coralline algae looks very pretty, but it benefits you tank by doing.....??
- Thread starter new reefer 03
- Start date
bluespotjawfish
Well-Known Member
It also competes with your corals for calcium. I keep the glass clean of it to reduce the calcium demand in the tank.
Also, when you scrape it off glass, it dies and therefore adds nutrients that other algaes love. So, keep her clean. When I clean my glass I always do it just before a WC and try and syphon out as much of it as I can.
Also, when you scrape it off glass, it dies and therefore adds nutrients that other algaes love. So, keep her clean. When I clean my glass I always do it just before a WC and try and syphon out as much of it as I can.
new reefer 03
Active Member
wouldnt that be like sucking up the calcium and other nutrients it "leaves" when it dies?:bugout:
for now i let it grow all over my tank, even a few bloches on the front i just like the way it looks.
prow
Well-Known Member
hello everyone and MERRY CHRISTMAS to all................yes, thats right i said it, MERRY CHRISTMAS
..........
good thread guys and girls...i did read most of the RC thread linked here...looks like Ron got stepped on, thats what happens when you venture too far out of your scope of practice. little growing pains are sometimes needed so your head doesnt get too big for the rest of your body...
ok, i admit i did not read the entire thread over there but enough to get what they were getting at. so i will add some things about how coralline benefits a our little reefs. they might have been brought up already in that thread or maybe here, though maybe not. that thread only went into biofiltration so i will not go there here. as far as i can tell they really only went into biofiltration as is relates to rock substrates where alga and bacterias grow and blah blah blah...
the biggest benefit, IMO, is that it provide shealter for for critters to grow aswell as a food source to feed on, which inturn increases critter populations providing a steady source of food for bigger critters. coralline also prevents erosion of rock by protecting it against the shearing damage water currents cause and yes shearing happens in our tanks not just the ocean, rock slides in our tanks are not always a result of burrowing fish or bulldozing snails. coralline gives you some protection against that. it also acts as "cement", it collects loose particles and clumbs them together, rock work included, that might otherwise end up floating up into in the water column. some coralline acts as "fertilizer" for many larvae, coral and crustasians alike, it gives rise to reef funua...plus all that biofilm gradient transporting of nutrients stuff they talk about in the linked thread. plus more just can not think of them right now:coffee:
..........good thread guys and girls...i did read most of the RC thread linked here...looks like Ron got stepped on, thats what happens when you venture too far out of your scope of practice. little growing pains are sometimes needed so your head doesnt get too big for the rest of your body...
ok, i admit i did not read the entire thread over there but enough to get what they were getting at. so i will add some things about how coralline benefits a our little reefs. they might have been brought up already in that thread or maybe here, though maybe not
. that thread only went into biofiltration so i will not go there here. as far as i can tell they really only went into biofiltration as is relates to rock substrates where alga and bacterias grow and blah blah blah... the biggest benefit, IMO, is that it provide shealter for for critters to grow aswell as a food source to feed on, which inturn increases critter populations providing a steady source of food for bigger critters. coralline also prevents erosion of rock by protecting it against the shearing damage water currents cause and yes shearing happens in our tanks not just the ocean, rock slides in our tanks are not always a result of burrowing fish or bulldozing snails. coralline gives you some protection against that. it also acts as "cement", it collects loose particles and clumbs them together, rock work included, that might otherwise end up floating up into in the water column. some coralline acts as "fertilizer" for many larvae, coral and crustasians alike, it gives rise to reef funua...plus all that biofilm gradient transporting of nutrients stuff they talk about in the linked thread. plus more just can not think of them right now:coffee:
yungreefer2410
Well-Known Member
i don't much purple but the green kind likes my glass. i have specks of purple on my rocks. i clean the glass whenever i deem it dirty. i don't really mess with my tank but like once a month besides wc and top-off. all but about 5 lbs of my rocks were dead. i got them out of the dirt in my friends neighbor yard. idk why they had them llaying there but they did. i washed them then sundried them for about 5 days. now they have a lot of micro feather dusters in many different colors...red purple white blue tips
RockBox
Member
Having coralline is just one step towards having a healthy reef. I have seen numerous tanks that are full of coralline that are also in pretty poor shape. My tank for instance has very little coralline and its 3 years old. Most the live rock is 5. There are other things like corals that are favorable to have growing in its place. I have also seen coralline overtake soft corals and polyps. As far as a barometer of tank health it can be an indication that calcium, alkalinity and magnesium are all at good levels but beyond that its not really that much of an indicator of anything. I've seen it flourishing in fish only tanks that had close to 200 ppm nitrate for instance.