how do you identify Coraline?

Hi all,

when i was going thru the treads and articles, i came across the term coraline algae (wonder if it's correct... algae ). What is this coraline thingy? and i read it comes in various colours, how do i actually identify them on the live rocks from the lfs? any pictures to show the different types of color these organisms appear in? they are actually living things... not just rocks... hmm :-/

Any advise will be greatly appreciated. THANKS-in-advance!

 

Here's a bunch of pictures or coralline algae. coralline algae - Google Image Search

It is hard and not soft like regular algaes because it incorporates Calcium (among other things) into it's thallus.

 

hi curt, thanks for your help. erm... so u will need calcium to aid in their growth then? and so... all those red, soft and slimey algaes are cyanobacteria that i will need to get rid of... right?

 

yeah,

Sorry to tell you this but if it's slimy, it's cyanobacteria.

 

Run (or drive) to your lfs and pick up some Chemi-clean- it should aleviate your problem- avoid the "antibiotic" type of treatment as this can mess with your friendly bacteria. Left untreated cyano can grow out of control and even smother some corals, as far as coraline algae it will generally start apearing when your tank is ready for its developement

 

If I'm not mistaken, Chemi-clean is an antibiotic treatment for Red Slime.

Regardless, if your tank is new, I wouldn't treat with chemicals as the cyano is a normal part of the tank maturation process. So, the question is....how old is this tank?

 

Thanks for all the info. now, my tank history:

i used to have a 15 gal FOWLR tank for 2 years and the slime was there for all this time... quite disgusting if you think about it, i did not put much effort into the maintenance and the learning process. :-[

i have just migrated (about a month now) all my fish, LR & equipment to a 30 gal tank. Except for the lighting n the UGF nothing else is new. and it seems that the slime moved over as well, argh... i have read that increasing the strength of the lightings and flow rate in the tank will help, will it? and i am in the process of building a slump/refuge for the the new tank, hopefully it helps with the slime... i am really into the whole mini reef thingy now and hope everything will turn out fine.

stuffs in my tank:

2-3 inch gravel
25 kilograms of LR (about 44 lbs)
1 flame angel (2 weeks)
2 a.ocellaris (22 months old)
1 regal tangs (24 months old)
1 coral beauty (4 weeks)
1 yellowtail damsel (24 months old)
1 black stripe eel like fish, i dun noe what is it called (20 months old)
1 BTA (2 weeks)
2 sea sponge (blue and yellow)

Cheers
Joe

 

Well, from the looks of it, your cyano is due in part to your fish load. I don't know how you're filtering the new tank but unless you really have loads of rock or great mechanical filtration, you're always going to have dirty water with all those fish.

Regardless, your tank is still new so cyano, even without your fish load, is a normal occurence. I doubt that it will go away quickly though unless you get rid of some fish or ramp up your filtration big time.

 

ok... sounds good... so i'll have to upgrade my filters then... will a sump with DSB helps? and i am currently using under gravel filter that came with the tank and a external hanging filter. apparently they are not enuff to keep up with bio load... n thanks for the help

cheers

 

I wouldn't put a DSB in anything but a refugium. I don't trust them in the main tank. The undergravel filter will probably cause you problems in the long run as they gunk up quickly and are very hard to clean. A hang on filter isn't going to do much for you either. If it was my tank, I'd add both a nitrate coil and a refugium to keep nitrates down. Nothing short of that is going to support that kind of bioload on that small of a tank.