Getting coralline algae to grow

[maxpare79]

Alright, I had my tank for a year now and still no coralline algae, so today I bought a piece of live rock with some on it...
Do I need to put it in the display tank for it to spread or can I just put the piece of rock in the sump area and it will spread? (the sump area has no light)

Thanks!

 

[kingjames_dc5]

In the sump will be fine. You can also turn off skimmer and pumps scrape a little into the tank display and let it settle in. Either way your just needing to seed the tank it will do the rest In its own.

 

[Cell]

Needs light.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Without light, the existing Coraline will starve out. I would scrape to seed it around the tank before dropping it into a dark sump

 

[waterbox15aio]

Coraline is photosynthetic so should have some light or it will die off over time. I’d put the piece in the display tank at least temporarily, and maybe scrape some spores off and let them float into the water column and hopefully settle on your rock. I’ve also heard actinic light can be beneficial to coraline growth. There are also various products you can buy (with varying degrees of effectiveness), generally boosting the calcium in your water.

 

[WestonNanos]

+1 The algae will die in the sump and spores do not necessarily jump off the rock and travel around in the water column. Scrape it off and place on rock in DT. OR... better yet get a bottle of the purple helix/pink fuison coraline algae, stuff works pretty good. Raising the temp to around 81 degrees is optimal for coraline growth as well. Also to note... white, dry rock will start to turn a neon green color... this is coraline!!! Within the green color you will start to see specs of purple that will grow and cover your rock.

 

[Evo R]

Take some tank water out and place it in a small container. Then using a hard brush (Obviously clean and free from any chemicals, new would be best), vigorously scrap and brush as much of the coralline off as you can in the container and rinse/dip the live rock peace as much as you can into the container until you can see lots of coralline particles floating around in the water of the container. When done, put the LR piece in the sump and then kill all flow in your display tank. Then pour the contents of the container into your display tank and let it settle in for 20 to 30 min. Then turn your flow back on.

Alternatively when you buy CUC members again, you can look for snails and crabs with coralline on them and they too will seed your tank.

 

[kingjames_dc5]

Agreed does need light. I was assuming there would be a light in the sump if placing live rock in there. I used Coraline algae in a bottle from ARCreef.com works like a charm follow directions and can’t fail.

 

[Lavey29]

I agree with the advice given. My tank is 9 months and only recently started with significant coraline growth. This coincided with getting more stabil water parameters and all my nutrients balanced in the right areas. I seeded with that liquid coraline 4 months back now have purple and pink forming everywhere but you have to have water balance first.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Agreed does need light. I was assuming there would be a light in the sump if placing live rock in there. I used Coraline algae in a bottle from ARCreef.com works like a charm follow directions and can’t fail.

This. It's truly lightning in a bottle. I bought both strains, dumped it in back in August and now my Coraline is taking off!