Coraline growth

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by McNasty

I do not dose calcium, but i use a kalkwaser reactor to keep my alk and ph stable seems to keep a higher calcium

guess what, your dosing Ca if you using Kalk

anyways by the sounds of it you are unballanced in your water chem.. Ca is way to high for your other readings.. are you using the reactor with make up water?

Steve

[Pan]

Originally Posted by McNasty

Just wondering what some tank and lighting specs are and Coraline growth every one has.

I myself can not grow coraline in my main tank.

Lighting consists of

4 t5
1 400 w 14k MH
1 175 w 12k MH

tank size 90 Gallon

Calcium 475
Alkinity 4.5 Meq
Magnesium 1325
PH 8.2

Now in my refugium , also close to my skimmer i am lighting with daylight compact flouresent bulbs and coraline grows fine.

Can you have to much light for coraline growth?

before my tank crashed...i had a lot of coraline growth...seemed to do better when i kep the lights to 8 or less hours a day....

[Aquattro]

Hmm, Ca seems a bit high for that alk level. Can you confirm with a second test kit?

(Steve, mEq/l x 2.8 will give you dKh).

[McNasty]

could be my readings are off, I am going to test again, I have often wondered about calcium as it never drops lower then 450, I may have to buy some new test kits and see if they are accurate.

[TheReefGeek]

Bring a sample into your LFS they should test it for free to see if your test kit is off.

[McNasty]

Originally Posted by TheReefGeek

Bring a sample into your LFS they should test it for free to see if your test kit is off.

I live in winnipeg enough said LMAO.

I used the reference tests and it shows my results are alittle off but not by that much, My alk is still stitting close to 4 - 4.5 meq and calcium is still around 425 - 450, my ph is stable at 8.1 and has not changed and i recalibrated my meter just to make sure.

I am useing a prarie reef top off system and kalk reactor, and I was having my top off run through my reactor, so i changed the way my system tops off,

I split the line before it hits the solinoid so i have one line running to my reactor and another line strictly for fresh water. I set my drip rate at aprox one drop every 20 seconds or 3 drops a minute, so now when my top off comes on it will just be fresh water instead of kalk saturated water.

[TheReefGeek]

No LFS that can do saltwater tests in Winnipeg?

[Willow]

make sure you use a decent test kit like salifert. kalk alone will only maintain your levels around 385, even then you have to use a lot of it. i suspect you need a new test kit.

also despite steves freak of nature results in growing coraline, the rest of us have far better results growing coraline with lower light levels.

[McNasty]

I use the sea chem test kits, I am more concerned now by the steady climb in alkinity as the higer clacium should be used up in short order.