Coraline algae growth? how can I help it along
 

Well, I got my tank delivered tonight and I'm planning on using an idea Buk a neer used, or similar. He made an aragocrete back drop for his tank but I was thinking of using egg crate and covering it in silicone and then covering it in aragonite gravel. I figure I'll have some holes etc but alot of gravel on the back panel.
How would you encourage coraline algae to grow on this panel, so it doesn't look so stark? I'm also planning on using a large portion of base rock and maybe drilling holes etc through it to make it more porous but obviously I'll want the coraline to grow on it as well.

Should I start out with a couple NO fluorescents of the daylight variety and a couple of actinics?

Any thoughts would be appreciated

Doug

Borrow a powerhead or some other device from someone that is covered in corraline. Scrap it off into your tank with the edge of a blade. This will spread spores in the tank. Good flow and proper Ca levels will get you all purple in no time!!

Doug,
Like Brad suggested the scraping method works great!

When I added a few new pieces of Jakarta rock last year to build my acro shelf I used the same method. I pulled out a small piece of mature rock that was covered in purple coraline. Then I just used a pairing knife to scrape off most of the coraline dust and I let it fall onto the new Jakarta rock. With Ca levels of around 400ppm I had some serious purple rock in about a month or two :biggrin:

Great, thanks for the info I've got some rock in my 29 with coraline algae and I'll get some small fragments of LR from the LFS.

Doug

I don't think you have to scrape coraline off of anything for it to spread. I never have and have coraline all over the freaking place. Keeping Ca levels at 420 or so will encorage coraline growth for sure, though.

Beverly Wrote:
Yes Beverly your right, however Brad and I gave this suggestion to Doug as it will help more in seeding a foundation to speed up the growth for a desired location such as a new back wall :smile:

newbackwallnewbackwallnewbackwallnewbackwall.

You know I'm so surprised with how much larger the tank looks than a 90 gallon, that extra 6 inches front to back is amazing I'm really looking forward to playing with it and seeing how it's going to pan out.

Oh, and it's heavier than a 90... much.. much heavier... (my aching back) did I mention I hate stairs?

Doug

I was just reading on GARF. They suggested not running a skimmer for 4 months or so while seeding. Anyone know if this is good information? Does it really make a difference?

Walter

Their bullet proof plan is kind of a neat Idea and I'd kind of like to try it. I emailed them about it and they strongly recommend NOT going with a sump and using a plenum. I'm not sold on the plenum idea but I was thinking of putting one in my refugium and seeing how that handled the filtration for my tank. Have to see. As far as the skimmerless idea, I believe they want to have as rich a diversity of life in their systems as possible. I'm not going to be in a hurry to get a skimmer built and put in my system. Ca Reactor yes, skimmer no, but it will come.

Doug

Been on wetwebmedia and seen a few post referring to calcium gluconate for coralline (attached one). Assuming the Anthony is Anthony Calfo.

Calcium supplement
What brand of calcium supplement would you recommend for live rock?
<for coralline growth only I really like Seachem's Reef Calcium (an organic sugar-based calcium gluconate). Simply outstanding for growing coralline algae (pink/purple, etc). 4 months of faithful use and it will look like a whole new tank :) For coral growth however, kalkwasser supported by proper alkalinity (buffer) is recommended when a calcium reactor is not possible/present. I use a Knop calcium reactor from General Aquatics for convenience but still like kalkwasser very much. Best regards, Anthony>

Unfortunatley no one has mentioned lighting as a factor for coraline growth. One would have a very hard time growing much coraline under just 6500k Iwasaki lights no matter what your alk or calcium levels are.

Strong actinic spectrum, dim lighting or very blue spectrum lights are nessecary.

cheers

I don't agree with that notion anymore, I am growing coraline like crazy with high PAR levels than a iwasaki 250 watt. even with my ABs that were out dooing some iwasaki 400 watt setups I still got good coraline growth. I just put the 14K bulbs back in the tank so now I will see if I get even more growth (which would support the theory a little)

I now belive that you might not get the same color of coraline but you will still get coraline if your main conditions are right. befor the move I have green, light purple, blue and pink coraline on the rocks but only pink and light purple on the glass. sence I totaly scraped out the tank when I moved I now have light purple starting on the glass again and the other colors going nuts on the rocks.

Steve

don't forget that Idea was old when I started looking into building a reef tank and I decided it wasn't worth not having a skimmer.

Steve

Well Steve, For the past 2 years on my 90g, lit with Iwasaki's. I could never get corraline to grow. I was running a reactor, levels were good. Put corraline covered rock's into the tank and the corraline would dissappear.

Now with the 230. I have Lot's of light over the tank but I ditched the Iwasaki's. I now have the radiums (400w) times 2 and sun aquatics 10K (250w) times 2. My corraline is starting to show up. It's not a deep purple but more of a light pink.

Anyway, I want to change the 10k bulbs to a more blue bulb soon. At that point I bet I can expect more corraline to show up.