Coralline Algae in a Bottle Experiment

[Malifry97]

If you wanted to run a true experiment the frags you added will skew your results. You'll never know if the bottle worked or if spores came in on the frags...

agreed

 

[Scubajunior]

You low nutrients but you don't want NO nutrients or it will never grow. I recommend raising nutrients to 0.10 ppm minimum phosphates and between 1-5 ppm nitrates. Also look into your alkalinity before raising pH.

Yeah I have been trying to raise my nitrates and phosphates. I haven't been able to get them detectable on my test kits. And Alk was 8.7 on my Hanna checker.

If you wanted to run a true experiment the frags you added will skew your results. You'll never know if the bottle worked or if spores came in on the frags...

Yeah I know. They were added about a month after the bottle was added. So it is skewed now, but I couldn't look at an empty tank forever lol.

 

[Dal-Reef]

The purpose of the pebble of coralline algae is to function as an indicator. If the pebble has faded to white, the bottle has expired. The primary inoculation method is the spores in the bottles. It typically takes 6-8 weeks for results. You will need to monitor Ca and Alk

Worked amazing for me. I posted a video on AlageBarn FB page (Kevin Riley) You can share here if you want. I followed the written instructions as stated. I would add you should not be buying from Amazon since they have a shelf life. AlageBarn has fresh bottles.

 

[Adamantium]

I like the aquascape. It all comes down to stable parameters, and time.

 

[living_tribunal]

I used purple helix in a display tank I was going to set up. It completely took over the tank after just one month, I was very pleased.

Day before adding purple helix:

After just one month:

 

[Scubajunior]

I used purple helix in a display tank I was going to set up. It completely took over the tank after just one month, I was very pleased.

Day before adding purple helix:

After just one month:

That's great to see! Nice to see it must work for some people. Guess my parameters aren't ideal enough yet.

 

[living_tribunal]

That's great to see! Nice to see it must work for some people. Guess my parameters aren't ideal enough yet.

Just a disclosure, I upgraded before I even decided to put fish in this thing. So I just sat there ghost feeding the tank for the month to see what would happen. My guess is nitrates and phosphates were being absorbed like crazy by the coralline.

 

[Dal-Reef]

This tank is around 97 days old. I used Coralline Algae in bottle for AlageBarn. I used dry rock as you can see in the pic. I followed the written instruction that came with alage to the letter. I also maintained the big three, Cal, Alk & Mag. I ran the lights more on the blue side and not very intense. Watch the video. It worked for me.

 

[@phokusonmi]

So I haven't found an definitive answer on rather Coralline Algae in a Bottle works as intended. Seems split. I have seen videos and pictures saying it works so I thought I'd have my own "experiment" to see if it worked for me. I just started a new tank with reef saver rock. Everything is new inside of the tank, so no coraline at all. I have no snails with coralline either. My parameters are at the required measurements for optimal growth according to their sheet. I followed directions perfectly. I will keep this updated with new pictures as signs of coraline growth begin.


Start of test

I tried it twice on two separate tanks. Didn't work the first time. Second time it showed up after about 2.5 months

 

[Scubajunior]

This tank is around 97 days old. I used Coralline Algae in bottle for AlageBarn. I used dry rock as you can see in the pic. I followed the written instruction that came with alage to the letter. I also maintained the big three, Cal, Alk & Mag. I ran the lights more on the blue side and not very intense. Watch the video. It worked for me.

Thanks for the video. Cool aquascape by the way.

I tried it twice on two separate tanks. Didn't work the first time. Second time it showed up after about 2.5 months

I guess I need a second tank.

 

[Dal-Reef]

Thanks for the video. Cool aquascape by the way.

I guess I need a second tank.

Thanks for the aquascape comment.. Never have too many tanks... right....

 

[sfboarders]

Any updates? Were you able to grow coralline?

 

[Phyber]

FWIW, I never got corraline in my first tank, however now that my new tank gets dosed alk and Cal daily, it's taking off. Heard the corraline bottles are just doing the same thing?

 

[ReefRy]

It did in my 75g after 8 weeks. I used 2 bottles, one pink and one purple. After a month I did add snails that were encrusted with coraline, but imo the source was the spores in the bottles. After 14 weeks I have spots everywhere. I will absolutely seed my next tank with this product.

 

[Scubajunior]

Any updates? Were you able to grow coralline?

Nothing's for me yet. All my parameters have been spot-on. Ph is 7.9 though. I had low phos and nitrates but I have been dosing those. I have coralline on frag plugs and snails but nothing else. I have no idea if it really works since half of the people say it worked for them and the other half say it didn't. It's also hard to tell because it could be several factors that made it not work for me. All I know is I just don't want my white rock anymore lol

 

[Dal-Reef]

Nothing's for me yet. All my parameters have been spot-on. Ph is 7.9 though. I had low phos and nitrates but I have been dosing those. I have coralline on frag plugs and snails but nothing else. I have no idea if it really works since half of the people say it worked for them and the other half say it didn't. It's also hard to tell because it could be several factors that made it not work for me. All I know is I just don't want my white rock anymore lol

Got tons of coralline growth all over the tank. I really don't worry about the PH but worry more about alkalinity and calcium. I am dosing with Red Sea Calcium + since it also contains strontium which helps with coralline growth. The tank is 5 months 2 days old today.. For the first 4 months I did not run a lot of white lights and mainly ran my Kissel's 360x at max of 75% intensity and max white of 15%. Coralline likes the blue lights. Now I am running much whiter lights now that the coralline growth is good. Here is a latest pic. The pic with no lights also show the green coralline growing. Also check out my build thread lots of stuff in there

Top down really show the coralline growing

No lights

 

[frank10]

I added this back in November. I'm not having the success that some of you are having. I'm wondering if I should try again or wait things out.

 

[Dal-Reef]

I added this back in November. I'm not having the success that some of you are having. I'm wondering if I should try again or wait things out.

Are you maintaining your ALK and CAL(needs to be stable), not running your lights very intense? Also we are in middle of winter so a lot of guys tanks run cooler you want to run the tank little warmer around 78. Were did you get the bottles? Tthey need to be keep refrigerated and have a shelf life. Would not hurt to throw in another bottle. Here is the latest pic tank is 5 1/2 months old

 

[piranhaman00]

The pink stuff worked for me, took about 3 months.

 

[frank10]

yes, stable.

The bottles were from ARCreef

I have a couple spots that appear to be coralline, but they aren't spreading