Coralline – My CMS

Lithophyllum is a calcareous encrusting algae that forms heavily calcified plates or discs that encrust rocks and coral reefs. Like many encrusting algae, it plays an important role in building reef structures by cementing dead coral tissue and fragments together. It features overlapping pink colored irregular shaped discs, often with a distinctive white edge. Existing fragments can be broken off and glued to live rock in the aquarium. This species is most often encountered on imported live rock as it’s native to the reef and can be difficult to obtain. Like most heavily encrusting macro algae species it requires large amounts of calcium supplementation to grow.

Scientific Name: Lithophyllum sp.

Common Name: Coralline Algae

Origin: Caribbean, S. Pacific

Depth Collected: 1-50 feet

Maximum Height: 8″

Growth Rate: Slow

Light: Moderate to High

Temperature: 72-82

Propagation: Sporulation

Difficulty: Moderate

Food Value: Not Palatable

Nutrient Uptake: None

Flow Rate: Moderate to High

The species Hydrolithon is a calcareous encrusting algae that forms an irregular, knobby shaped crust on shallow rocks and coral reefs. Like many encrusting algae, they play an important role in building reef structures by cementing dead coral tissue and fragments together. Individual species of Hydrolithon come in many different shades of a red, pink and deep purple. It’s abundant on both the reef and near shore habitats in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Some species grow in very shallow water among the edge of seagrass beds in the Caribbean where they form large colonies of individual specimens. It does well in aquariums with good amounts of calcium.

Scientific Name: Hydrolithon sp.

Common Name: Corraline Algae

Origin: Caribbean, S. Pacific, Gulf of Mexico

Depth Collected: 1-60 feet

Maximum Height: 6″