collarine algae colors

[castroantonio]

Any one Knows how many colors of coralline algae exist???

exist red coralline algae?

Thanks

[graveyardworm]

Green, pink, purple, bright red, dark red, and probably others.

[fijiblue]

Don't forget yellow on the kalini rock:)

[bencozzy]

i remember seeing a blue coralline once.

[Nickme23]

I have anywhere from Dark blood red, dark red, medium red, pink, light pink (almost white), white, slightly greenish white, Burgundy (almost black) Dark royal purple, medium purple, a purple that covers things very thickly and looks like grape nerds (my favorite). Light blue, medium blue, almost flourescent purple... And surprisingly I think I have an orange algae that really only likes low light.

[Nickme23]

correction... the blue and orange were sponges

[skeeter-doc]

any pics Nickme?

[Nickme23]

I'll try and get some as soon as it settles down again. I just had to move so I actually have mine set up as a display tank at my LFS. I'm actually managing the fish department and trying to revive it and upgrade their systems so the livestock will actually be healthy and happy. So after I get rid of my slight diatom bloom from the move I'll try and get some pics put up here.

[crrichey]

On a side note has anyone ever considered doing a coralline dominated reef? :D

[jwalters103]

add orange to the list. i have neon orange--it only grows on the undersides of rocks though---if you flip it over so you can see the orange, it dies in a day

[Samala]

A coraline dominated reef? That would be interesting. Not sure how you would keep it all in order, but it would definitely be interesting to see how you would go about setting it up and keeping it pruned and such.

The favored coralline in my tank happens to be light purple, pink and light green at the moment. I'm very proud of it actually. Coralline formation despite the CO2 dosing I'm doing.. that means I've got good control over the pH in the tank. :D

>Sarah

[foxesreef]

pictures would surely be great here. We are all waiting...........patiently. Are all these colors in captivity? Have any specific need? Regardless they are all beautiful. Just when you think you are tired of the color you have, you just have to look back and appreciate how pretty it truly is.:)

[Nickme23]

Then maybe I do have orange, cause mine grows on the underside of my rock only. As soon as it was exposed to too much light it dissapeared really quick. My camera isn't working so I dunno when I'll be able to get some pictures, but maybe I'll put some up within the next few months. If anybody else has any pictures of their coralline I'd love to see some.

Also I'd love to get my hands on some branching coralline. Anybody come across any branching type coralline?

[Nickme23]

Oh, I forgot to answer one of those questions. As of now my reef is dominated by coralline and my system is as follows:

-29 Gal All Glass
-Fluval 203 canister filter
-200 watt heater
-2 powerheads
-PC with actinic and 50/50 off the top of my head I think the wattage is somewhere around 100 watts
-5" Deep sand bed 100% Caribsea Seaflor special grade reef sand (Aragonite)
-About 30 Lbs rock, Figi and Aragocrete (the aragocrete is nearly covered in coralline)
-Chaeto in the tank
-1 large trocus snail, 2 baby trocus, several astrea snails, several nerite snails
-I feed my Maroon Clown, Mandarin Dragonet, and Royal Gramma a mixture of fresh hatched and adult brine shrimp every other day along with some very small marine pellet food

Yes you read right... no skimmer.
I don't test anything except for salinity

my Coralline covers my glass....

[reefgrief]

I am sure I have deep purple, & pink-red, which dominates rock in my tanks, but most of my tank is dominated by green coraline.. growing on rock, & glass but not the gravel or on black plastic.. not sure what it is exactly since it doesnt seem to crust or grow at the perifery, like purple does. (at least its not hair algae). It is not slimey, and does not plate any live coral.
I constantly pull green algae out with the skimmer, so it makes me think it is a unicellular algae. Any thoughts ?
Nitrates, phosphates, and nitrites test out nil.. Probably because the algae sucks excess out.
It may be feeding my sps, and lps ..ect.
The purple and pink coralline grow over it, where flow is high.
I like the look of it, showing deep dark green to light yellow-green on newly introduced rock..
The tank has been stable for nearly 2yrs with only 2 partial water changes, and frequent addition of Calcium ion ( > 400 ppm) , and bicarbonate (> 135) I only occasionally add Mg ion and Fe ion but Havent measured tank levels for either. Specific gravity is 1.023 to 1.026. I use ordinary tap water (dechlorinated) and rain water for make up.. I find the latter to raise nitrates and encourage red slime, so it is only used infrequently.

Ok.. I probably do a bunch of stuff I shouldnt.. but I have a limited budget, and cant afford RO/DI water, or automatic controllers. I dont do frequent salt changes for the same reason. I do keep Ca ion very high .. it probably helps precipitate heavy metals from the tap water.
My shrooms, leathers and lps corrals thrive.. and are gaining mass
so they are forgiving, under less than perfect conditions.
Not sure if any of this info will help.. but because the green dominates the tank, I thought you may want to know what conditions it is growing under. I do raise chaeto in the return overflows. I use a refugium, and a skimmer on the 150 and 120.

[salty55]

i also have some orange growing on the underside of some rock. one of my favorite colors besides the turqouise and light purple. or the dark red. what am i saying. i like them all.

[markandkristen]

does purple up help it grow faster i have it on my rocks and i would like to see it on my back wall

[reefgrief]

Corraline will grow quickly with medium intensity lighting, high water flow, and of course good water quality : pH 8.1-8.3, Ca ion at 400ppm and alkalinity 175 ppm ...keep phosphates at zero !

I think purple up is really just crushed corraline.. but what do I know :)

[graveyardworm]

Maintain proper water parameters and you'll have more coraline than you want. There is no need to buy products that claim to accelerate its growth.

[Nickme23]

purple up is basically a calcium bicarbonate supplement... nothing more, it does help with coralline growth if you don't have enough calcium in the water column but if you have enough Aragonite sand you should be just fine without having to do anything... it grows like any other algae, just a little slower and needs a little more calcium than unicellular algae.

it's not crushed up coralline, that would be way too expensive to harvest and use.

[markandkristen]

was just curious i am doing sps now and am other the impression if i can get the coraline algae going crazy then i shouldnt have to worry about outher nuisance algaes as much.
im running two skimmers on my 150. no phosphates. i knwow people say they hate coraline algae after a while which i can understand. but i think its like when people say money makes you miserable.... hey at least let me try it ounce :)

[reefgrief]

Well..just a few months back I was such a noob that my lfs sold small bottles of Corralline Up for $35.. and I BOUGHT it.. (blush)

Whats more, I believe most of the supplements selling for 10 to 25 bucks for 8 to 12oz are not necessary.. ! I really wish the guys selling this, would have been more knowledgeable.. ( oops maybe they really are smart, they knew a sucker when they saw one, as I asked the noob questions ..)

I know... its a hobby... but chseesh.. I wish I had found forums like Reef Central earlier... I could have saved so much wasted effort, not to mention spent money more resourcefully on used equip.

Oh sorry, ranting about question dementia... ( a disease of noobs, who ask the most obvious questions on the need to know about everything basis)

Probably the best way to seed corraline algae is from cured live rock... (garf grunge might still be sold.. not sure, but I didnt know this was available until I happened to hit on it during a google search for corraline algae)

Anyone know if culturing diff colors is light dependant ? Or if any supply houses sell specific color morphs ? ( such questions are reaffirmation of my noob dementia, lol)

[Nickme23]

Ok, I have actually tried and been successful with this method so all I can say is try it and decide for yourself.

Harvest coralline from the glass of an established aquarium by scraping it with a straight razor blade and hold an airline tube under the blade siphoning the particles out into a gallon jug. After you've done this long enough to clear quite a bit of coralline from the glass. Take a paper towel and pour the water slowly through the paper towel filtering out the coralline particles and then pat the little pile of coralline dry. then you can dab little drops or squiggles of super glue over the dry rock you want to seed then sprinkle the dried coralline on the super glue spots.

(note: do not let the coralline stay dry for too long or else it'll start to die)

Put the rock into the water immediately and it'll cure a little cooler. The coralline will grow over the rock a lot sooner than otherwise.

Another method is to just put a powerhead over a coralline covered rock and put the rock you want to grow coralline in the path of the jet of water.


Coralline will grow best under twice as much Actinic as daylight. In fact I would suggest putting one Actinic bulb and one 50/50 bulb over a tank to grow the coralline.

Garf Grunge is great btw

[Nickme23]

Oh and yes colors are light dependent. Generally speaking the lighter colors will grow under higher light and the darker colors will grow under lower light. Coralline covered rocks "will" bleach if you move them from low light to high light but should recover after a few weeks. The best way is to acclimate them to higher light levels if you need to move them. Just like most corals