Why can't I grow Coralline algae

[Urkin$Urchin]

Hey folks, Hope I am posting this in the right area, never had much experience with forums.
I have several tanks and they all run the same and have the exact same issue, NO ALGAE at all, I have seeded my 125 gallon reef tank with 55 gallon refugium 5 times with a bunch of coralline, last time I seeded, about 2 weeks ago, I was at my doctors office, he has a 75 gallon bow tank loaded with coralline all over the glass, So I got me a couple urine cups with lids and went to scraping his glass, I got quite a bit in 2 cups, took them home, seeded my tank, I cut off my uv sterilizer, my return pump and my power heads, and dumped it all in my 125 all over my center rocks, watched it fall everywhere, waited 15 minutes and turned to wavemakers back on but not the pump and uv, left my uv off for about a week, couple hours later turned my return pump back on, still nothing is growing, I have never had any algae at all in any of my tanks, my nitrates and phosphates are high, like dark orange nitrates and 2.0 phosphates, I grow chaeto really well, in my 125 and my 75 gallon tanks, my other two are ran by canister filters, with uv lights, still no algae in any of my tanks, what gives? what can I do that will help me grow coralline,

lol P.S I get this a lot, people say I should consider my self lucky that I don't have an algae problem, and I do, but doesn't saltwater reef critters, snails, fish, etc, need some algae to graze on?

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

I believes it takes a stable tank to grow coralline, but you don’t have any algae at all? Not even a little GHA?

How long have your tank been running? You mentioned po4 and no3 is high but what of Alk, calcium and mag ?

 

[Brad Miller]

A UV light won’t hinder the growth of coralline algae.....
I would suspect your magnesium is really low

 

[vetteguy53081]

Low calcium and Mag. What are your current levels?
Also Low light (high in blue will slow growth)

 

[GThompson]

I have a good bit in my tank and my calcium is running around 480. The people I’ve spoke with explained to me that running it high would increase the Coraline. Be careful what your looking for. It’s a pain to remove.

 

[Dolelo96]

I have a uv light and have coralline trying to grow everywhere (regular algae too). Check your magnesium and calcium. What test kits are you using to test phosphate & nitrate levels? Are you running a uv light to control algae or bacteria, pathogens, etc.?

 

[jda]

If your nitrate and phosphates are elevated, then that is your issue. If I let mine get to .1P and even 2 or 3N, it will slow down significantly, but it does still grow. The elevated levels of N and P inhibit calcification and coralline depends on this... the higher it gets, the more it will inhibit. Super high levels of light can inhibit it too, but it still grows like crazy in my tanks under 250w Halides with 14k Phoenix bulbs in them... I am talking like 400w 6500k bulbs.

Edit: I can peel plates of it off in a year and the whole glass can get covered to where you cannot see through it in 4 weeks if I do not scrape. I keep my N and P and NSW levels.

 

[VB313]

If your nitrate and phosphates are elevated, then that is your issue. If I let mine get to .1P and even 2 or 3N, it will slow down significantly, but it does still grow. The elevated levels of N and P inhibit calcification and coralline depends on this... the higher it gets, the more it will inhibit. Super high levels of light can inhibit it too, but it still grows like crazy in my tanks under 250w Halides with 14k Phoenix bulbs in them... I am talking like 400w 6500k bulbs.

Edit: I can peel plates of it off in a year and the whole glass can get covered to where you cannot see through it in 4 weeks if I do not scrape. I keep my N and P and NSW levels.

Now that cool

 

[Urkin$Urchin]

I believes it takes a stable tank to grow coralline, but you don’t have any algae at all? Not even a little GHA?

How long have your tank been running? You mentioned po4 and no3 is high but what of Alk, calcium and mag ?

Not even a little green hair algae, lol my calcium usually stays around 440ppm, it got to 420 one time but that's it, my magnesium I haven't checked in a while, and haven't really gotten use to checking because I just started with that tests, but last time I checked, I had asked people and they said it was pretty good, i'll check it again tomorrow, My tank has been running for about a year and a half, water stays crystal clear, and never any issues with any live stock

 

[Urkin$Urchin]

Now that cool

I will work on my nitrates and phosphates then, I run 3 mars aqua lights on it, so I am pretty sure I am not over killing it, but i'll work on and focus on my nitrates and phosphates and see if that helps, thank you

 

[Urkin$Urchin]

I have a uv light and have coralline trying to grow everywhere (regular algae too). Check your magnesium and calcium. What test kits are you using to test phosphate & nitrate levels? Are you running a uv light to control algae or bacteria, pathogens, etc.?

I run a uv light because it helps with keeping my water healthy and diseases down, I have never had any diseases yet (Knock on wood) and hopefully I won't, but I know some things just can't be helped, basically I am still learning, and the tests I use for my phosphates and magnesium are sailferts, the nitrates test is API

 

[jda]

Get a hannah ultra low phosphorous checker. It will not work until you get to like .6 something P, but if you are going to lower P, then you need to know when to stop and this is a precise instrument. Get a salifert test kit for nitrate... it is better than the API and it is not expensive. I would test again with the more precise kits to get your baseline.

If N and P get too high, then you can poison some types of algae... just like the coralline. Dinos and cyano work like this too, at different levels. Remember that not all places in the tank have the same levels which is why some algae and bacteria can grow in the sand where the water has significantly less N after being processed from the rock. Do not be surprised if some types come back as you lower the N and P and you make the environment more suitable to their needs.

Whatever you decide to do with the N and P reduction, go slow. Reducing them is not an issue. Going too fast usually is.

 

[Urkin$Urchin]

Get a hannah ultra low phosphorous checker. It will not work until you get to like .6 something P, but if you are going to lower P, then you need to know when to stop and this is a precise instrument. Get a salifert test kit for nitrate... it is better than the API and it is not expensive. I would test again with the more precise kits to get your baseline.

If N and P get too high, then you can poison some types of algae... just like the coralline. Dinos and cyano work like this too, at different levels. Remember that not all places in the tank have the same levels which is why some algae and bacteria can grow in the sand where the water has significantly less N after being processed from the rock. Do not be surprised if some types come back as you lower the N and P and you make the environment more suitable to their needs.

Whatever you decide to do with the N and P reduction, go slow. Reducing them is not an issue. Going too fast usually is.

Thank you for the advice, I will definitely use your advice and be careful

 

[HaloPhenom27]

Hey folks, Hope I am posting this in the right area, never had much experience with forums.
I have several tanks and they all run the same and have the exact same issue, NO ALGAE at all, I have seeded my 125 gallon reef tank with 55 gallon refugium 5 times with a bunch of coralline, last time I seeded, about 2 weeks ago, I was at my doctors office, he has a 75 gallon bow tank loaded with coralline all over the glass, So I got me a couple urine cups with lids and went to scraping his glass, I got quite a bit in 2 cups, took them home, seeded my tank, I cut off my uv sterilizer, my return pump and my power heads, and dumped it all in my 125 all over my center rocks, watched it fall everywhere, waited 15 minutes and turned to wavemakers back on but not the pump and uv, left my uv off for about a week, couple hours later turned my return pump back on, still nothing is growing, I have never had any algae at all in any of my tanks, my nitrates and phosphates are high, like dark orange nitrates and 2.0 phosphates, I grow chaeto really well, in my 125 and my 75 gallon tanks, my other two are ran by canister filters, with uv lights, still no algae in any of my tanks, what gives? what can I do that will help me grow coralline,

lol P.S I get this a lot, people say I should consider my self lucky that I don't have an algae problem, and I do, but doesn't saltwater reef critters, snails, fish, etc, need some algae to graze on?

It sounds like your Nitrates and Phosphates being elevated are probably the problem.

As long as your water parameters are good, you should be able to grow Coraline. And Coraline grows slowly.

As far as light goes, there are over 1600 different species of Coralline and they respond to different levels of light. Some require more light, some require less light.

 

[LARedstickreefer]

If your nitrate and phosphates are elevated, then that is your issue. If I let mine get to .1P and even 2 or 3N, it will slow down significantly, but it does still grow. The elevated levels of N and P inhibit calcification and coralline depends on this... the higher it gets, the more it will inhibit. Super high levels of light can inhibit it too, but it still grows like crazy in my tanks under 250w Halides with 14k Phoenix bulbs in them... I am talking like 400w 6500k bulbs.

Edit: I can peel plates of it off in a year and the whole glass can get covered to where you cannot see through it in 4 weeks if I do not scrape. I keep my N and P and NSW levels.

Crush that up and sell it dude. People can seed their tanks with it.

 

[HaloPhenom27]

Crush that up and sell it dude. People can seed their tanks with it.

I keep my Nitrates between 10 and 15 and I have great Coraline growth as well as great coral growth. I would not go higher than 15 though. My Phosphates are pretty much non-existent though.

 

[rkpetersen]

Lots already said here, but I get great coralline algae growth on everything, including starting to see it in a 20 gal nano I set up just 7 weeks ago, so here's my 2 cents:

Coralline algae pretty much likes the same conditions as SPS corals.
Decent and stable (but not necessarily high) levels of calcium, alk and magnesium.
Relatively low and stable levels of nitrate and phosphate.
Moderate to high lighting, and adequate (not necessarily high) flow.
If you have those conditions, add coralline algae or spores and you should see it starting on surfaces within 4-6 weeks.
If you don't have those conditions, you can add all the coralline you want and it won't take.
I also personally believe that a small amount of strontium supplementation speeds up the process.
Use of strontium to encourage coralline algae was 'conventional wisdom' with reefing decades ago, but is no longer generally mentioned.
As far as using the Hanna ULR phosphorus or phosphate checker, you can do so even with phosphate levels higher than 0.6 ppm; just dilute 1 ml of sample water with 9 ml of clean 35 ppt saltwater, then multiple the result by 10.

 

[keithfish1]

I keep my Nitrates between 10 and 15 and I have great Coraline growth as well as great coral growth. I would not go higher than 15 though. My Phosphates are pretty much non-existent though.

What's your method to lower phosphates?

 

[Urkin$Urchin]

I did testing yesterday, here are my results, Any info or advice?

Magnesium = 0.3 = 1050

Calcium = 25 drops = 500ppm

Akl = 0.6 = 6.1ppm

Phosphate = .50ppm

Nitrates = between 80ppm and 160ppm

 

[tqpolo]

I did testing yesterday, here are my results, Any info or advice?

Magnesium = 0.3 = 1050

Calcium = 25 drops = 500ppm

Akl = 0.6 = 6.1ppm

Phosphate = .50ppm

Nitrates = between 80ppm and 160ppm

Well there you go. Your water parameters are not ideal for sps therefore not ideal for coraline.