madmax7774 April 24, 2006 Share April 24, 2006 I have a 75 gallon reef tank under metal halides, and my water parameters are excellent. It is about 60 days old, and I am still not seeing any purple stuff start to grow on the tank walls. I've seen many photo's of other tanks where the purple stuff is thick everywhere. why isn't mine growing? How long should I have to wait to start seeing this growth????? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveoutlaw April 24, 2006 Share April 24, 2006 Patience grasshopper. If it is a brand new tank and had to go through a cycle it can take a while. How much live rock do you have in there? How much live sand? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gadgets April 24, 2006 Share April 24, 2006 When u say Parameters are excellent, what does that mean? What are your levels for calcium, Alk, and Mag? Does your live rock have a good amount of coraline on it? Those levels need to be satisfied inb order for the coraline to grow fast like you want it to. Like Steve said, it takes time. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madmax7774 April 24, 2006 Author Share April 24, 2006 (edited) I have 105 lbs of fiji. About 50% of the rock has at least 33% purple coverage. There is 80 lbs of sand (aragamax) 2 MH 175W with XM 20,000K bulbs water parameters are: 80'F 8.2 ph 0ppm ammonia 0ppm nitrite 0ppm nitrate >.1ppm phosphate ~450ppm calcium 9 Dkh alkalinity 10.25 salinity refugium/sump is 30 gallons with 5 lbs of live sand and 5 lbs of fiji mud & calerpa all my water comes from RO/DI I use reef crystals salt I also run a 9 watt UV sterilizer to keep things clean. I use B-ionic brand buffer to keep the alk and calcium at good levels. I have 500gph pump that turns over the system water about 5 times / hour. I haven't been testing mag (magnesium?) Edited April 24, 2006 by madmax7774 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sugar Magnolia April 24, 2006 Share April 24, 2006 Check your magnesium level as well. Alk, calc and mag need to be within optimum ranges to really kick start the growth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kragon April 25, 2006 Share April 25, 2006 Geez... all I do is scrap this stuff off.. don't worry.. it will be there in time.. then you'll need to learn good scraping skills. Enjoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tomsimtim April 25, 2006 Share April 25, 2006 Also, it needs to be introduced into the tank. GARF grunge is a good source if none has shown up by now. Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Stearns April 25, 2006 Share April 25, 2006 Sounds like your live rock has plenty for introduction of the coraline- I would not add any grunge from some other source. You asked about time- I would say the average is about six months for it to really start growing- you should see some small little spots as early as 8 -10 weeks though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASaleem91 May 8, 2006 Share May 8, 2006 Just be patient. It should start to show up soon. My coraline started showing about 3 months after the tank was started. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricBrian May 8, 2006 Share May 8, 2006 My tank is now almost 2 months old and the stuff is growning everywhere for me. I saw the growth about a week after I made sure that Mg, Alk and Ca are all good. Now, I test every 3 days. And like somebody said, I have to scrape a lot! lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gadgets May 8, 2006 Share May 8, 2006 Awesome! Glad to hear! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbashaw May 8, 2006 Share May 8, 2006 Is your 500GPH pump the only thing you have in the tank for flow? if so you will need more flow. If it is a Mag 5 for example then you will only get about 300 GPH out of it if you have 4' of head pressure. My coralline wasn't growing after about 3 months then I increased the flow in my tank and it started to spread quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madmax7774 May 10, 2006 Author Share May 10, 2006 I think I am starting to get some finally, but it appears to be slightly more brown colored than purple. I don't think it's algae though, because it's really tought to scrape off.... as far as circulation, I have two maxijet 1200's in there along with the 500gph return pump, so plenty if movement.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbashaw May 12, 2006 Share May 12, 2006 I think I am starting to get some finally, but it appears to be slightly more brown colored than purple. I don't think it's algae though, because it's really tought to scrape off.... as far as circulation, I have two maxijet 1200's in there along with the 500gph return pump, so plenty if movement.... That's good to hear I started getting the brown/green colored stuff on the glass then the purple took over in a few weeks. Do you have any tank pics? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bededog May 14, 2006 Share May 14, 2006 I use Aragamilk or PurpleUp (both pretty much the same I think) to get coraline going. The stuff is really amazing. You will have a purple tank in no time at all with this stuff. These products have all of the elements coraline likes (Mg, Alk, etc...) and the bottles say you can't overdose with it but you should monitor your chemistry to make sure anyway. Matt That's good to hear I started getting the brown/green colored stuff on the glass then the purple took over in a few weeks. Do you have any tank pics? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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