Coraline Growth?

[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:



consistancy is the key and in a few months you will see a change

and this is the tank with the 1st light fixture:


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

[ErikH]

I second my first comment about water changes.