How to stimulate coralline alge growth?

[topQuark]

My wife and I just set up a 5.5 gallon nano-reef in our kitchen. We've got 8 lbs of premium Fiji rock in there now, along with some crushed coral substrate.

How do we stimulate massive coralline alge growth? There are some greens, pinks and purples on the rocks now, but I'd really like to stimulate the growth of this stuff (you know, get it all over the rocks and the back of the tank).

[Chuck S]

Well if you just got this tank set up it will take time. I would keep your Alkalinity like around 10-12 with medium lighting and this will stimulate it. Coralline like med to low light. So if your going to leave corals out for a while you could run low light for a while. You should be cycling now so you have a way to go.

[topQuark]

The live rock we bought has already been cured... it came right out of the tank at the LFS.

We have at least one good-sized rock-boring sea-urchin, and two small hermit crabs that came with the rock --they all appear to have survived the transfer into our tank, and are doing fine.

The ammonia over the past several days has been reading 0-0.25 ppm. I have to order the calcium and hardness test kits from Marine Depot because the LFS does not have these in stock right now. Currently there is no light getting to the tank aside from ambient room lighting coming in from the windows (but not direct sun light!), or the electric room lamps.

[topQuark]

Should I feed the sea-urchin or the hermit crabs anything? All they've got in there now is what came with the live rock.