Tips in Coralline Algae

[K-Mavz]

Hey guys i have my saltwater aquarium setup for 4 days and i wanna ask you how to get coralline algae fast. I want this tank packed with coralline algae before my first coral and fish.
I bought one with coralline algae i guess. How will i get coralline algae with the others and how to maintain it? [emoji41]

 

[Salty0331]

For starters you must maintain the proper calcium, alk, and magnesium levels. You should target 450 Ca, 7-11dKh, and 1350 Mg. you can run higher Ca but remember to keep Mg 3 times that of the Ca. Once you have that stable then you can seed the tank with a nicely Coralline covered rock, plus you can have the LFS give you some coralline shavings from one of their sumps. This will help in getting the coralline to spread nicely. Keep in mind coralline can be several different colors, but I assume you are looking for the nice purple color we all desire.

The key is stability, this means maintaining target numbers described above. They should be stable for several weeks, then sit back and let nature take its course. Remember nothing happens fast in nature! It will happen, but only BAD things happen when we rush Mother Nature. Hope this helps.

 

[melypr1985]

The coraline will come when it comes. Your tank is 4 days old and not even cycled yet. You can add the coraline shavings or a rock or frag plug with coraline on it already to seed the tank, but your not going to be able to force it to cover your rocks before adding fish and corals. Unless you want to wait a long time. Nothing good happens fast in this hobby. In a year you'll be cursing the coraline for growing too fast on your glass to keep up with it lol.

 

[Lenny_S]

+1 on melypf1985's post. You won't really need to do anything special to get coralline algae to start covering your tank. Almost any LR or coral you add will come with some on it. I honestly find it to be a nuisance and impossible to control since it favors the same conditions ideal for stony corals. I've also read that it covers the tiny pores in the rock, reducing the effectiveness of its biological filtration. But that's just what I read, I've never done any experiments.

 

[Pete polyp]

Seed the coralline with, well coralline. Get some from rocks, corals or scrapings from another tank. If you want to accelerate the growth look into dosing kalkwasser. As already said, it will come with time.

 

[cameronh]

I love coralline!!!! It's so thick on one of my rocks that it looks like play doh is in the tank haha.

 

[ThePriceSeliger]

Time, stability, and more time. Like others said, seed the tank with a rock or a frag plug with some already on it, then maintain your parameters and wait. I'm sure you want to, or you already have, but I think products like PurpleUp are a waste of money and a unnecessary addition.

 

[tankstudy]

Usually frags of just about anything on some sort of disc/rock will seed your tank.

 

[Devlin]

Mine started after 6 month's. But nothing is going to speed it up like you would like. You could purchase rock with it already covered but it going to get pricey. Time is the cure. Hermits and snails help relocate it. I would start with a clean up crew after 4 weeks. Then look to add your fish and other inverts.

 

[cameronh]

Time, stability, and more time. Like others said, seed the tank with a rock or a frag plug with some already on it, then maintain your parameters and wait. I'm sure you want to, or you already have, but I think products like PurpleUp are a waste of money and a unnecessary addition.

I bought some purple up awhile back. Was using it for awhile, then switched to reef crystals, keep my water at 1.025 and boom.......coralline. Haven't used purple up in weeks, although, it's working in my native tank well. As the water that gets changed out comes straight from the ocean. No dosing in that tank other than purple up, and I didn't have coralline at ALL in the tank. Now it's everywhere

 

[melypr1985]

Fun fact: Did you know that your hermit crabs and snails will have coraline on their shells? You can just add those and you will have introduced coraline to your tank!

 

[Pete polyp]

Purple up is just powdered sand (aragonite) and water

 

[Sabellafella]

Give it about 2 years into the habby and youll hate it as much as i do lol

 

[Pete polyp]

Give it about 2 years into the habby and youll hate it as much as i do lol

This is why I actually like asterina starfish. They eat massive amounts of coralline.

 

[Devlin]

Give it about 2 years into the habby and youll hate it as much as i do lol

Why is it bad? I'm new. Almost a year in.

 

[Sabellafella]

Why is it bad? I'm new. Almost a year in.

Dont get me wrong coralline algae is beautiful especially when you get blues nd greens but all my probes pumps litterally everything even in my sump were its dark half the time gets completely encrused in about 3 months, and drinks my 2 part like crazy

 

[Devlin]

Dont get me wrong coralline algae is beautiful especially when you get blues nd greens but all my probes pumps litterally everything even in my sump were its dark half the time gets completely encrused in about 3 months, and drinks my 2 part like crazy

I have it growing on my powerheads. Not the back wall yet but I transferred my 15 g to a 40g. So it will be a while still before that happens

 

[Sabellafella]

It all depends it can take over a year for it to start growing, it could also take 1 day lol but yea plastics nd epoxys are usually the first to get covered

 

[Pete polyp]

It will definitely slurp up the two part lol.

At 5 months old this tank was completely covered on the back

 

[Elton20]

I didn't get coralline until 1 1/2 years after I started. On a different tank, a nano, the entire bottom was covered in a matter of two months so it's going to be a toss up