To much coraline

[Eoka]

Also, how old is your tank? How long did it take to get that kinda coralline growth?

It's almost a year old

 

[Eoka]

What’re your parameters??

Well I've been getting them stable but they haven't been very stable.
8.0-8.6 alk
450 calc
1.026 salinity
1400 mag
Nitrates 4 but when I do a wc there 0.25
Phos 0.08 but I did a wc to lower it

 

[Eoka]

That's it? For that size tank that is a really small CUC. Phenomenal job getting corralline to be the main algae covering everything vs nuisance algae.

I have every pest algae as well it just grows slow and my cuc eats it. I got gha, bubble, bryosis, etc

 

[jda]

Ugly algae will not grow on top of coralline. I would not be too quick to scrape it unless you can handle whatever else grows on the clean glass.

 

[bakbay]

I would personally keep the coralline algae. It looks cool and yes, avoid the nasty algae from growing. It's a First World's problem - why destroy such a beautiful thing?

 

[WrasseyReefer]

It's almost a year old

That’s crazy! Do you add any supplements other than the usual alk, calc, mag?

 

[besskurz]

It's almost a year old

This tank is the chosen one by coralline.

 

[dadnjesse]

I does use Alkalinity so If you scrape it off your tank's usage will drop. If your dosing keep on eye on it.

 

[Eoka]

Ugly algae will not grow on top of coralline. I would not be too quick to scrape it unless you can handle whatever else grows on the clean glass.

I had this brown hairy algae grow over all of it

 

[Eoka]

That’s crazy! Do you add any supplements other than the usual alk, calc, mag?

Nope never did just added live rock

 

[Dburr1014]

Should I scrape some of this coraline off it consumes alot of alk?

I feel your pain. Wish there was an easier way to keep it at bay.

 

[WrasseyReefer]

Nope never did just added live rock

Where did you get the live rock from?

 

[Eoka]

Where did you get the live rock from?

I just took the dirtiest looking peice from my lfs live rock section. Proubably in a established tank. I got all sorts of pest but since I got so many I have a little ecosystem so no one is outcompeting the other.

 

[o2manyfish]

Coraline isn't all good. A few years back my 400g tank was almost 20 years old, with about 1000 lbs of live rock in the tank. The rock that was exposed was covered in coraline.

When i started chipping at some of it I realized in some places over the years it had gotten to a 1/4" thick and in most places was a 1/16" thick. We invest in live rock for it's porous surface so that it cultivates huge quantities of bacteria. But as the coraline covers the rock work it's suffocating out the rock itself.

I went through the visible areas of rock and with a chisel cleared out the skin of coraline. Underneath the rock was bright white and brand new.

After clearing the coraline a couple of things happened. 1 the alk consumption dropped dramatically. I measure alk every 2 hours with a Focustronic. I have 2 180g outdoor frag tanks and the coraline over runs the frag racks and when I swap out the frag racks even in a 1500g system there is a big drop in consumption. Cleaning the rock I saw the same drop in consumption.

But over the next month the growth of coral over what was previously coraline covered was pretty remarkable. Established corals in the tanks for years started spreading out their bases. It's much easier for corals to grow over rock than compete for space with coraline. Zoas, GSP, Acro, Montis all started massive expansion with the clean space.

Dave B

 

[Eoka]

Coraline isn't all good. A few years back my 400g tank was almost 20 years old, with about 1000 lbs of live rock in the tank. The rock that was exposed was covered in coraline.

When i started chipping at some of it I realized in some places over the years it had gotten to a 1/4" thick and in most places was a 1/16" thick. We invest in live rock for it's porous surface so that it cultivates huge quantities of bacteria. But as the coraline covers the rock work it's suffocating out the rock itself.

I went through the visible areas of rock and with a chisel cleared out the skin of coraline. Underneath the rock was bright white and brand new.

After clearing the coraline a couple of things happened. 1 the alk consumption dropped dramatically. I measure alk every 2 hours with a Focustronic. I have 2 180g outdoor frag tanks and the coraline over runs the frag racks and when I swap out the frag racks even in a 1500g system there is a big drop in consumption. Cleaning the rock I saw the same drop in consumption.

But over the next month the growth of coral over what was previously coraline covered was pretty remarkable. Established corals in the tanks for years started spreading out their bases. It's much easier for corals to grow over rock than compete for space with coraline. Zoas, GSP, Acro, Montis all started massive expansion with the clean space.

Dave B

That's crazy I don't get that much growth. Also it dosent seem to ever grow on the rocks.

 

[Tnops]

Having same problem with coralline. It grows like insane in my tank, taking up a good chunk of the the alk that I dose which is not that often. I’ve added a long spine urchin and it’s doing a decent job, looking to add a Halloween to help too.

I feel like the message that coralline is nothing but good should have more dimension in terms of the potential drawbacks of having too much coralline such as outcompeting corals in both nutrients and encrusting area

 

[Rmckoy]

Having same problem with coralline. It grows like insane in my tank, taking up a good chunk of the the alk that I dose which is not that often. I’ve added a long spine urchin and it’s doing a decent job, looking to add a Halloween to help too.

I feel like the message that coralline is nothing but good should have more dimension in terms of the potential drawbacks of having too much coralline such as outcompeting corals in both nutrients and encrusting area

To my understanding corals will encrust on top of coralline algae

 

[MrGisonni]

I would razor it off the back glass and sprinkle it all over your rocks. Get it growing there

 

[Tnops]

To my understanding corals will encrust on top of coralline algae

I might have exaggerated that but I do notice that the lps in my tank with its base covered in coralline or other types of algae seem to spread out slower

 

[Snoopdog]

Should I scrape some of this coraline off it consumes alot of alk?

How deep is that tank and what lighting? I would love to know the wattage, par and such. That is a nice pink coralline, I would love to know some parameters to try to replicate growth.