Coraline Growth?

[Dominican]

Over a year ago I switched from 4x96w PC lighting on my 150 to MH. Regardless of whether I've tried 20k, 10k or 14k, I have very minimal Coraline growth. With PC, coraline growth was out the yinyang. Calcium is currently and runs at 400-420. Anyone know what else I can try? Btw, the tank is softies & fish. No SPS yet. Thx.

[rabadanmarco]

ive heard fiji gold works good....or some of that probuffer with coriline accelerator....thats what i use and it worked

[CoryDude]

Marc Weiss' Coral Vital always worked for me. Are you supplementing w/actinics? I noticed when I went to mh only, I had the same thing happen as you. Soon as I added 110W actinics, then my coralline picked up again.

[Pennies2Cents]

Fiji Gold works for me!

[rz1a]

whats alk and mag at?

[rz1a]

btw, i saw some good growth of coralline when i was keeping my levels stable using kalkwasser

[seatrueblue]

C balance ( two little fishes product) and a rock covered in coraline to help seed the rocks worked for me. I used to use fiji gold and all it did was make a mess of everything. C Balance doesn't make any mess at all.

[CoryDude]

whats alk and mag at?

Yup, I'd also check your alk. I don't test too much, but your condition is one sign that would make me test for dkh. May want to check to see if it's slipped and is a bit low.

[akm]

Another thing is I've seen Kent Strontium can cause growth in coraline, and a lot of people already have that stuff laying around. JB NY on reefcentral, the owner of what used to be an amazing tank had the entire back of his tank covered in coraline in like a couple weeks after beginning dosing of Strontium.

[Submariner]

Purple up rocks. Before I started dosing with kalkwasser I was using it to add calcium and my tank is covered. Can't keep it off the glass and it's even all over my sump.

[Dominican]

Ok, so good input from everbody thanks. I did my monthly water change last weekend - my tank is at 12dKH (tested earlier today). I know normal is between 7 and 9.. I have VHO super actinics along with 3 250watt 14.5k MH. I have coraline growth on my rocks, it's just never been rampant like it used to be. I don't test Mag yet unfortunately. I don't use any buffer right now.

Sounds like I need to try one of these products! :)

[lhoy]

In general, coraline is a lower light loving algae. You will always have better coraline growth with lower light. The question is do you want great coralline growth or better coral growth? In tanks with MH that I have had, I always had better coralline lower than up high.

Lee

[tony]

i wouldnt lose sleep over not having coraline. it used to cover all four walls of my tank and i hated scraping it, was a huge pain. now, i barely have any for some reason unknown to me. tank is doing as good as it was day one of setting it up.

[Dominican]

That was one of my original concerns - considering my Calc (400-420) and dKH (12) levels, does minimal Coraline growth inherently mean there's something wrong - or that SPS wouldn't be healthy either? Is there any correlation between coraline health and expected SPS health? I'm trying to prepare for keeping SPS, but don't have any yet..

Do I need to do something about a dKH of 12? Too high?

Rampant coraline WAS a pain in the butt. But it looks great, outside its valuable boost to natural filtration. I'd say I have as little as 20% of what I did before. I agree though, its nice not having to scrape very much...

I'll read up and see which of the products recommended here is right for my tank. Maybe just a moderate boost is needed.

[Dominican]

Bump. Can anyone comment on whether I should be doing something to bring down an alkalinity of 12dKH? Thanks..

[ErikH]

a water change is what you need to do. :) Get your levels correct and start dosing kalk through your ATO.

[p00num3lli]

ive heard fiji gold works good....or some of that probuffer with coriline accelerator....thats what i use and it worked

yea, ive heard that also.... in my tank i find it a pain in the but. it grows everywhere! corraline grows in my tank very fast, and i have to scrape it off all my glass constantly. only thing i add is liquid calcium when needed. i think nitrates really boost the growth? cuz mine was teribly high a whle back it it was spreading massivly. and my sand sized gravel which was a pretty white, is now purple -.-

[joelb]

all of these suppliments should work only if you are consistant. this was my 1st tank using nothing but fiji gold. some people might call it a mess:
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii108/joelb69/DSC00836.jpg

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii108/joelb69/uniquetank-1.jpg
consistancy is the key and in a few months you will see a change

and this is the tank with the 1st light fixture:
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii108/joelb69/DSC00331.jpg

i know its ghetto but it was filling my addiction at the time.

[ErikH]

I second my first comment about water changes. :p