Coralline algae question 07/17/2008
Hi
<<Good Morning, Andrew (the ghost) here today>>
my 75g tank has been running successfully for more than a year with excellent coralline growth. Lately, however, some of the coralline on the
back glass has been flaking off, sort of like old paint. It has not bleached and appears to be completely healthy even after falling to the
bottom. New patches of coralline quickly colonize the bare glass. And there is no sign of coralline flaking off the rocks. Is this normal? My
water parameters: 78-79 degrees, pH 8.0-8.1, dKH 12, Ca 375-400, barely detectable nitrate levels. I am running a Korallin calcium reactor and a Precision Marine Kalk reactor on the top off. I employ an AquaC EV-120, 2x175w 10000K MHs, and 130w of actinic PCs. I only supplement iodine. The only grazers are Turbos and a rabbitfish.
<<Certainly nothing to worry about. The time to worry would be when the coralline does not grow back. Experienced this myself a few times>>
My first instinct is that this is exactly what coralline algae probably does in the wild, and the smooth glass is probably the easiest surface for the algae to lose its grip on. But I was curious to know if you had seen anything similar before. I hate to rely solely on instinct. Thanks!
<<As above, yes, had this myself, and its nothing to worry about>>
Ed
<<Thanks for the questions, hope this helps. A Nixon>>

Live Rock Turning White 10/18/05
Hi guys,
<Hey, Mike G with you this evening.>
I have a question about the 79 lbs of Live Rock in my 75 gallon tank, it is turning whitish in color, do you guys know why?
<Coralline die off. Coralline algae is a benign, desirable calcareous algae that grows in profusion in established aquaria and on the reefs of the world. It comes in a vast array of colors, all in the Red-Purple-Orange area. Often, new aquaria do not possess the facilities to properly care for this algae, and it dies off, leaving behind its (white) skeletal remains.>
I had heard that this means that your live rock is dying or decaying, but It has been in there for about 5 weeks and is fully cycled, it was really flourishing until I noticed a few areas of the rock turning white, it isn't all white yet though.... In the tank I have a Neon Goby, 2 ocellaris clowns, 3 blue green chromis, and a twin spot goby, all of the fish are doing great. here are my water parameters:
Nitrate: 10
<Decent.>
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: 0
pH: 8.3
Salinity: 1.025
<Good.>
Calcium: 350
<Low, could be a factor in the coralline die off.>
Alkalinity: 10
<A bit low.>
Temperature: 80.5
<Fine.>
I just did a 12 gallon water change about 4 days ago, anything else I should be testing, or do you see why this would be happening?
<See above.>
Also, the surface of my water looks like it has oil in it
<Common problem. Get a powerhead to agitate the surface, no real way to prevent it.>
I use RO/DI water for water changes so I don't know why this would be
<Dust, etc. from the air.>
but like I said everything other than the rock is doing great.
<As should be expected.>
Any insights, thoughts, ideas, or actions you tell me to take are greatly appreciated :)
Thanks,
<No problem.>
Clare
<Mike G>

Pink Coralline algae turning white 11/4/03 
Hello, Any ideas on why Pink Coralline algae would turn white? 
Thanks. Teddi 
<the list of possible reasons is very long. Common causes though are inconsistent Calcium and Alkalinity levels, lack of water changes (only monthly or less often), light shock from new lamps or a water level drop (as with water change) with lights mistakenly left on (Yikes! bad - bleaches corallines)... temperature shocks too. Many possibilities. Anthony> 

Why is Fiji coralline algae so PURPLE?
Greetings again, esteemed fellow wet-heads.
I'm about to set-up a larger reef tank, which will focus on "Indo-Pacific" livestock, especially those from Fiji. So that I can make life as comfortable as possible for all future inhabitants of the tank, I'm trying to find out what environmental factors make Fiji live-rock coralline algae so predominantly PURPLE? I'm not merely jazzed about the color -- my hope is that creating a tank which favors purple corallines from Fiji would benefit other creatures from the same neighborhood (duh).
Is there some special combination of water quality, lighting, and water chemistry (trace elements? calcium characteristics? oxygen?) that makes Fiji live-rock so purple?
<Wish I knew... have not seen discussed this particular issue>
My instinct is that, in addition to the above criteria, WATER DEPTH (i.e., resultant lighting spectrum) plays a large part in favoring "the color purple." Hypotheses: Does Fiji live-rock get unusually high "actinic" radiation? UV? Or is the surrounding water rich in some specific mineral?
<Don't think so on these counts. Have been to the areas where the companies collect most all the LR in Fiji... it's large, open, shallow (wading depth) seashore to the open Pacific (along the Coral Coast in Viti Levu) for the most part... Perhaps their greater care in cleaning, shipping LR has something to do with it... and there is notably a dearth of hermits, Parrotfishes in and about these collecting areas... maybe this has something to do with the propensity for corallines>
My existing tank has provided consistent growth of a VARIETY of coralline colors, which is encouraging but means I need to fine-tune a bit before embarking for Fiji.
THANKS in advance!
- Bruce Mewhinney
<Look to using a system of checking, providing adequate to excess biominerals AND alkalinity to boost your encrusting algal growth... Bob Fenner>

Algae in FOWLR 2/5/04 
Good morning, just a quick question regarding algae growth. I have a 220 gallon FOWLR system with about 150 pounds of live rock. When I purchased the rock it had nice purple, red, violet coralline algae. A few of the pieces had a very very dark red color. This dark red, almost black looking seems to now be growing on the majority of the rocks and over top of the other more colorful encrusted algae. This growth I speak of looks slimy yet is hard. Is there anything I can do to promote other colors and types? I don't have any blue actinic in my power compacts, would this make a difference?, is this a good alga or is it telling me something is wrong with my system? 
<Different coralline algaes will dominate depending on many factors including lighting, current, calcium, magnesium, and alkalinity. Increasing the current and maintaining calcium and alkalinity are the most important factors in promoting growth of a variety of corallines, but on may still dominate. Adding some actinic light may favor a different type than you have now. I don't think anything is "wrong", but do test the calcium and alkalinity. Both of these parameters are often ignored in FO tanks, but should be maintained if good coralline growth is desired.> 
One thing I should mention is that I have in the past dropped the salinity in the system to fight off Ich. I've since moved it back up. 
<A drop in salinity could have contributed to the die off of some corallines. Hyposalinity is hard on live rock all the way around because it is very stressful on all of the inverts living in/on the rock. I like hyposalinity very much, but it should be used in quarantine.> 
Last question I do have a clown trigger in the tank, if I was to get some turbo snails to help eat the algae is it likely the trigger would eat the snails. Thanks for the help. Joe 
<This may be hit or miss. I would give it a shot with a couple of snails and see if the trigger behaves before adding more. Best regards. Adam>

- Coralline Algae Not Growing -
Hi crew, thanks for all your help in the past.  I just passed my one year anniversary on my 55 gallon reef/ 30 gallon sump with "fuge".  Things are pretty good and I'm getting more sophisticated in knowledge and husbandry. So far I have two fish, flame angel and tomato clown both doing great.  One corkscrew anemone who has doubled in size, a couple of mushrooms and some clean-up guys.  My question has to do with why my coralline just won't grow.
Tank specs:
Temp = 77.9
SG = 1.025
PH = 8.2 - 8.3
Calcium = 400
Alk = 2.8 meq/l
Magnesium = 1200
ORP = 297 - 327 (8 hour swing)
Nitrate = 2.5
Phosphate = .125
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Lighting = 3-4 watts per gallon VHO
CPR BakPak = 1/2 cup per day output
Kalk drip = 3 gallon DI top-off every two days with 3 tsp of Kalk covers
daily demand.
Iodine = 1 tsp per week
Water change = 10 gallon per week
No other supplements, I feed very sparingly.  My coralline just won't grow, I had read that some hermits eat coralline so I moved them all into the "fuge".  Also quite a bit of slime algae growing in sump. I ordered an ozonizer to install into the venturi of my skimmer hoping to get ORP up around 400 Mv. Also ordered some red Gracilaria macro for sump. Are there any parameters or things I need to tweak or am I missing something completely. <Hmm... Kalkwasser alone will do nothing for you alkalinity, which is low based on the numbers you provide. You need to work at improving that number and that will improve calcium uptake by the coralline. More about calcium/alkalinity here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/calcalkmar.htm > Kind of at a loss here, I read the GARF stuff, still no results.
As always thank you in advance for you help  Mike
<Cheers, J -- >

Question on Coralline
Bob,
<Msieu Moore>
I was a regular user of a website that allowed folks to ask you questions on their tanks.  That site has now merged with Dr. Forster and Smith and they don't offer that service.  Since I saw your name associated with another site I thought I'd take a chance and shoot you a question.  
<Glad you found us... WetWebMedia.com continues as our archive>
My coralline algae is looking like someone sprinkled sugar on it.  I'm not sure if this is a bad thing or not but I'm hoping you've heard of it and might have a reason for the cause.
Thanks for your time.
Keitt Moore
<Likely either calcium is out of balance with magnesium (should be in a ratio of about 1:3) or your alkalinity is low. Do test for all, and adjust accordingly. Bob Fenner>