Corraline growth

[Andrew52984]

Last week I upgraded from a Coralife single 39w 50/50 light to a Tek Light 4x39w T5 fixture, I have them mounted atop my 46g bowfront and wow they are amazing. Currently I am running two blue plus bulbs, an aquasun 10000k and a 6500k midday. I've got the lights at almost they're highest point cause when I added them my temp went from a steady 78-79 to a 80.5 to 81 degrees. At night the water drops back down to 79 or so. After this first week of having these lights, my 3 small polyps(which i posted about in another thread) have grown just a little bit but stay open longer. However, my glass has become covered in red, orange, and yellow over the last few days. Tried scraping the front glass with my algae scraper sponge and its very hard to get off. I believe this is corraline growing, my live rock has changed in color alot over the last few days showing more red, pink, and green. Anyway, sorry for the long post, just looking for some recommendations on keeping my glass cleaned off, mainly the front and sides....I will post pictures soon. Thanks for the help.

 

[lcstorc]

Sounds like corraline to me.
Try an old credit card or if it is a glass tank you can use a razor blade.

 

[Andrew52984]

Cool, thanks. It is glass so I can use either, but I am also worried about stressing my fish out. Should i try cleaning it at night or what? Just added a lm blenny two days ago and don't wanna freak him out, but man is he having a blast skipping and munchin on my rocks.

 

[untilthen]

with ur corraline growin ur gonna b in for a long annoying battle

 

[Andrew52984]

So I got up today at one thirty in the am to go to work and finally got off work after a long annoying day. Looked at my tank after I got home and the corraline has doubled at least! Yesterday there was no purple and very little green to be seen and now throughout my tank the live rock has quite a bit of purple and greens and my "fossilized" coral is totally covered in nice maroon, brown, greens and yellows! My glass is just filthy looking and my sandbed has alot of red and orange to it. About cleaning the glass tho, should i use an old credit card or razorblade at night so I don't disturb the fish?

Thanks for the input

 

[lcstorc]

I wouldn't wait for night. My fish have never seemed bothered by it at all. You can get a long handled scraper or even an attachment for the mag float if you are worried about scaring the fish.
I am a bit skeptical about that much growth that quickly. Is is all corraline or do you have a variety of algae? The corraline will be hard where the other algae is soft. I have never seen corraline on the sand. It is much more likely that the stuff on the sand is either cyano or diatoms.

 

[Andrew52984]

Can't really tell what it is on the sand, its red and yellowish orange. But the rocks became covered with purple red and green over a few days after I added my new lighting. Upgraded from a single 39w to 4x39w t5's. I just added a lawnmower blenny a couple days ago also so that may have contributed to a small algae breakout but with the extensive amount of bright color it doesn't look like diatoms.

 

[Owzer]

Can't really tell what it is on the sand, its red and yellowish orange. But the rocks became covered with purple red and green over a few days after I added my new lighting. Upgraded from a single 39w to 4x39w t5's. I just added a lawnmower blenny a couple days ago also so that may have contributed to a small algae breakout but with the extensive amount of bright color it doesn't look like diatoms.

Hate to tell ya but no corraline I know grows that fast overnight....

 

[BigAl07]

Andrew Owzer is correct. Corraline grows painfully slow and here is a rule of thumb for reefing in general....


"Nothing GOOD happens fast in the reef tank!" Basically this means usually only the BAD algae grows fast and usually it's cyano-bacteria that grows THAT fast. Maybe snap some pics for us...

 

[Andrew52984]

I know, I'm just trying to figure it out. Its hard, used my finger to check
the hardness of it and its not slimy and soft like hair algae or anything.
And it has been a week since the light addition and that's when the growth
started, its just a huge sprout over the last few days. Here's a picture from a couple
weeks ago(approximately 2 weeks)

and now here's the new ones:

I resized the pics but with my luck they probably still came out huge..thanks for the help guys

 

[Andrew52984]

Just checked my parameters and they're sittin fine. Tank temp has risen as previously posted since the light addition but nothing has changed other than that.

Current params:
Temp 80 degrees F
Salinity : 1.025
pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 5 or less, looks like zero to me but I doubt its really that low
Lol

 

[lcstorc]

Try blowing it off with a power head or turkey baster.
Corraline grows in spots that slowly expand.
Unfortunately that isn't it.
Bad picture but this shows how solid the corraline is.

 

[TheSaltySpitoon]

hey icstorc nice star fish is he a lankia?.... orange lankia? also how long does it take coraline to spread from rock to glass if the water is well maintained?

 

[BigAl07]

hey icstorc nice star fish is he a lankia?.... orange lankia? also how long does it take coraline to spread from rock to glass if the water is well maintained?

Coraline will seem to "Creep" for a while and then one day you'll be looking and say, "Is my whole SIDE panel of glass covered with Coraline or what?" sure enough once it takes off it does so with a vengeance!! :bluemad:

It will grow on any and every surface in your tank... glass, rock, hose, over-flow, power heads, thermometers, snails, crabs, etc

 

[lcstorc]

The orange star in the background is a serpent star. The guy in the front is an engineer goby who is now about twice that size.
There is no set time on corraline. It will come when it will come and you will quickly get tired of scraping it. I like it on the rock and powerheads and such but the glass is a real pain to keep clean.
I have the razor blade attachment for a mag float that takes care of most of it but there is always some I have to get by hand.