohawk- guess it likes the 5k bulb. I let him go in because I’m putting a foxface in the DT in 4 weeks and my system is running too clean right now for it to spontaneously generate.

You literally couldn’t pay me enough to pluck a snail shell out of someone else’s tank and use it directly to seed mine, without QT first. But I’ll happily spend $45 on two bottles ACR coralline knowing I’m not about to nuke my tank with some pathogen, and with proven, repeatable, 100% coverage in 3-4 months.

 

[User]

Who said that?

He misinterpreted my stance on the subject in the 5th post

 

[Reefbuds]

That’s not what I said though, but ok.

What if you QT your inverts, like I do?

And don’t dose the tank because it’s a snail and hermit QT tank. I have a 40w incandescent light I use for them- because anything more is a waste. I have 120 snails and 18 hermits that came out of QT 3 days ago. Not one of them has any coralline algae growth on the shell. One guy does have a cool hair algae Mohawk- guess it likes the 5k bulb. I let him go in because I’m putting a foxface in the DT in 4 weeks and my system is running too clean right now for it to spontaneously generate.

You literally couldn’t pay me enough to pluck a snail shell out of someone else’s tank and use it directly to seed mine, without QT first. But I’ll happily spend $45 on two bottles ACR coralline knowing I’m not about to nuke my tank with some pathogen, and with proven, repeatable, 100% coverage in 3-4 months.

.... you could definitely pay me enough. Any takers!?!

 

[User]

It worked for me... I got 2 bottles of purple and one bottle of pink for my xl425... If you follow the instructions, which clearly states that is important for product to work, in 2-3 months you will get a coralline explosion... my tank has been running for a little over 3 months and over 75% of my rock is covered in coralline... I started with 175 lbs of Billys dry reef rock... Its all over my overflow and on the rubble rock and return lines in my refugium... I 100% would say this product worked in my case and would purchase again... ill get some updated pictures today in some good lighting... problem is people are impatient and think this stuff works in a matter of moments and stare at their tanks like its acfually gonna grow in fromt of you... clearly states on bottle takes several weeks, in most cases months at the right temperature, spectrum, and water quality... I used 0 live rock... all dry rock

These pictures were taken at the end of october... My tank officially started running August 3rd... I will get some clearer pictures today... I aint no rep either... I just bought the stuff on Amazon and used it as it said to...
I have it included in my build thread

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dustin’s-sobering-sunshine-build.407109/
Pictures taken just now;

Tanks been up close to 4 months...

Awesome.

Are you noticing if either strain is out competing the other, or is it staying with the 2 purple: 1pink ratio?

I was planning a 1:1 mix for my brs reefsaver based 180

 

[User]

....

Is there a question in there? Or an edit?

 

[Reefbuds]

Edit

Is there a question in there? Or an edit?

 

[PerplexyHexy]

Awesome.

Are you noticing if either strain is out competing the other, or is it staying with the 2 purple: 1pink ratio?

I was planning a 1:1 mix for my brs reefsaver based 180

Purple has taken over... the pink is really gnarly when the uv lights come on... its there just not as much as purple... If i was gonna do it again... Id do two pink and one purple... Im thinking the purple is the most dominant strain though... so Id go light on the purple, but I could be wrong... what happened in my tank could be different in others obviously...
The pink is toward the upper part of my scape... So Im thinking it does better with brighter light exposure

 

[User]

Edit

Friend or foe?

Lol

 

[PerplexyHexy]

I also forgot to mention I was using natural seawater in my tank for the first 2 months... not sure If that is a variable or not... just switched to synthetic in october and started dosing in october as well

 

[LovesDogs_CatsRokay]

Someone on here posted a YouTube video of a guy who made a corraline smoothie by blending up corraline that he scraped off rocks with tank water and some calcium then dumped it in the tank. That’s what worked for me, the bottled stuff did not.

 

[sp1187]

I'm sure mine didn't work because I didn't follow their parameters, which aren't listed upfront.
I contacted them before purchase and advised them I was cycling the tank and was assured that their product would assist in the process.
The product comes with some stone, with coralline growing on it, and they direct you to include that when adding the product. So what is seeding your tank?
Here's the parameters...
Temperature: Between 78-82 degrees It is Important that temperature remains as stable as possible.
My tank is a stable 75-76 and I have no intention of running it higher.

Salinity: 1.026 (Must remain stable, cannot fluctuate more than 0.001 in 24 hours)
My salinity is 1.025, but because I don't use an ATO it does fluctuate to 1.026 over a 24 hour period.

PH: Keep a stable pH level between 8.1-8.3 (always test at the same time of day)
8.3

Calcium: >440mg/L
430

Ammonia: As close to 0 ppm as possible
If you are using it while in cycle, ammonia is no where near close to zero.

Phosphates: < 0.25 ppm
0.1

Nitrate: < 5 ppm
5-10

Alkalinity: Keep a stable KA level of 2.8 meq/L for alkalinity or carbonate hardness (the concentration of carbonate and bicarbonate). Your level can be +/- up to 0.14 meq/L. Having a correct KA level in your tank has a stabilizing effect on your pH

Lighting: Lighting is key. The intensity, or “PAR” level, of your lighting shouldn’t be too high and the duration of your photo period should be somewhat close to the natural duration of the sun. Your aquarium shouldn’t receive full intensity or “noon” lighting for 10 hours because that is not natural and it will bleach out corals and the coralline will not grow. Coralline Algae LOVES Actinic and blue spectrum lighting. In the beginning we advise to lengthen the time that your actinic only lighting stays on by an additional 1-3 hours daily.
Your PAR level shouldn't be too high. What does that even mean?

They post reviews on their site, but have not posted my negative one, but have posted positive ones since.

 

[CC13]

Someone on here posted a YouTube video of a guy who made a corraline smoothie by blending up corraline that he scraped off rocks with tank water and some calcium then dumped it in the tank. That’s what worked for me, the bottled stuff did not.

This is pretty much the only thing I would follow from this thread.