No coralline - what is wrong?

[markus902]

Hi everyone, it’s been a while but we have some movement. I am now drawing outside air into my skimmer, that seems to help with pH, before lights on it is still around 8.1. Now I found some specs on one power head but only there and I hope it spreads soon. Maybe some on the black overflow box but they are too small to tell. By accident I also keep my nitrates above 15 but I guess that would be helping coralline. I added one fish too.

The interesting part is since my last post the coralline on my store night life rock started to disappear. The rock used to be all purple but now has green too. Why could that be? Any thoughts?

 

[James_O]

Looks like green algae has started to grow over the coralline - complete normal too, as it’s happened to me.

 

[Darren in Tacoma]

Not all coralline is purple. Some of it is green. I wouldn't be too concerned about it. If you have specks showing up then that is a positive. Keep your water parameters steady and let it go.

 

[Harold999]

Coralline Algae, What Is It And How To Grow It | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

Coralline Algae is a vey important part of the reef and can be desirable in the home aquarium as well. In nature, coralline algae grows in lots of different ways but for our home aquariums we are…

reefbuilders.com

 

[Reeferram]

Hi everybody,

I am into my second year of reefing and have still no coralline growth. Here my story: I started out with a 4 gallon pico (dry rock and life sand) cube which I cycled and that was the only time I had 2 or 3 purple spots show up on the rocks then I had a diatom bloom. The purple spots disappeared after a couple weeks. Once that was established, the diatoms were gone and I got some green algae (green coralline???) that have a teal or blue color under actinic light and added some coral, the some mushrooms did well and a candy cane had slow growth. I didn't do any testing at that time but the SPS test frags obviously died. I didn't have fish, so it was most likely PO4 starvation.

After 6 months I took the same rock and added a little new rock into a 20 gal and went bare bottom. I got testing equipment and am in much better shape now. Parameters are stable but I still don't have any coralline. I got a monti cap to grow well now and tried a green slimer as a starter acro, which looks good so far. Still no fish, but I dose KNO3 and PO4 and feed the LPS 3 times a week. Here my parameters.

Ca 410 to 440
Alk 9.5
Mg 1350
Temp 78
PO4 12 to 35 ppb (Hanna ULR)
NO3 around 5
pH 7.8
Light 2x Kessil A80

Does anybody have suggestions what I could do to get coralline going? Please don't say seeding, I already scrubbed snails and got 2 rocks covered in coralline. Those coralline only bleached a little when I put them in, but now they are recovered and evenly purple. They just won't spread.

Thank you.

I have a 40 breeder doing amazing growing everything in it. I also have a 29 that is stagnant coral wise but growing coralline all over rocks and glass....i dont get it either.

 

[Dan_P]

Hi everybody,

I am into my second year of reefing and have still no coralline growth. Here my story: I started out with a 4 gallon pico (dry rock and life sand) cube which I cycled and that was the only time I had 2 or 3 purple spots show up on the rocks then I had a diatom bloom. The purple spots disappeared after a couple weeks. Once that was established, the diatoms were gone and I got some green algae (green coralline???) that have a teal or blue color under actinic light and added some coral, the some mushrooms did well and a candy cane had slow growth. I didn't do any testing at that time but the SPS test frags obviously died. I didn't have fish, so it was most likely PO4 starvation.

After 6 months I took the same rock and added a little new rock into a 20 gal and went bare bottom. I got testing equipment and am in much better shape now. Parameters are stable but I still don't have any coralline. I got a monti cap to grow well now and tried a green slimer as a starter acro, which looks good so far. Still no fish, but I dose KNO3 and PO4 and feed the LPS 3 times a week. Here my parameters.

Ca 410 to 440
Alk 9.5
Mg 1350
Temp 78
PO4 12 to 35 ppb (Hanna ULR)
NO3 around 5
pH 7.8
Light 2x Kessil A80

Does anybody have suggestions what I could do to get coralline going? Please don't say seeding, I already scrubbed snails and got 2 rocks covered in coralline. Those coralline only bleached a little when I put them in, but now they are recovered and evenly purple. They just won't spread.

Thank you.

Are you dosing trace elements?

Coralline in my system barely grew if at all for years. I then started dosing Chaeto Gro to help my Ulva which went from wild growth to dying. Ulva is fine now and coralline growth went wild. Just a thought.

 

[markus902]

Are you dosing trace elements?

Coralline in my system barely grew if at all for years. I then started dosing Chaeto Gro to help my Ulva which went from wild growth to dying. Ulva is fine now and coralline growth went wild. Just a thought.

I don’t , I do 10% waterchange per week. I think that should take care of trace elements.

 

[Dan_P]

I don’t , I do 10% waterchange per week. I think that should take care of trace elements.

Depending on what is growing in your system, a 10% water change may not replace depleted trace elements.

 

[Harold999]

I don’t , I do 10% waterchange per week. I think that should take care of trace elements.

In the reefbuilders link i posted earlier they mention the most important trace elements for coralline growth, test for those. Maybe your salt lacks one or more of them.

 

[markus902]

In the reefbuilders link i posted earlier they mention the most important trace elements for coralline growth, test for those. Maybe your salt lacks one or more of them.

Hmm, not sure about that, from what I hear trace element tests are not very accurate, and there are plenty of people who don’t give trace, I’ll wait a little longer and see if it takes off. If not I could resort to that. I’ll keep you updated.

 

[Dan_P]

Hmm, not sure about that, from what I hear trace element tests are not very accurate, and there are plenty of people who don’t give trace, I’ll wait a little longer and see if it takes off. If not I could resort to that. I’ll keep you updated.

I agree with both observations. The accuracy of the ICP test of trace elements is questionable.

The second observation might be reasonable but look at it more carefully. We don’t know what those aquarists with coralline growth are actually doing to their systems nor know the depletion rate of trace elements of their system.

Be skeptical with an open mind

Dan

 

[Paul B]

My tank after 50 years still doesn't have any coraline. I am hoping after 51 years something will happen. I must be doing something wrong. ;Bucktooth

 

[Harold999]

My tank after 50 years still doesn't have any coraline. I am hoping after 51 years something will happen. I must be doing something wrong. ;Bucktooth

So did they sell that precolored purple rock already then?

 

[Paul B]

Yes, actually they did. I used to have a bunch of coraline, it disappeared years ago.

 

[markus902]

Are you dosing trace elements?

Coralline in my system barely grew if at all for years. I then started dosing Chaeto Gro to help my Ulva which went from wild growth to dying. Ulva is fine now and coralline growth went wild. Just a thought.

How do you know how much to dose?

 

[Lavey29]

How do you know how much to dose?

I agree with you that water change should replenish trace elements. They don't get used up as quick week to week.

My tank is 6 months and just starting to get a lot of coraline algae. What seems to be the primary factors are nitrate 5 to 10, phosphate. 06 to .1, alk around 8.5 and not to high intensity lighting. My purple coraline developed first on my powerheads which was strange since it's plastic but now I have white specs covering the back wall and rocks with some on the glass also.

Looking at your numbers in your original post are not to bad but bringing the phosphate down below .1 and maybe alk below 9 might help trigger the growth you want.

 

[Miami Reef]

@Paul B

Do you do water changes in your tank?

How do you maintain calcium and alkalinity?

 

[Paul B]

Miami Reef. I do change water about 4 or 5 times a year and collect seawater behind my house in the ocean and I add calcium and alk by hand.

 

[Dan_P]

How do you know how much to dose?

For me it was empirical. I followed the manufacturers recommendation for dosing ChatoGro until I noticed my Mexican turbos stopped eating and moving. I changed to a daily dose once per week. Got lucky. Snails snapped out of their lethargy and started devouring algae again. And the Ulva continued to be healthy, doubling in size every seven days and coralline is covering everything.

Based on my experience with Ulva, it seems not much is needed.

 

[markus902]

It’s been a while and I finally have an update. I have been successful. Got a new Red Sea tank in January. Dosing and everything else the same. Now only 5 percent weekly water change. It took about 5.5 months for the coralline to appear. First the power heads got encrusted after only 3 months. And now the back wall is coming in rapidly.

I don’t think trace elements were the issue. The key for me was stable salinity (now with reservoir and float valve) and keeping phosphate up. Only 0.03 seems to be plenty. I also don’t believe that certain lighting is a problem, I have a kessil a500x, it seems to burn coralline off the top of the rocks but in the shade it grows great. I also never actively seeded with bottled stuff. Only got stuff on livestock from the store.

Another lesson is probably, if you use dry rock, have patience and let it mature. Mine was eating phosphate too. That had to be saturated. Interestingly, looking back I had waves of one species of small critters dominating at all times. First pineapple sponges, the.man yellow sponge, then feather duster worms and spheroid worms, then brittle stars, then limpets. Now I have a good mixture of all of them.

My conclusion now is, anybody can grow coralline, with stability, good parameters and maturity. Patience is key.

Thanks for all your input.