coralline.. leave it or scrape it

bonomo53 · Jan 17, 2012

So since I've started dosing a month ago my tank has exploded with coralline algae its almost covering my whole back and the sides in just a month. so my question is are there any pros and cons of letting it cover the side glass rather then scraping it off. I also herd that if you do scrape you can only scrape small amounts at the time because it realizes calcium back into the water is this true?

SaltWaterDave · Jan 17, 2012

It's really a matter of personal preference as to how you want your tank to look. Some people leave it on the glass while others like to scrape it clean. My tank is covered totally on 3 sides with the front scraped pretty much clean except for a boarder like a picture frame.

JackoChang · Jan 17, 2012

Hiker4twenty said:
It's really a matter of personal preference as to how you want your tank to look. Some people leave it on the glass while others like to scrape it clean.

+1, never heard of it releasing calcium back into the system. Interesting.

SaltWaterDave · Jan 17, 2012

If anything it will help to make the coralline grow more by spreading it around.

badlands25 · Jan 17, 2012

If you scrape it, it will spread like wildfire!

caudill187 · Jan 17, 2012

I leave it on the back as it makes for a nice natural background. I wouldn't worry about it messing with your water....not a problem.

nicodim55 · Jan 17, 2012

I leave the ones in the back alone

Electrobes · Jan 18, 2012

It's totally a preference of mine to scrape all coralline off the walls as I feel it takes away from the corals themselves, especially in a newer tank.

Aquaph8 · Jan 18, 2012

Electrobes said:
It's totally a preference of mine to scrape all coralline off the walls as I feel it takes away from the corals themselves, especially in a newer tank.

I feel the same. OCD? Maybe a little.

swannyson7 · Jan 18, 2012

Electrobes said:
It's totally a preference of mine to scrape all coralline off the walls as I feel it takes away from the corals themselves, especially in a newer tank.

Ditto

Paul_N · Jan 18, 2012

I agree on the personal preference statements above. It won't affect your tank parameters or anyway except aesthetically. I have always had my rocks close or up against the back glass so I would always scrape the front and sides and leave the back alone. If I had a deeper tank from front to back that allowed me to place the rock work in the middle then I would probably scrape the back also.

DaveA · Jan 18, 2012

JackoChang said:
+1, never heard of it releasing calcium back into the system. Interesting.

Sure, it will release some calcium, but that is good for your tank. In fact, if you have any hard corals, you will need to dose calcium - preferably in the form of Kalkwasser. I assume your tank is new, so your pH is probably low. Kalkwasser is also very good for bringing up your pH.

In short, there is no harm in scraping it. Scraping will get the coralline algie to spread faster - hopefully on your rocks, which makes them look nicer.

bonomo53 · Jan 18, 2012

thanks for all the responses.. my tank is almost a year old its manly sps I've been dosing alk and cal everyday with pumps, just didn't wanna nuke my tank by scraping it too quickly

ReeferBean · Jan 18, 2012

Kalkwasser imo does help with the ph swings, but in most medium stocked systems 2 part or other means are necessary as simply added just kalk won't keep up with the demand unless you are doing larger water changes all the time. Its like 1/15th the strength of 2 part... something like that.

As far as the coraline, I'm with most everyone else and I scrape the glass but leave the back alone mainly because I get lazy.