Coralline Algae - It's about color!

[JavaJones]

Coralline algae is finally flourishing in my tank. This is a milestone for which I have been waiting for some time. It's taking in many places, including, surprisingly, on some icelandic pumice that I used as base rock.

Now for my question: all of the algae is a nice light purple hue, but I'd really like a variety of hues ranging from deep red, through shades of green and deep purple. How does one accomplish that?

Are the colors dependent on the coralline with which one starts? Or is it determined by environmental factors?

 

[stevenp]

I've wondered this myself...

 

[smcnally]

I've wondered too. 99.999% of the coraline in my tank is the light purple kind. But in very few spots I have a light mint green color. If all the green was together it would probably be 1.5" across. Then on one rock, I have a spot about 2" across that is a deep burgondy. Looks like the color of Merlot.

 

[MelodyDurham]

Sorry, I don't have an answer for you, but I'm curious about how long you've had your tank up and running before you saw promising signs of the coralline.

Thanks! And I hope someone answers you soon, I'm very curious myself about the color variety!

Melody~

 

[skyedolphan]

as far as I believe coraline color growth depends on the light factor I believe the deeper the water ie. less light the more colorful ie. greens,blues,and reds

 

[JavaJones]

My current setup uses a 75G main tank that has been running since January. I first noticed coralline growth about a month ago, now its popping up everywhere...

I will start trawling the web for answers and will post anything useful here.

 

[smcnally]

Melody, I believe it took over a month for it to start spreading in my tank. It was on my rock before then, but didn't show on my glass for about a month. Here's a picture of that "Merlot" colored coraline in my tank. For some reason I thought it was on a rock, but it is actually on one of my bi-valves.

 

[NateHanson]

Pay attention to your ca, mag, and alk, and Coraline should sprout up pretty quickly in a cycled tank. You can help it spread by scraping some shavings off a rock. I'm not sure about creating more colors, but I'd guess that scraping the colors you like, might help them spread.

In my experience though, the light purple/blue stuff is the fastest grower by far, so it'll probably outcompete everything.

 

[starrfish]

My coraline really started to spread on my glass once I got my magnesium up to the correct level. I had never checked the level until a few months ago. It was low. I had coraline on my rocks, but not a whole lot on the glass. Once I raised the magnesium, the coraline started covering the glass in a week!

 

[dedfish]

So I guess everytime we scrape the glass we are promoting the spread of coraline? I've noticed that my coraline growth has gone up since I've straightened out a alk problem I was having.

 

[conrad]

I started getting the light pink stuff within a month of setting up my 29, but I'm now starting to get the deeper red stuff, both as in smcnally's picture. Oddly, I have hardly any in my 5.5, which went up at nearly the same time and gets the same water and kalk.

--cn

 

[JavaJones]

Some early results

Here's what I've found out--in addition to the above contributions--from my web-based searches:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/corlalgfaqs.htm

Coralline Algae
Quick question for you Bob.
Coralline algae. It's starting to "prosper" quite well in my tank. I have
over 100 pea sized growths on my tank. These are all green. I'm going
to let it encrust the entire back and sides, and the lower 1" of the front...
does this sound okay?
<Sure>
I do see about 10 of the pink variety starting to grow as well.
Is there a reason why the green grows so rapidly while the pink took over
a month longer to begin growing?
<Mmm, yes... conditions favor this type/species... more light, perhaps lack of available biominerals, alkalinity... perhaps predators are eating the encrusting reds... a few other possibilities>
I'm wondering if different color coralline
grows better under a certain "color" of light.
<Yes... not so much apparent color but wave lengths, intensities...>
Not so much that I care whether it's green, pink or purple, just my curious
nature pondering a question that wasn't answered by your FAQ's.
- Euge
<Point taken. Be chatting my friend. Bob Fenner>

...

Ah, the ever-present question of balance. Yes, boosting your system by intense lighting generally favors other forms of algal life, in particular various species of greens (division Chlorophyta), over the reds including corallines (division Rhodophyta). In your stated circumstances I wouldn't be concerned about over-intense lighting. Your system is not that bright. What you can do to increase your coralline growth is assure sufficient levels of alkaline reserve (alkalinity) and biomineral concentration (in particular calcium). You want 3.5 or higher meq/l of the former and 350-450 ppm of calcium respectively.

...

http://store1.yimg.com/I/marinedepotlive_1840_7702293

 

[Nikkoli110]

I noticed in the past 2 months really started growing everywhere, almost covering the back half of my tank. I started dripping kalk, which I'm sure helped, but I also noticed that where one of my powerheads points to, it just spread everywhere, but everywhere else its just spots.

 

[ReeferMedic]

This may be coincidence but, I was dosing Potassium Iodide a while back and noticed a huge coralline growth spurt shortly after I started with it........

 

[nitrofish]

ive got the pink kind, but I wish it was the purple kind, I think thats nicer looking