Coral line algea

[Hotboppincat]

Many thanks.

I will chek my Alk/Calc again today but I am sure it has not changed for ages. I am carefull to buffer the water before adding it.

I must admit we live in a very hard water area, so I am thinking now that perhaps I am not buffering enough..

Kev

[Birdlady]

Oh, I thought of something else,too. Check your magnesium .... it should run about 1250 - 1300.

[Hotboppincat]

Gottit!

Did a hardness test....the water was only 100, so I am not buffering my top up or replacement water enough. It had dropped alarmingly since last wek. I added some buffer to the tank and re-buffered the top up water. Must be because I am new to RO water!

Just have to wait see what happens.

Cheers for the advice.

Kev

[inwall75]

Originally Posted by Hotboppincat

the coraline algae on the glass of the tank has bleached. There is green coralline algae, but no pink. All gone. It has only died off halfway down the glass though. Behind the rocks at the back it is still there, and is still all over the rocks and gravel. The Water hardness and alkalinity and OG is the same as it has always been.

You left your lights on while you did a waterchange. The green can handle more light so it survived this but the pink didn't. No worries, it will grow back. Just turn off the lights the next time you do a water change and if the water change takes a while, use a turkey baster to keep the coralline wet until the new water goes in.

[Hotboppincat]

Of course.....I drained off half the water the other week to fit some powerheads for my new Amiracle trickle filter.....it must have dried out when I did that! And I left the lights on!

Had'nt thought of that!

Many thanks.

Kev

[inwall75]

My pleasure...however, I used the troubleshooting posts of other people to try and narrow down the possibilities and then I thought

I then went and re-read your post and that's when it came to me. This was definately a team effort.

[Speedy]

Yea I could agree with Inwall. I moved my 20 gal just 2 months ago. Now before the move I had the back and both side glasses covered with coralline. When I drained the tank for the move, it caused all the coralline to bleach. However in about 2 weeks it all grew back and now it's growing on the front glass as well, and the back and sides are growing layered discs of coralline.

Oh and by the way, another great way to get corraline to spread is to take some live coralline cells (scraped from a friends tank or scraping your own) and dump'm in your tank (assuming it has the proper conditions) it'll help make it grow. Another thing that helped me (I'm positive) was a hitchhiking sea urchin that crept in on a rock. Sea Urchins eat all types of algae, including coralline, but they excrete the coralline back out into the tank. This helps coralline cells establish in all areas of the tank, once the little guy gets too big move'm out to the LFS for credit, he's done his job anyways.

[Birdlady]

Very observant Curt!!! You are so clever! It seems so obvious, now that you pointed it out!

[Michaelr5]

Gabe, I had the same questions as you. I started my tank brand new in March. Took till may for the brown diatom to disappear (well there is still some but it is receeding). Arount the beginning of July, I noticed that the coraline was starting to spread on my LR. And finally, just yesterday I found half a dozen small spots on the back glass. Red, Green, and Purple! So it just takes time. I know when I first started up, I thought I was going to compete with mother nature in a week, but I am starting to learn! And I'm 53 (did I just admit that!!!??)

[allaboutfish37]

how do you slow down the coralline? mine is growing to fast.I have to scrap the front glass every week.. but yes it will grow back in few weeks or sooner.