How Do I Get More Coralline Algee

[VictorMeldrew]

Hi all

I really want my LR to go the purple colour as quickly as poss, i think its called coralline algee (not sure ) are there any tips to promote its growth?

Thanks
VM

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Good levels of calcium (400-500ppm) and magnesium (around 1100-1300mg/L) are the only things that will really matter. Good flow seems to help and you can try seeding it by getting some LR with a good covering and scraping it off into the tank.

It will take time though. After a few weeks you will probably start to notice a few small spots on your glass. It can take months (even years) to get a really good covering over everything though.

 

[SkiFletch]

I'd even say more like 1300ppm magnesium, 1100 is way too low. You'll also need respectable alkalinity if you want to keep your calcium that high, probably 10dKH or so. And MOST IMPORTANT with coraline algae actually is phosphates. 0.03ppm or less. Trust me, even 0.1-0.25ppm phosphates (what I had before I started dosing lanthanum) made for VERY slow growing coraline. Phosphates inhibit calcification reactions and since that's the basis for the growth of coraline it is the first rate-limiting step. Only after phosphates are 0 does worrying about calc/alk/mg matter...

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I'd even say more like 1300ppm magnesium, 1100 is way too low. You'll also need respectable alkalinity if you want to keep your calcium that high, probably 10dKH or so. And MOST IMPORTANT with coraline algae actually is phosphates. 0.03ppm or less. Trust me, even 0.1-0.25ppm phosphates (what I had before I started dosing lanthanum) made for VERY slow growing coraline. Phosphates inhibit calcification reactions and since that's the basis for the growth of coraline it is the first rate-limiting step. Only after phosphates are 0 does worrying about calc/alk/mg matter...

Lanthanum carbonate? Not heard of anyone using that before but it is a phosphate binder so makes sense. How do you use it and is there any side effects?

 

[SkiFletch]

Well due to the reccomendation on the bottle and a bunch of math I determined I'd need about 10mL of Lanthanum Chloride dose to drop my phosphate to about 0. So I gave it a single shot of 5mL and have been dosing 0.5mL daily to keep it low. Obviously I'm injecting phosphates into the water column via feeding that's being used by hair algae to grow so I'm hoping the daily dose will prevent the hair algae from growing and keep my phosphates at 0ppm. It does clog up my mechanical filtration FAST though, that's the only downside so far. Corals are unaffected otherwise. And if it continues to work, it will be WAY MORE cost effective than GFO