coraline...

just a quick Q before i goto work

does coraline require light to grow or does light reverse the process and kill it off slowely?
i think i read somewhere that it doesnt require light to grow but im not sure where.
im havin a bit of trouble keeping my coraline on the top side of my rocks bright in colour it seems tobe slowely bleaching and i dont have any corals yet so theres nothnig to shade the coraline if thats what it requires.

thnx in advance

 

i have had no problems with corraline color. i do think i requires light otherwise it would be growing in my sump. i have ran various lights from PC's to my current halides and the coraline coloration has had no issues other that temporary bleaching after changing the lighting, but it always got its color back.

 

Corallines require low light in the 430 Nu range thats why it always starts in the lower portions of a new tank.. What corallines do require is pristine water parameters.. Its a coral not an algae really one of the oldest corals know older then the Blue ridge species.. Get the Calcium Dkh and magnesium up to proper levels and you will see it take off. Thats all the purple up stuff is just basic elements that most wash out of new aragonite sand where do you ran your levels at ?
Ca 450
Dkh 12
Mag 1400 And when it takes hold it will strip the water fast so you have to keep adding more and more of the needed elements what was enough last month won't be enough next month is what most overlook until it turns white and flakes off.

 

water flow and bulb color will impact the color and growth form of coralline as well.

 

My one month old 90, with tek 8 bulb t5 fixture (on for 2 weeks now) has coraline specs growing on the tunze powerheads already. I am running 3 daylight bulbs and 5 atinic, gonna make it 50/50 next time im at the lfs.

 

See if the LFS can get you the new URI bulbs for the T5's and get the actinic white and their 03 super actinic and go 50 50 and you will see much improvement and beautiful coloration .

 

thnx for the replys guys

currently my calcium is at 350ppm but i have been sorting out over the last few weeks going from using red sea salt <the cheap 1> to red sea max which boasts 450ppm calcium, i am hopping this will help alot other than that i do monthly water changes about 15% at a time everything in the tank is fine, just never had much luck with coraline that said ive always used the cheaper salt.
so fingers crossed this might help, ive allready promised i wont put any coral in the tank till i see coraline growing so the sooner this happens the better


quick Q about the water change
my tank is about 300 litres and i plan on doin a 90 litre water change very soon with in the week will the change of salt be to much to change straight over i dont want to do a 5 litres a day or anything like that cos id prolly just be removing the goods i just added


thanx again
8)

 

No the salt will not cause any issues.. But you will have to get a good Carbonate and Ca supplement .. To keep it up once the tank starts to mature to corals and the coralline will pull it out almost over night you can see a change. As for coralline I hate the stuff PITA to keep scraped and cleared.

 

A trusted LFS I go to suggest that I should keep the calcium levels up and upgrade to some kind of light 14K or higher. Not sure if thats really true but he is a pretty smart and knowledge guy.

 

Tangster is always right. I mean, just look at him, he is simply always right. Otherwise he wouldnt be Tangster, but rather, The Inferior Tangster