Why no purple algae?
 

Hi there.. I see all the pictures around the forum and I see a lot of purple algae around aquariums, especially on live rocks.. Where does it come from? I even had some on live rock in my tank, but it's dissapearing now, since it was there from previous owners.. Any ideas? Am. I missing something?

Its called coraline algea grows with when calcium, alk and the paramaters are in check, it takes a while to grow and get re-etablished if you moved or changed tanks

purple up will accelerate the process ...

Urchins will eat it. Stock lots of urchins. Hate that purple crap!

How do you like red or green coraline?

eats up your calcium , ruins your liverock , runins your equipment , ruins your glass, tiresome to scrape....and the list goes on.

not what i consider a "desirable algae " lol

Zactly!! Awful stuff.

Yep im in same opinion don't like it. Thankfully I have trouble growing it

I actually like it. Lol. Looks cool. Ppl that doesn't no saltwater always ask me y my rock is purple or is it fake lol

Sure, it looks nice, but it smothers your rock. Which then doesn't filter your water very well, and then your expensive corals don't look as good as they could. IT also builds up on equipment and needs to be cleaned. Which is a hassle.

Oooo never thought about it inhibiting the rocks filtering till u said it. Now how do I kill this thing. Lol

What if there was a way to prevent it from growing on glass and gear but not on rock? :wink::lol:

I especially don't want it on my rock. Glass and gear can be cleaned, rock can't!

oh, you whine :mrgreen:

Sure it can You go out and buy one of those pointy things that mows down everything in sight and stabs you ,knocks all the corals over and at the end of the day doesn't make a dent in the algae lol

At least I have a tank. Go away.

:biggrin: Some of us do like it on our rock and don't want to have to clean equipment. I'm working on something but it may take a while...:wink:

Maybe develop something that will let it grow on rocks while not affecting filtration capacity of the rock. Then I'll like it :)

My two tuxedo's keep it well in check, just a hit of purple here an there:biggrin:

I had 1 but it knocks down my frag. Stabbed my zoas n dragged it on its back n stabbed nemo n it's prick was stuck in his cheeks 1 side through the other. Needless to say I had to get rid of the thing

From the information I've seen I questions how much biological filtration comes from our rocks, especially now with so many people using dry rock. it is missing so much of the microfauna which are thought to be responsible for actually facilitating water movement in and out of the rocks. Secondly, the corraline will only cover the surfaces that are lit so a good portion of the rock won't have corraline algae on it and thus still be accessible for filtration. And I suspect water and nutrients can move through the corraline algae to the rock surface below.

In any case, I have access to some interesting experimental chemical coatings that just might prevent algae growth on glass and plastic. I'm starting some experiments. Stay tuned...

Thanks for all the info here.. I see the topic to a U turn here haah.. Anyways turns out it ist bad I have none..

hmm, I was just looking at 4 tanks in the garage :mrgreen:

I like the different color of the hard algae, and for those worried about filtration, pull a covered rock out and look on the bottom... and the rock these guys are getting today are way more porous than the rocks we used 10 years ago, I am amazed with the light rock that can be had easy nowdays.

Steve