Skimming and Coralline Algae

rmurken · Mar 9, 2020

Would appreciate folks’ thoughts. Could skimming be responsible for slow development of coralline that many experience by removing spores that might otherwise seed a tank?

My tank took more than a year and a half to really start growing coralline, and I was skimming aggressively the whole time. Probably needless amounts of skimming, tbh.

Coralline just seems to be temperamental; for some it takes weeks, others, years. Explanations seem elusive.

Max! · Mar 9, 2020

Following. I can't get it to grow at all - but have sps that are kickin' butt.

MTBake · Mar 9, 2020

I didn't see any with my 40 breeder for about a year. My new setup has only been going a few months. Still don't see any. Just added some older rocks from another setup I took down on Saturday. Hope this gets something going.

rmurken · Mar 9, 2020

Coralline is totally confounding. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason. I’m not a bit surprised that you have SPS roaring but no coralline.

In my case the things that correlated were lowering my light intensity (I had it way too high) and shifting to reef crystals from IO purple. But I’m skeptical that either of those factors explains the appearance of coralline in my tank. My alk, ca, and parameters were fine with IO purple, and plenty of people grow tons of coralline in it. And I was blasting my tank with light, but there were plenty of shaded spots where it could have cropped up.

It occurred to me that skimming might pull out a large fraction of any spores, and delay, but probably not prevent, the appearance of CA.

vessxpress1 · Mar 9, 2020

I'm going to seed my new tank with this:

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/pink-purple-live-coralline-algae-kit-arc-reef.html

I know I can get it for free off of live rock but I'm trying to avoid unknown pests coming into my tank from random pieces of live rock from who knows where. I hope to get things going from dry rock alone and try to somewhat control what is introduced into the tank.

Edit: Once it starts growing, you'll probably wish you didn't have it. lol

rmurken · Mar 9, 2020

vessxpress1 said:
I'm going to seed my new tank with this:

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/pink-purple-live-coralline-algae-kit-arc-reef.html

Let us know how it works! There are a few older threads on here from when that stuff first came out. My gut is that if your tank is ready to grow coralline, it’ll help move things along. If not, then it’s fertilizer.

PacoPetty · Mar 18, 2020

I just got my buddy to scrape a bunch of Coraline algae off the back glass of his tank for me. I brought it home put it in my blender with some water from the tank and then turned the power heads off and poured it into my tank. I’m hoping this will give me some good Coraline growth.

KSUChemist · Mar 19, 2020

My coralline exploded when I got a better light. I can cover 50% of a rock in about a month with the stuff. I have an HOB skimmer which probably isn't aggressive enough to take spores out (I empty the cup 2x a week for reference).

PacoPetty · Mar 19, 2020

KSUChemist said:
My coralline exploded when I got a better light. I can cover 50% of a rock in about a month with the stuff. I have an HOB skimmer which probably isn't aggressive enough to take spores out (I empty the cup 2x a week for reference).

I’m going to send you a couple of rocks... get those back to me as quick as you can!