Coralline Question
 

Can someone tell me what the benefits of having Coralline in my tank are? I have lots of it, it's spreading on to new rock I've introduced and I have an Urchin that likes to mow it down. Is it more of an aesthetic thing or does it actually provide something to the system that's biologically beneficial?

Also, I'm a little confused because I've been dealing with my phosphates being a little high but I've been reading today that coralline doesn't grow when phosphates are present in elevated amounts. I'm using a Nutrafin test kit with the results coming in at 2 mg/L. It's the only test kit at my lfs so I don't have the ability to cross check with a different test. Doing weekly 10% water changes + a couple of 20% thrown in for good measure don't bring the levels down. I don't believe I'm over feeding and I've tested the water source which comes out at 0 for phosphates.

Sorry two questions here which makes the title a little misleading.

And the second question is...are my phosphate level something I should be concerned about?

Here's some very light reading on the subject that may answer your question.


http://www.algone.com/articles/saltw...oralline-algae

If its zero then no, nothing to worry about :wink

Great article thanks for the read.

no benifit and it is ugly and look dirty, so I get rid of it anytime I see it on my glass.

It block the pores from the porous rock, making it useless for filtration.

It just consume good element from the water so I would say it is far from being beneficial.

I just remove it when ever I can and I do not tolerate even a tiny bit of it on the glass, not even the back glass. When it grow on my pumps, I scrape it off.

Thanks for the article just what I was looking for.

Along with water changes I tried a phospate filter that as far as I can tell made no dent in level. What are peoples thoughts on Phosban?

It's a good thing you don't own my tank! You would have to give up sleeping to keep up with it :razz:
My left side pane is so thick, I can't even scrape it with a Kent scraper.

Personally, I kinda like it. I'm also lazy, so even if I didn't like it, it would still be there.

I am a big fan of coraline on live rock. Purple in my opinion is prettier than tan and brown.

If you want to make a dent in your phosphates try running GFO (Granulated Ferric Oxide) in a phosban reactor like the Two Little Fishes reactor. I myself have been running a Rox brand GFO for quite some time now.

I'm told that purple coraline is an indication of a healthy tank as mentioned at the end of the link, I also really like it in my tanks. I use Rowa-phos GFO in a Two Little Fishies reactor and my levels are at 0 most of the time. Interesting read thanks for the link Cale262.

Ok, made the drive to J & L today and picked up a Phosban reactor.

After just a little over a day with running the phosban reactor my levels have been cut in half and read 1.

Thanks for the tip.

I would unplug the reactor for a bit, I think you used a bit too much media. If you yank the phosphate out too fast you can shock the system and actually cause coral death.