purple alge

[Shawn C]

Is there a way to get purple alge to spread and seed on your live rock.I have some on a few peices of my live rock but would like to get it to spread to all.

 

[DonW]

long spine urchin. It will eat it and spread the spores everywhere.

Don

 

[ronj]

it will spread on its own, especially if you keep up with the water changes...this will keep the calcium and alk levels up..it will start to grow pretty fast...keep good flow in the tank also..if you don't have any corals using up the calcium, you don't need to bother supplementing calcium, or anything really!

 

[returnofsid]

I assume you're refering to Coraline? I only ask because some algaes that look purple are NOT good algaes....actually not an algae at all but cyanobacteria...Grrrr...lol.

 

[Shawn C]

yes im referring to coaline alge.I think i read some where that you can scrape it and it will help spread the spores?Is this true?

 

[Brenden]

Keep the CA and Alk at proper levels and you will be cursing it before long. I scraped off some a while back for a someone to seed his tank and it took off. As long as you have a start you will be good. Do not waste your money on Purple up etc. Much cheaper ways to accomplish the same thing.

 

[ronj]

yes..it is true..if you want to do that, it could help

 

[Brenden]

I think i read some where that you can scrape it and it will help spread the spores?Is this true

If you scrape it and spread the particles in the water...Yes it will spread faster.

 

[Krish]

I got one of my rocks before and scraped it all off and then turned off my skimmer for about an hour and threw the little coraline pieces in the tank and let the flow take it everywhere. Eventually it started to spread, but the main ingredients are proper lighting (coraline seems to like the bluer spectrum and lower wattages from what I've read and observed in my own tank) also, proper calcium, alk etc levels, good flow, and nice clean water

 

[ronj]

when i use regular flourescents on my smaller tanks, i get really deep purples..the higher wattage seems to bleach it a little lighter..i will find some pics of before and after a lighting upgrade on the same rocks

 

[Krish]

LOL...If I showed you before and after my metal halides you'd die! 130w pc over my 75gal grew crazy coraline. After adding the halides (dual 250's) I pretty much lost it all before swapping over. I'll find a few shots of what the coraline was like

 

[ronj]

it may be hard to tell, but it was a huge difference..i moved the rocks ..i cant find one where they are both placed the same..it's hard to tell,but the second pic is the weak lighting!!

 

[Krish]

Here's how my 75gal looked before the halides