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How do u speed up the growth of the Purple coraline algae on the rocks???

My tank has been going on for half a year now, the rocks are turning to this mouldy green colour...
I heard that they will turn pruple with good water and time, but i want to know how long it will usually take for that to happen, because it has been green like this for nearly two months now.

Thanks.

Light has a lot to do with it. My last reef tank had great purple algea growing, then I upgraded my lights and it stopped. Different lights will cause different algea to grow.



Dan

The addition of calcium will help boost the growth rate. There are other supplements as well that can help although I don't have experience with them. I'm sure others can give you more details on that matter.

Raider_fish

Calcium, magnesium, and other trace elements in a balance are needed for coraline growth, and also low nitrate and phosphates.

As was stated earlier, coraline growth may stop when/if you upgrade lighting.......it should however resume, but may be slower in some higher light areas, or be a different color.

High lighting doesnt stop coraline though.....IME, pinks and dark reds seem to like my high light areas, and grow just fine.

Bottom line.....it comes down to water quality.

Since getting my Ca to 430ppm and Alk to 11.2 dKH ( and maintaining it there) i am noticing much more coraline activity on the rocks. I had a lot of die off from the rocks i added until i sorted this out. I have only had these levels stable for a few weeks now but i can see it growing on crab shells and on some rocks in the tank quite well.

One thing that mentioned is NitrAtes.... i think this is holding me back as i have yet to set myself up to be able to do large water changes and as a result my NitrAte hovers around .2-.7 When i get my holding tub for NSW this should change though

Another thing i think is important is to keep pest alage down so the coraline has a chance to grab hold, but this relates more to water quality and maintenance as suggested above.

All the best

p.l.u.r
Matt

Cake > Pie