Coralline Algae

R&R · 04-12-2005, 11:57 PM

We mainly have fish only with Live Rock... We would like to encourage coralline algae growth and found that we should be adding reef Builder and Reef Advantage... We don't know anything about these items and are looking for guidance... We only test for Ph, ammonia, Nitrates, and Nitrites... Occassionally for copper and phosphates because we are on well water... Just purchased a RO/DI unit...

Thanks for any help on encouraging our coralline algae growth.

Robyn & Roger

rong666 · 04-13-2005, 12:09 AM

what do you have for lights?....that may be your first step.

Ron

rong666 · 04-13-2005, 12:10 AM

oh yeh, and what size tank?
Ron

Deevee8ed · 04-13-2005, 12:14 AM

my coral wont grow under the lights yet, its just starting in the shade and slowly movin out... my solution for getting it to grow was pump the tank full of kalkwasser (since its calcium based tissue) and well its growing like CRAZY, reds, purples, oranges, yellows, blues, that lalo rock has a ton of color

Deevee8ed · 04-13-2005, 12:16 AM

oh yeah, solution, LOTS of kalk for a while, and make sure you got bright light, don't need halides, just need bright lighting

Deevee8ed · 04-13-2005, 12:17 AM

oh yeah, good water flow too, keep the rocks clean, so the coralines will grow, they don't like to grow under poo

H20cooled · 04-13-2005, 12:18 AM

Yep you have to get the cal and kh up, the best way to do that is to add something like reefbuilder or kalk water. Also its seems to grow better in areas where water pressure hits it.

Rich

R&R · 04-13-2005, 12:20 AM

100 gal tank with VHO and 50 gal tank with PC Compact... We run the lights about 10 hrs a day. Almost have our 240 gal up and running with Ice Packs and VHOs...

We don't know anything about kalkwasser or calcium supplements or how to use them... We are looking to you guys for guidance and advice...
Thanks

Deevee8ed · 04-13-2005, 12:24 AM

okay what i do, and i know some people don't like this, is i mix about 20 gallons of kalk at a time (a weeks worth for me), basically i dump the RO water in a tub with alot of kalk in it, and wait till it settles out to be clear (about a day) and i just use that for all my top off water... but you gotta use the CLEAR CLEAR water, otherwise it clouds up the tank like CRAZY

about the lighting, how many watts do you have on each tank, and what kind of lights (daylight, actinic)?

Deevee8ed · 04-13-2005, 12:35 AM

i'd forget the reef builder and stuff, and just got with normal kalk wasser and invest in a calcium test kit, keep it around 450 if you can, using kalk as your top off you'll get that easy (mine stays nice and stable at about 550)... and keep up your 10 water changes weekly, in about a month, move your rocks around and you'll see that where there is more water flow, you'll have tons of color

R&R · 04-13-2005, 12:37 AM

The 50 gal has blue and white PC Compact 4 of them 24" long... The 100 Gal has VHO Super actinic Blue 40 and VHO white 40... We bought the lights with the tanks... We have no plans for upgrading the lighting... We are not into as Jenni says.. "Sticks"... we have fish, inverts, and LR.. Thanks to Jenni we now have Xenia that is growing like a weed in our 100 gal...

R&R · 04-13-2005, 12:41 AM

Ok, where is a good place to get Kalk and a calcium test kit. Is there a difference in brands of Kalk??? Does the Kalk come with instructions??? My head is swimming.. Roger just said something about pickling lime... the only lime I like is with my Margaritas...

Thanks for all the good advice... No to figure out how we are going to do it...

Deevee8ed · 04-13-2005, 12:41 AM

sounds like enough for the coraline.... keep your Ca levels up and you'll have en in no time, just watch and see, i know we all got frustrated on our first tanks when the rocks turned white, but soon, you'll have more colors than you could imagine... just get that calcium... oh, if you wanna know if your calcium levels are good enough without the test kit, get a bit of rock, with a tiny bit of coraline on it, if it shrinks, you got issues, if it doesn't grow, your Ca is too low, and if it gets really white, just on the edges and 3 weeks later is covering the rock, then you got it right

Deevee8ed · 04-13-2005, 12:53 AM

okay get cheap kalk, its all CaHO, (i think thats right) ummm i used this stuff at first...
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...&N=2004+113458

here is what you do with it... go down to home depot or bimart and get a big sterlite tote (about 54 Qt or 18 gallon size) WITH a lid and a one inch diameter vinyl hose that you wont use for anything else... put it on your back porch (and if you can, set it on something for easy siphoning later) dump about half the kilo of the kalk in there, and fill it with your ro water, stir it, and LEAVE IT, don't mess it or anything, just let it settle over night, in the am, you should have a nice clear solution on top, with a kinda soft looking white bottom, and a crust on the top that looks almost like ice, just set the end of the hose about half way down in there, siphon out a couple gallons of the nice clear kalkwasser out and into something you can drain to the tanks, if your just dump it in, make sure to do it into your sump though, the cold kalk might hurt your xenia or other inhabitants... or you can just use an airline to slowly siphon it outta the bucket and into your tank

Deevee8ed · 04-13-2005, 12:55 AM

and make sure that whenever you take it out, you refill the kalkwasser tub with ro water, so you always have it available... i always forget... lol, oh it helps too if you have a tub or something to store larger amounts of ro water... i'll get pics of mine soon... a couple sterlite tubs on the unused patio, thats about all you need