I need coralline algae!!?

Question

I've had a 10 gallon fish tank for about a year now and I still have just a small amount of coralline algae! It bugs me. My tanks parameters are normal, my live rock is cured, and I have a 96 watt florescent light which is on about 12 hours a day. How can I get more coraline algae????

Please help

Answer 1

Here are some link I have found useful, also your lighting spectrum actually fades over time you might want to replace your bulbs well here are the links: http://saltaquarium.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=saltaquarium&cdn=homegarden&tm=35&f=11&su=p284.8.150.ip_&tt=29&bt=1&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.garf.org/coralline.html
http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/aboutcorallinealgae/ss/coralline_2.htm
http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/aboutcorallinealgae/ss/coralline.htm
http://saltaquarium.about.com/b/a/223038.htm Hope I was of help!!!!
~Kyle

Answer 2

well the best way to grow a lot of coralline algae is to have the blue actinic lights on for longer than the 10k bulbs. You should also have you calcium up between 400-450ppm. First of all coralline algae will only grow if there is already some in the tank. You said you have some so that is a good start. Some species eat coralline so try to avoid these species one being urchins. So since you already have some make sure the calcium is where it is supposed to be and coralline hates white light and really thrives under the 03 blue actinics. If you dont have the actinics growing really nice deep purple corraline will be much harder. That may be where your problem is if it isnt the calcium levels. Hope this helps and good luck with it.

Answer 3

It would be helpful if you would give the actual values of your water testing. In a year old tank, your tests should be ammonia and nitrite = 0, nitrate less than 20 ppm, pH 8.2-8.4, and temperature 76-82oF. If your pH is too low, or the temperature too high, you'll have trouble keeping the coraline algae looking good. Just about everything is sensitive to the nitrogen compounds.

What type of fluorescent lighting do you have? Since this is an algae, it does require good lighting. You should be able to keep it going with good "standard" fluorescents, but a compact fluorescent or T-5 lighting system would give you more intensity. Along with wattage do you use lights used to promote plant growth? If you use "standard" fluorescent tubes, these have stronger wavelengths in the red and blue spectra which are needed for photosynthesis. If this is a CF, if you have 10,000K or 50/50 tubes this should provide what is needed.

Do you do regular partial water changes? "Coralline" algae, like corals, need a fair amount of calcium, magnesium, iron, and other trace elements, and water changes replensish these for good growth. Do you have any fish or inverts in the tank that you feed? Usually all you hear is to reduce/control nutrients in the tank, but some amount of nitrate and phosphate is necessary for plants to grow (it's just when there's an abundance for algae to take advantage of that there's a problem)

Do you have any problems with algae in your tank? If algae overgrows the coralline algae, it shades it, thereby limiting photosynthesis. Besides nutrient control, you might need to add cleaners (snails, hermit crabs, shrimp) to keep algae from growing over the live rock.

These are just some guesses based on what I know has happened in my own research, and what others I know who have marine tanks have experiences.