Is it possible to get FOWLR tank with pink rocks?

[KyRo]

Hi,

Ive been keeping a 6 footer FOWLR tank with a few angels for abt 1 year now. Recently i went to an LFS and my wife saw the coralline totally encrusting the rocks in the display. Granted that that tank was setup to keep SPS. But shes been asking me if its possible to cultivate the coralline algae on my rocks as well.

My impression is that its only possible with a calc reactor. but i was wondering if any of you experienced reefers can share some experiences with mayb dosing addictives method or any other.... or is calc reactor the only way to go! My rocks are pretty much brown with a few rocks covered by some coralline.

Currently i do not have any algae problems, i also do not have actinic lights. I do have 2 X250w MH on my hood. Ive been doing some reading and it seems blue actinic lights helped alot. But since i dun have it, i was wondering if its still possible

Thx

[johntanjm]

yes it is possible. the secret is good water quality. high MG. sufficient calc and if possible blue spectrum lighting.

blue light helps. but blue light is not judged visually by looking. it depends on the color temperature. my MH shines white, but its a 20,000K bulb.

http://www.sgreefclub.com/forum/index.php?...pic=55059&st=90

check out page 7 of the thread that documents the coraline growth.

[shiok]

yes it is possible. the secret is good water quality. high MG. sufficient calc and if possible blue spectrum lighting.

blue light helps. but blue light is not judged visually by looking. it depends on the color temperature. my MH shines white, but its a 20,000K bulb.

http://www.sgreefclub.com/forum/index.php?...pic=55059&st=90

check out page 7 of the thread that documents the coraline growth.

Hi Bro can share your secret of good water quality? The equipment you are using? the dosing needed? Thanks.

[adrianlau]

I got my info from here:

http://www.garf.org/coralline.html

Also, I find CaribSea's Purple Up helps.

[johntanjm]

Hi Bro can share your secret of good water quality? The equipment you are using? the dosing needed? Thanks.

no secret lar. just keep MG high 1000++. The other water parameters must just be maintained regularly lor. pH dKh salinity all this is the norm of marine mah.

u also would need to introduce a sample population of super healthy, lush and purple coraline into the aquarium to speed things up. buy one small rock, best is those grow until its blading then just take one brush and just scrape all the coraline off that rock. crush it also nevermind. just let it float everywhere and settle. before long, they will grow and that rate of growth is encouaged by high MG

[shiok]

Thanks will try it out.

[dr evil]

Thanks will try it out.

Any chance to post ur 6ft fowlr pics?

[Zappy Kiwi]

Hey KyRo,

My rocks are filled with coralline (purple color algae), and I dun use a calcium reactor. All I do is to add a little bit (only a little bit as kalkwasser is difficult to dissolve) of kalkwasser into the water I used to top up the evaporated water. For my lightings, I use only DIY T5 lighting (2 tubes). (one is the white one, and the other is the actinic)

From my own experience, the purple coralline algae won't grow (as in grow over all ur rocks) UNLESS ur rocks initially have a decet amount of coralline algae. This happens in my case. I close my tank (shut down and restart everything, cycling, restocking etc) and I realise that the purple coralline algae won't grow when I used back my old rocks. After I introduced new LRs, the purple coralline starts to grow on all rocks (even the old ones), over a period of a few months.

Hopes it helps.