Coraline is out of control :D

[dakar]

Since getting the alk sorted out and maintained @ 9+dKH our coraline growth is just going crazy, without exageration in less than t a week most of the 50lbs of plain jane base rock and agrocrete rock we'd made and to the reef months ago is now 90% covered in that oh so desired purple :D :D

I scraped down all of the glass last night, there were maybe a couple dozen dime sized or smaller patches forming around different areas, and tonight there are dime to quarter sized patches all over the place. I think we've got the recipe for coraline dialed in. Calcium is still holding in the 520-540ppm range without supplementing anything but baking soda to hold the alk up. I'd have to guess that scraping the coraline from the glass helped it spread through the tank a bit.

Sorry, just had to gloat a bit, I think the tank is finally starting to 'mature', even if we are still waging a siphon war on the cyano, the coraline taking off is a big motivator. I think the kids' term for things now is "I'm Stoked'. Maybe that was last years term... I can't keep up anymore.

[Reptoreef]

Were you aware that a higher ca level(over 475...) begins to scew the wavebands of your lighting towards the red wave bands??? IMO, raise your alk to about 11 dKH and let your ca drop to 400-475. Quit feeding and skim aggressively along with some more frequent water changes and you should see a more rapid decrease in cyano.

[Whoyah]

is now 90% covered in that oh so desired purple

Man I wish I had that kind of problem. :-?

[Whoyah]

Were you aware that a higher ca level(over 475...) begins to scew the wavebands of your lighting towards the red wave bands???

Man, how do you know this stuff? It makes sense (sort of) but I would have never thought of it. Whats your secret, hunh?

[dakar]

No kidding... repto's a closet rocket scientist or something...

We've cut back on the feedings quite a bit, and the skimmer is now sorted out, cleaning 2-3 times a week really helps the berlin. I had no idea about the increased calcium, that actually makes some sense. Thanks.

Now the trick will be finding a way to get the Calcium levels to drop.... I'm not using any additives for Ca at all... that's straight out of the Oceanic bucket :)

Since I still have yet to get around to the lighting upgrade, I need something that has a high calcium uptake but will be okay with moderate lighting. Suggestions?

Maybe a couple of fistfulls of Halimeda for the sump and fuge? We had a bunch of it in the display, but just because the book says fish will generally leave it alone, our yellow tang read the book as well and has eaten almost all of it... :lol:

[jerryc]

The Coraline can be a Paine in the be hind i have to get it of the front glass at lest ones a week or it will cover it up

[Reef_Angel]

Repto, when you say.....
Quit feeding and skim aggressively along with some more frequent water changes How often are you saying I should feed then? I wouldn't want anything to suffer in the tank. I do a good deal of the feeding, and I also hand feed. When I hand feed, there is not a great deal of excess going off into the tank because my corals and I have a great little routine. Lets just say, I know just how much they want, where they like the food put... so there isn't a lot of waste in the tank. As far as fish food goes, the amount given is consumed, so I think we're watching pretty carefully. Dakar and I check with each other to make sure we aren't dual feeding since fishies can be such mooches. We had the mother of all cyano breakouts IMO. It looks pretty good now, but there's still more that will disappear with more persistence and advice. What would we do without everybody's tips and tricks...not to mention the members that wow us with their brilliance!! :mrgreen:

[Reptoreef]

The metabolism of oceanic life is pretty slow... a week w/o anything but target feeding those sun polyps(other non-photosynthetic critters, too). Everybody should be good. To drop ca, raise alk slowly... they'll balance. You can put the halimeda in the fuge, too. As for know-how... lots of reading and sharing info on sites(none as great as ours!!!). I feed my system 4 times per week(Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri) with 1/2" cube square of "fish mush"... seek out www.littlereef.com for more info. After lights out, I feed phyto foods (a few drops only...concentrated) on Mon, Wends, and fri.

[Reef_Angel]

hehehe....my hand fed babies are not only my sun polyps.... they're my, sun coral, my bubble coral, my sebae's, my curly cue anemone, a couple hungry mushrooms, ricordias, my brittle star loves shrimp, frog spawn's....gosh, that's all I can think of at the moment. These are my babies guys! I only treat them like that though every 2 weeks or maybe even once a month. Like I said though, they are all greedy and don't waste a bit! :D

[JustDavidP]

Just getting your Calc and Alk in order, and therefore "scrubbing" the water, will allow your lights to stay toward the blue side. That in itself could help with the alga bloom.

Just my two cents....

[dakar]

I was originally aiming at 10.5, but I sorta grabbed that number out of the air. What are you guys suggesting I raise the alk to and hold it at? Raising it is the easy part, it's coming up with a maintence formula to try to keep it constant will be a bit more trial and error, but we evap almost 5 gallons/day so making additions through the top off will make it easier.