Where oh, where is my coreline algae?

[Mr.Brillas]

Greetings 2 all,
I am just getting my tank started again (feb 04). I've got about 2/3 to 1/3 ratio of base rock to live rock, but the live rock has a good proportion of coraline on it. My water chemistry is - cal:460, dkh:8.6, alk:3.06, Amonia, NO2 & NO3: very low approx 0, PH:8.2

That being said when will the coraline start to take over? I see small amounts growing but i would think it would be faster than what i've seen thus far. any suggestions.

[mdenigris]

Bumping up the alkilinity to around 4 and pH to around 8.3~8.4 wont hurt - But it still takes time.

You might also try flaking some off the LR and letting it drift in the water column.

[mikep]

I have no experience with this but have seen the number six months mentioned here several times buy poeple I have a high opinion of.

FWIW

Michael

[Mr.Brillas]

Good suggestions, but how do i Bump up the alkilinity to around 4 and pH to around 8.3~8.4?

[MalHavoc]

Add a buffer to your tank, like Kent Buffer or ESV B-Ionic. That'll help raise your alkalinity and pH.

Anyway, coralline can take a while to really start to grow. Phosphate levels can impede coralline growth, and freshly imported live rock can be a fairly large source of phosphates at times. Give it a few months and see how it's going. Try increasing your tank's circulation as well.

[Mr.Brillas]

I have some Seachem Marine Buffer, so if i add more of it that will continually raise the PH level? if so, to raise the level .6 points how much would i use?

Also i bought some Tropic Marin Bio-Calcium for the coraline and was told to use it as the Ca levels drop, another shop said that you can dose the tank every week using 1/2 the direction amounts without raising the Ca levels. Who's on point here?

[MalHavoc]

A pH of 8.2 is fine. Just watch what happens to your pH over time and add enough to compensate for drop.

[groves11]

Hi There. If you want to incorage coroline algi you need to whack in loads of calcium carbonate. Best way i found is the following.
get hold of a one gal drum with tap, fill with r/o water add two heaped tea spoones of calcium carbonate [kalkwasser] german for lime water. Give the mixture a good shake let settle for a while shake againe let settle then drip the solution into the sump tank.
They say it is best to do this over night? Reason for this is to have a minimum impact on ph. In my experiance any time will do.
Under take this task instead of your normal top up water.It could take a month or so to see results but they will come.At this point there is some draw backes witch you should know 1 the more algi you grow the more kalkwasser you have to use. This can be achived by freqency not amount? 2 it will affect your strontium levels also. prepaire kent turbo strontium mix solution as per instructions. Then dose tank from your stock solution say one mill per week should be ok. 3 Forget test kits lots of things effect the readings all you
need to do is keep it going, Best of luck john.

[iSpeakWhale]

Fluval 404, Amiracle protein skimmer, (2) Powerhead 802

Any sump?

I think the key is to increase the flow rate.

[DSB3]

I once had a tank that never produced coralline algea for almost 8 months. I was concerned so I asked my LFS and he said to use Marc Weiss Coral Vital. Here is the link to where I get mine.

http://cheapcorals.com/product_info.php/cPath/40_45/products_id/235

After I began to use it I noticed an explosion of coralline algae. Since then I have covered almost all of my rocks with coralline.