Coraline algae

Why isnt my tank full of coraline algae. Params are good fish living for three years in there. I have an anemone and coral but no coraline. I do have green hair algae though

 

If you have green hair algae, you probably have phosphates. Coralline doesn't like phosphate. What are you ca/mag/alk levels at? Did you put anything in your tank that already has coralline on it to seed your tank with (live rock/live sand/pieces of coralline algae)?

 

I dont know what those levels are but im definetly going to go get some test kits. I have l/r and l/s. My ph was fine thats phosphate right?

 

No. ph and phosphate are two different things.

 

Explain please

 

Chemistry and the Aquarium figured it out but is this accurate

 

Wikipedia does a better job of explaining them than what I can do.

pH
Phosphate

 

Yup, just get a good phosphate test kit and see where you are at. Almost EVERYTHING you put into your tank will contain some phosphates. Generally, your source water is the culprit. Adding buffers, additives, the fish food, and even the salt mixes, will introduce phosphates. You will need effective export of this to get coralline to grow, whether you are using phosphate removers or an efficient fuge. This is assuming you have your Mg, Ca and KH levels balanced and in order.

 

Ph is the acidity of the tank. Phosphate is a molecule of one phosphate surrounded by 4 atoms of oxygen (if I remeber my chemistry correctly).

The Purple coraline needs calcium in your system to grow. Talk with your local fish store about your options as far as calcium goes. Some salt has it in there for when you do water changes or you can simply get the "purpleup" product.

Make sure a piece of your live rock you purchased had some on it to seed.

I read that you can take a piece of live rock that has the coraline and shave it off the rock into the water (turn off your fliter for an hour) and let the shaved off pieces float around the tank and land on the surrounding live rock. It should seed quickly.

My guess is that you need calcium though.

 

http://www.3reef.com/forums/algae/coraline-growth-lighting-experiment-61098.html this may help if you have lighting issues. coraline also likes water movement and it says you have no power heads this will be a bit of a problem. good luck