How to Grow Coralline Algae in a Saltwater Aquarium

[cjr42009]

Encrusting Coralline Algae is what gives many saltwater aquariums their color and a good covering is the goal of most marine aquarists. Coralline Algae exists in a variety of different colors (green, pink, white, purple, red).

Unlike Brown, Green Hair and Red Slime Algae, which (frequently) grow in your tank whether you like it or not, Coralline Algae must be physically brought into your tank in order for it to reproduce and populate the various surfaces. Coralline Algae can be introduced to your tank by installing:

* Coralline covered Live Rock
* Coralline scrapings from another tank
* Commercial Coralline Algae starter packages

The more types of Coralline (green, pink, white, purple, red) that you add to your tank, the more you will see growing on your Live Rock, substrate and aquarium walls. Once you have some Coralline Algae in your tank, how do you get it to reproduce and spread throughout your tank? One simple method is to turn off all tank filters and skimmers, leaving any powerheads running. With a single edged razor blade, scrape the existing Coralline off the front and side tank walls. The water current generated by the powerhead will spread the Coralline scrapings throughout the tank where they will continue to grow. After an hour or so, turn the skimmers and filters back on.

[Sapphire]

hadn't thought of that method to get it to spread- might have to give that a try!

I'm always scaping it off the back wall (I like the bare look)

[BigAl07]

This is a good way to spread Coraline around IF that's REALLY what you want to do. Just be careful because you may get WHAT you ask for

I started it in a pair of my tanks by scraping some from a snail shell that was bright pink with it. I've NOT done that in ANY tanks since that time though. No thank you!!

[ReefLady]

Encrusting Coralline Algae is what gives many saltwater aquariums their color and a good covering is the goal of most marine aquarists. Coralline Algae exists in a variety of different colors (green, pink, white, purple, red).

Unlike Brown, Green Hair and Red Slime Algae, which (frequently) grow in your tank whether you like it or not, Coralline Algae must be physically brought into your tank in order for it to reproduce and populate the various surfaces. Coralline Algae can be introduced to your tank by installing:

* Coralline covered Live Rock
* Coralline scrapings from another tank
* Commercial Coralline Algae starter packages

The more types of Coralline (green, pink, white, purple, red) that you add to your tank, the more you will see growing on your Live Rock, substrate and aquarium walls. Once you have some Coralline Algae in your tank, how do you get it to reproduce and spread throughout your tank? One simple method is to turn off all tank filters and skimmers, leaving any powerheads running. With a single edged razor blade, scrape the existing Coralline off the front and side tank walls. The water current generated by the powerhead will spread the Coralline scrapings throughout the tank where they will continue to grow. After an hour or so, turn the skimmers and filters back on.

If you are going to quote directly from another person or site, please be sure to give due credit to the original author. This text is copied and pasted directly from here:

How to Grow Coralline (coraline) Algae in a Saltwater Aquarium - How to Grow Coralline (coraline) Algae in a Saltwater Aquarium About.com: Saltwater Aquariums

[johnmaloney]

A supplier of mine grows aquacultured rock that is amazing. He says the trick to get purple coralline over green is this:

Never us a bulb under 10k, make sure to have acitinic light, high calcium and mag does the rest. you can grow it other ways to, but it does seem to grow much faster that way. I still have plant bulbs even in my no longer macro tank and now full reef, it grows green coralline like nobody's business, with full rock coverage in 2 months. Thought I would throw that out there. Lots of nice crutose algae out there, wish my license covered the collection of more of it, would like to show some of you the vast variety of coralline algae, many are nicer than most corals, and aren't encrusting types, but rather grow into pillars and ledges etc..

[Basile]

Originally Posted by BigAl07

This is a good way to spread Coraline around IF that's REALLY what you want to do. Just be careful because you may get WHAT you ask for

I started it in a pair of my tanks by scraping some from a snail shell that was bright pink with it. I've NOT done that in ANY tanks since that time though. No thank you!!

I'm curious Alen, why not?

[yungreefer2410]

it grows really fast and can become a nuisance

[Basile]

Originally Posted by yungreefer2410

it grows really fast and can become a nuisance

I was always told that it prevented bad alge like HA and other to encrust themselves, and helped with oxynation and pest removal, does it not. Where coraline algea is no bad algae will grow?

[Clownfish518]

Originally Posted by Basile

I was always told that it prevented bad alge like HA and other to encrust themselves, and helped with oxynation and pest removal, does it not. Where coraline algea is no bad algae will grow?

Prevent is not the right word. Coralline is a more dominant algae than the others in a reef. There is a hierarchy to algae growth. At the bottom is diatoms, at the top is coralline, and I don't recall the sequence the of all the algaes (dinoflagellates, cyano, HA, etc), but the term is algal succession. Algae will succeed each other in the same sequence. You can see this as you cycle your tank.

With coralline being so dominant, the others are more opportunistic. If something is a bit out of whack they will try and take hold. But in good conditions coralline will win out, so it is always a sign that things are going well

IME if your lighting is bright enough coralline will not grow and be a nuisance

[Basile]

Originally Posted by Clownfish518

Prevent is not the right word. Coralline is a more dominant algae than the others in a reef. There is a hierarchy to algae growth. At the bottom is diatoms, at the top is coralline, and I don't recall the sequence the of all the algaes (dinoflagellates, cyano, HA, etc), but the term is algal succession. Algae will succeed each other in the same sequence. You can see this as you cycle your tank.

With coralline being so dominant, the others are more opportunistic. If something is a bit out of whack they will try and take hold. But in good conditions coralline will win out, so it is always a sign that things are going well

IME if your lighting is bright enough coralline will not grow and be a nuisance

I need more input here. See i'm about 10 hours from putting LR with lots of coraline into my brand new 65 g with an aquamedic lighting system, MH and all the perks. So if i put the LR with all the coraline it won't grow but become a nuisance , explain, lost here if it doesn't grow how can it become a nuisance , i'd like to understand before doing something i might regret later, thanks.

[lcstorc]

I have had other algae cover areas of corraline so I'm not so shure about that one.
It's actually pretty IMO but grows everywhere including places you do not want it to grow. (Pumps, plumbing, glass, etc.) and can be difficult to remove.

[Clownfish518]

Originally Posted by Basile

I need more input here. See i'm about 10 hours from putting LR with lots of coraline into my brand new 65 g with an aquamedic lighting system, MH and all the perks. So if i put the LR with all the coraline it won't grow but become a nuisance , explain, lost here if it doesn't grow how can it become a nuisance , i'd like to understand before doing something i might regret later, thanks.

I doubt it will be a nuisance. If it isn't under such powerful lighting, chances are it will go into shock and bleach. Algae doesn't adjust to lighting like you think. It just starts new and lets the old stuff die. That's why if you ever tried to grow something like halimeda it turns white - it won't waste energy trying to adjust it would rather start over.

the whole algae succession thing is not something i dreamed up, its what science says, but unfortunately since my move I have not unearthed the box with my biology books so I can't give you a reference.

[DaveK]

Once you get coraline algae to grow all over everything, you'll find that it's just another nuisance algae, not as bad as cyano, or hair algae but close.

You'll be scraping it off the glass, overflows, circulation pumps, and a host of other things. Once you see it start to dominate the other algaes, do not encourage it further.

[Westerner]

One color was left out Orange coraline algae..

[Nowellsy SNR]

Thats a good tip but im starting to get it growing slowly on my back glass