Tank not maturing?

  • Thread starter Thread starter laezur
  • Start date Start date
  • Tagged users None

laezur

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 11, 2022
Messages
927
Reaction score
642
Location
Manchester
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hi! I’ve gad my tank setup since early November, I put in live sand, dry rock and some live rock for the dry to leech from.

Its now late February, I’ve had no signs of coralline and my rocks are still mostly white with some algae.. what am I doing wrong?
 
Nothing happens fast in this hobby. Do you have any pics?

Is there any coralline in the tank? Any on the live rock?
 
Coraline wont come from nothing it needs a seed, like a small live rock or dosing it from a bottle. did you introduce a source? the live sand might not necessarily have coralline
 
algae is a good sign for the nitrogen cycle, are you ghost feeding or introducing any livestock?
 
Nothing happens fast in this hobby. Do you have any pics?

Is there any coralline in the tank? Any on the live rock?

There was what I assumed to be coralline on the live rock when I received it and placed it in the tank, the rocks were purple.

HOWEVER. As I'm a bit of a noob, I keep wondering to myself if this stuff is real coralline as it's kind of... peely? Like it peels off like glue, and feel I may have been swindled by someone lol.

I know nothing happens fast, but I didn't even really go through an ugly stage. I got a bunch of algae, which eventually dissappeared.

This is the piece with the weird look coralline that I'm not sure is real LOL
IMG_0955.jpg


This is the live rock on the other side, which actually has sponges on it at the moment, but doesn't seem to be leaching to the rock around it

image0.jpeg
 
I should add my paramaters:

1.026 Salinity
400 ppm Calcium
1.0 Pho (Little high)
15 Nitrate (Bit high for my liking)
Dkh 7.4
 
Coralline spreads faster with white light.
That's good to know, I wasn't aware of that. I run my blue's near max during middle of the day, but I always keep my whites at around 5-10% depending on where my blues are.

Worth bumping the whites up to 25%, or maybe more and just deal with the other types of algae in the mean time?
 
That weird looking stuff in the first pic is not coralline, but very unhappy GSP. The second pick does have coralline algae in it but just a little. I started a tank with dry rock about six months ahead of you and just now some of them are starting to show signs of life.
 
That weird looking stuff in the first pic is not coralline, but very unhappy GSP. The second pick does have coralline algae in it but just a little. I started a tank with dry rock about six months ahead of you and just now some of them are starting to show signs of life.

Hold up, are you sure? I asked for live rock, and the rock was given to me with that stuff on - I always thought it was just coralline.. It has no polyps, nothing has ever extended from it and it's never shown any signs of being any sort of GSP. That's so strange?
 
Contained in white is blue (and everything else)
White contributes a ton to PAR so go slow.
Windex tanks look great but not balanced for coral grow.
Check out a MH tank where’s there no blue control and you’ll find a ton of the purple coralline.
 
Hi! I’ve gad my tank setup since early November, I put in live sand, dry rock and some live rock for the dry to leech from.

Its now late February, I’ve had no signs of coralline and my rocks are still mostly white with some algae.. what am I doing wrong?
Probably nothing. I have 90 lb's However added bacteria, and used ammonia to start the cycle. My rocks changed a little darker but not much. Are you adding anything? Are you testing? Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates?
 
Probably nothing. I have 90 lb's However added bacteria, and used ammonia to start the cycle. My rocks changed a little darker but not much. Are you adding anything? Are you testing? Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates?
I am testing weekly, my latest test is above - however I didn't check for ammonia.

I'm not dosing anything bacteria wise, when I started cycling I was ghost feeding before I added fish. Right now I dose NoPox as my nitrates were super high, and Coral nutrition both from Red Sea.

I was dosing calcium for a bit, but I reached the levels I desired so I stopped
 
Coraline Algae takes time in some of my tanks over the years 8 months to a year, my current tank I set up in July 2021, Coraline Algae started to show up and grow on my over flow 2 months ago.
 
Hold up, are you sure? I asked for live rock, and the rock was given to me with that stuff on - I always thought it was just coralline.. It has no polyps, nothing has ever extended from it and it's never shown any signs of being any sort of GSP. That's so strange?
Positive that's GSP. There's little white spots where the polyps are wanting to grow. You'll see it spread like a weed once your tank finds its happy place. For the GSP to look like that though would suggest that something in the tank isn't where it should be. You could try the lighting like the other dude suggested. Just don't make multiple changes to your system simultaneously or you'll end up with more problems.
 
Positive that's GSP. There's little white spots where the polyps are wanting to grow. You'll see it spread like a weed once your tank finds its happy place. For the GSP to look like that though would suggest that something in the tank isn't where it should be. You could try the lighting like the other dude suggested. Just don't make multiple changes to your system simultaneously or you'll end up with more problems.
I mean that completely explains why I thought it was fake coralline lol. That's awesome, I actually love GSP and would love it to grow out.

I'll try slowly bumping up my white lights, and see what happens. Parameter wise I posted a little further up in the comment chain.
 
I mean that completely explains why I thought it was fake coralline lol. That's awesome, I actually love GSP and would love it to grow out.

I'll try slowly bumping up my white lights, and see what happens. Parameter wise I posted a little further up in the comment chain.
The only other thing I could suggest is to test MAG. With my tank I used to go forever without testing MAG because I read that nobody worries about it. I ended up with an unknown deficiency and I could never get coralline to grow until I finally tested MAG and fixed it. I'm not assuming that your tank is just like mine, but if the information is helpful then awesome.
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%

New Posts

Back
Top