Coralline driving me crazy!
 

Hey guys,

My tank is about a year old and is just covered in coralline. I know it's a good thing, but I hate the look of it, and it gives my entire tank a pink tint to it.

This stuff is a pain to remove, and near impossible to even get to on the back wall of the tank. Besides scraping, is there any other way to remove this stuff easily?

Some urchins eat Coraline algae, i think for sure one is the tuxedo urchin.

urchins eat coraline but they excrete it therefore causing it to spread, this also being true about scraping it off without sucking it out of the tank. I increased my light wattage and notice it doesn't grow as much. went from 4 @ 54w to 6 @ 54w and it doesn't grow as fast

I don't care if the urchins spread it, as long as they can eat it faster than it spreads. Is this possible?

I would think passing the algae through a digestive system (the urchin's) would kill or denature the algae... That being said, I'm sure that an urchin (depending on the size of the tank) can eat coralline pretty fast. I'm sure you'd have bare spots on your rock... but as far as the coralline on the glass, I think you may be stuck. I've never heard of a snail eating coralline. Or an urchin climbing glass...

I agree with you on the coraline, why can't it just stay on the rock. It is an ever ending
battle. I have a tuxedo urchin in my 72 gal and I still scrape off the coraline every water
change. I find if you keep it up it is way easier. If it is hidden behind the rocks I just leave it. Not sure if it makes any difference having the urchin as he has been in there
from the start basically. But certainly worth a try. I think you either learn to live with it or make yourself crazy scraping it off. Guess you know which I choose.

My black long spine urchin eats coraline none stop off both rocks and glass

My tux. urchin spends about 20-30% of his time on the glass

I have two urchin and they do climb the glass they can also move fast if they want

my suggestion, is go to the hardware store, buy some razors, and start scraping (unless the tank is acrylic)

its a tedious and boring task, but its worth it IMO. also an urchin wouldn't hurt.

My Urchin isn't making a dent in my Coraline. Atleast he aint starving HAHAHA

I gave up scraping the back glass and have learned to live with it...sort of

marie, i dont think you'll ever have a coraline free tank

I stand corrected :biggrin: I suppose that since they have tube feet, this wouldn't be a difficult task.

Yup, they climb the glass!!!!!

Let your Mg drop down below 1000 and you will see a bleaching/die off, learned this the hard way :cry:, couple weeks of dosing has brought it back pink as ever though.

Colin

This might not be the best suggestion for a reef tank, playing with your parameters to kill stuff usually ends up killing more than you want to kill. IMO coraline is nice on the back of the tank, just keep scraping it off on the front/ sides, keep an urchin and you should be good to go.
Levi

Not a suggestion, just a hard learned lesson. Coralline is part of a reef tank and something one should be willing to live with in a healthy system.

Colin

Just stick one of these onto the back of a Magfloat and say goodbye to coralline:
http://www.jlaquatics.com/info/223/O...cessories.html

Dollar for dollar this thing is the best buy I have ever made for my tank. It cleans coralline of the back glass with ease.

I will never use another cleaning magnet in my life! I find they scratch up tanks pretty bad if you leave them in the tank all the time or get even one little sand grain caught in it. Even the coralline stuck in the magnet seems to scratch the glass!! :eek:

I just use the long handled scrapers, and find it's an easy job with the replacable blades. Just keep the blades replaced. I use a scraper that uses household blades so it's super cheap. :D