My tank has been up for many years yet no coralline will grow in the tank. All my perimeter are correct. Yet I can't grow any in my reef tank. Any help out there ???
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Coralline algae Why wont it grow???
- Thread starter Reefaholic
- Start date
What's the lighting on your tank? Coraline algaes prefer low to moderate light.
It seem that mite be the cause of no coralline so Im cutting MH back to 8 hours, so they go on later in the day into the evening When Im home. See what happens........
Thank you for the reply's
Thank you for the reply's
reefaholic, If you've had any corraline in your tank, even with too much lighting, you should see some growth. What parameters are you testing which are OK? Give a better description of your setup, including weather you have corraline, and we can help you.
I have 175Ws on a 75gal. tank. Given, the MHs are much less than yours Bob, but I have corraline growing like mad. (It's really one of the few things that grows alot but that's another subject :
)
I even have good growth near the very top of the tank. I am just amazed that corraline isn't growing somewhere in your tanks. Maybe in lower sections where there's a little shade, or indirect light? Also, did you ever have corraline in your tanks? If you've never had corraline, then you won't grow it. (That kinda fits in the no s**t category) Another thing that I've found makes corraline explode is the use of a calcium reator, or keeing Alk high and Ca high <- which I'm assuming you already do.
)I even have good growth near the very top of the tank. I am just amazed that corraline isn't growing somewhere in your tanks. Maybe in lower sections where there's a little shade, or indirect light? Also, did you ever have corraline in your tanks? If you've never had corraline, then you won't grow it. (That kinda fits in the no s**t category) Another thing that I've found makes corraline explode is the use of a calcium reator, or keeing Alk high and Ca high <- which I'm assuming you already do.
Bob, I was talking to Bob at TRI about this. He said corraline thrives under actinic. It seems the more actinic you have the better the corraline growth. How much actinic lighting do you have on the 120?
I have 400w on my 38 gal and I get intense coraline growth, but I also started with slammin LR, I have about 6 colors of growth in my tank. I can scrape some off and just chuck it into your tank, get like 2 55w actinic 03 PCs one for each side so its really dark blue and kinda dim . then run the Pc's 24 7 until you get growth then alternate to conflict your MH so when MH goes off they go on all night until the MH comes back on. I promise it will grow. Dan
Dan - You run your actinics 24/7?
Your fish must be wiggin' out from lack of sleep. Where's the nightime?
Beyond that, I agree with you (and Bob from TRI) it must be the actinic lights that boost the corraline. I have at least 4-5 different colors in my tank as well. I put my actinics on 2 hours before and two hours after the MHs are on. So my MHs are on for 6 hours, and the actinics are on for 10.
Your fish must be wiggin' out from lack of sleep. Where's the nightime?
Beyond that, I agree with you (and Bob from TRI) it must be the actinic lights that boost the corraline. I have at least 4-5 different colors in my tank as well. I put my actinics on 2 hours before and two hours after the MHs are on. So my MHs are on for 6 hours, and the actinics are on for 10.
No I dont even have an actinic on this tank at all just the 20k. I am just refering to a GARF tip of promoting algea growth take it or leave it but it works guaranteed. Anyway the Ac03 spectrum is considered very low intensity light, so "sleeping" which fish dont even do isnt a problem. They just enter heavy states of relaxation, but are always kinda ready to go at a moments notice, kinda like a catnap. As far as the corals from my own research and others reports, continuous low intensity light is radiated nearly all the time I.E. the moon. Therefor why would it matter in a tank. Alot of people leave a small actinic on at night for night effect or some people use led's for moon effect. Also if I locked you in a room 12x12 forever with the lights on and fed you you would eventually have no problem sleeping, you would be forced to. Just my two cents.-Dan
Relax, I'm not picking a fight or anything.... I'm just getting to the thought process behind a methodology that I'm not used to using. That how I can discern weather I'd like to try it or not.
Anyway - the reason I asked about the light is - even with the moon emtting light at night, due to moon phases, that light is a value is a variable and there are times when there is no light (new moon). My personal beleifs about lighting in a tank are that we should try to simulate the natural intensity of the ocean. Hence, I use MH & VHO actinic lighting to act as mid-day sun, VHO actinic to simulate the morning and evening hours and LED lighting to simulate moon lighting. Then I always drop the lights off for an hour or two at least during the night since whenever I remember staying up all night (granted most of that time I was drunk or glued to a video game) there was some time where it was completely dark even after a full moon.
As for the fish - yes, they do "stay awake" all the time, but to your point about the 12x12 with constant lighting.... I would be able to fall asleep, but since it's such a different environment than my body and natural instincts are used to, I'd imagine I would be more seceptable to sickness and such since my rest period is comprimised.
I hope you didn't take my previous thread as something negative about your methods. It was more like I was astonished at how different our methods were, and if anything I was intrigued.
GH
Anyway - the reason I asked about the light is - even with the moon emtting light at night, due to moon phases, that light is a value is a variable and there are times when there is no light (new moon). My personal beleifs about lighting in a tank are that we should try to simulate the natural intensity of the ocean. Hence, I use MH & VHO actinic lighting to act as mid-day sun, VHO actinic to simulate the morning and evening hours and LED lighting to simulate moon lighting. Then I always drop the lights off for an hour or two at least during the night since whenever I remember staying up all night (granted most of that time I was drunk or glued to a video game) there was some time where it was completely dark even after a full moon.
As for the fish - yes, they do "stay awake" all the time, but to your point about the 12x12 with constant lighting.... I would be able to fall asleep, but since it's such a different environment than my body and natural instincts are used to, I'd imagine I would be more seceptable to sickness and such since my rest period is comprimised.
I hope you didn't take my previous thread as something negative about your methods. It was more like I was astonished at how different our methods were, and if anything I was intrigued.
GH
He he Grass no offense taken. I understand how I came off sounding. I apologize.I was writing that after working kinda long that day LOL. I do agree about the interesting differances in our individual keeping of the tanks and livestock, on a whole across the whole hobby I mean. I have really learned alot of cool stuff so far and continuallly seek to learn everyday at almost everything I do. Reefing is something that just sort of engulfed my interest, as we all know apparently. Hence I try and read as many differant things as possible, and I am still in the process of experimentation to find "my style". I am currently experiancing a growth decline in coralline, under only the 20k. So I may pop a 96w Ac3 on it as supplement. Before I got the 400w I was using my custom made 36" 4x96w hood 2x 10k 2 x ac03. So never really had anything to compare it to. After reading this post I took keen watch on that and noticed in the month or so I have been running my MH and no actinic,and this post was written, I to have little coralline growth in this tank now.All my parameters are correct and the coral are growin and colorin up like never before, but little to no new growth of coralline. Thanks for the post , I may have been less keen to this and let it go for along time.
Reefers Teaching Reefers its a great thing.
- Dan
PS cant find the upload!! How do I post pics
Reefers Teaching Reefers its a great thing.
- Dan
PS cant find the upload!! How do I post pics
Yeah, how true is that. It will be real interesting to see if the addition of an actinic to your current lighting restarts the corraline growth. Keep us all posted!
Thanks! (good to hear it only a bad day and not me that pi**ed you off
)GH