confused

[NormanH]

i m all confused, i read somewhere that if u have coraline algae growing, it means that the water quality is good. i have those beautiful alage growing on in my tank, but my nitrate reading is 25-50 n calcium is barely 320! can someone pls enlighten me?

[Morgan]

Are you sure it's coraline algae and not macro algae.

What are the colours of your algae?

[NormanH]

Hi Morgan,

The colour is pink or purple, tiny dots that grow on the wall of overflow box.

[Morgan]

It is coraline alright.

Does it cover your LR or just the overflow box?

They grow best where the current is moderately strong even when the calcium/alkalinity and nitrate is not ideal.

[Tanzy]

The coralline is a indicator that nitrite and ammonia is zero. Calcium of 320 is not too far off from the natural level of 350 in seawater. Nitrates mainly affect corals containing zooxanthellae.

It is an indicator that you tank is matured.

[hongqixian]

i m all confused, i read somewhere that if u have coraline algae growing, it means that the water quality is good. i have those beautiful alage growing on in my tank, but my nitrate reading is 25-50 n calcium is barely 320! can someone pls enlighten me?

There is a big difference between growing in tank and surviving in tank. Is there some on the tank glass? If so then your water is fairly good. If it came in on live rock and still there it doesn't mean much.

[NormanH]

It came with the LR , but Im not sure if it does grow on the tank glass b/c i clean the tank glass something like every 4 days, that's b/c of the fast growing, ugly greenish brown algae. I guess even if it does, i would have clean it b4 it is visible to me.