coralline eating up my Ca??

[Corona007]

Hmmm,

When I first set up my reef I was getting 440 calcium readings but now It's down to 320 and I started dozing 2 part Alk/Cal every other day for the last week. But yet to see any increase in Ca. ???

I had my tank crash about 5 weeks ago. Took about 1 1/2 week to stabilize. In desperation I changed salt to IO (availability) as I was running out of RS pro that I started with. Would the salt brand make such a difference?

The 20 lbs of live rock I purchased is half fiji and half aquaculture.
The Fiji didn't have any coralline maybe a few specks but now has 1/4 - 3/8"
blotches with defined thicknesses. The Aquaculture rock had what appeared to have varying corolline color splashes with no thickness. Now I can see thick coralline with much deeper color and texture.

20g clear for life tank.

Stock:
1 Softy, 5 head zoas colony, 2 turbo snails, 2 Nassarius, 2 Bumble bee,
3 hermits and a few pods.

API:
Ph 8.0
Ca 320
Kh dkh 10
PO 0
NO3 0
76 f
SG 1025

Maybe someone can chime in. Thx.

[kfisc]

You could see parameters go woggy for awhile due to all the factors you mentioned, but I'd bet it's the salt change. I'm sure you've tested a bucket before adding it to the display?

[Stackemdeep]

First thing I would do would be to test Mg and make sure it is 1250 or above. If you keep dosing two part in this situation you will likely drive your Alkalinity through the roof and your Calcium will not move. Get Mg right first, then move your calcium slowly up to where you would like it to be. Use the reef calculator. http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chem_calc3.html Then go back to dosing two part if needed. Have those test numbers validated by the LFS first before making major changes. Good Luck.

Also regular IO is not a High Mg salt and it is possible that the coralline may have consumed enough to drop Mg down. Abiotic precipitation will then prevent Ca from rising.

[CuzzA]

I suspect the brand switch, however, being that you don't have any hard corals, the level of calcium really doesn't matter. Just keep your alkalinity stable. If you decide to add hard corals then I would increase it. Finally, if the coralline algae gets out of control, add an urchin as that is what they eat, but make sure you secure your frags as an urchin will easily push them right off the rock.

[runjmc2]

Without background, first question I have is has your tank ever been stable or is this a new setup…looks new from the photo. If so, you may have more to deal with than just Ca levels...

[Mcgeezer]

You don't have very many corals in your tank, so I suspect the issue at hand is magnesium. I guarantee if you test magnesium, it will test very low. Magnesium works in conjunction with calcium and alkalinity and is one of the most critical components of natural sea water composition. Calcium and alkalinity uptake work in conjunction with magnesium, and when all three are working collectively together, your tank becomes much more stable. Coraline algae also uses up a significant amount of magnesium. And my guess is that this is what the ultimate issues is.

[eddiereefs]

Listen to mcgeezer and test ur mg

[water is wet]

The red on your rock doesn't look like coraline but more like turf algae

[Sk8r]

I'm looking for your mg reading. That's the other param with ca and dkh. S/b 1300.

[Corona007]

Originally Posted by water is wet

The red on your rock doesn't look like coraline but more like turf algae

Ok now I'm really confused. Is it the wrong color? I'm a little color challanged and have a hard time with colors. Actually I have to rely on my g/f when doing my tests.

If it is I'm done and throwing this whole thing in the dumpster.

Anyway here is a better pic or better focused anyway.

[eddiereefs]

noooo dont. that is some beautiful corraline algae. you can confirm it by trying to scratch it off with your finger. corraline is hard and calcarous and will not be easy scratched off like other hairy algaes.

[CuzzA]

+1 on giving it the scratch test. Being that it's not on your sand bed leads me to believe, from the picture anyway, that it's coralline algae and not cyano.

[Mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by Corona007

Ok now I'm really confused. Is it the wrong color? I'm a little color challanged and have a hard time with colors. Actually I have to rely on my g/f when doing my tests.

If it is I'm done and throwing this whole thing in the dumpster.

Anyway here is a better pic or better focused anyway.

That is definitely a form of coralline. If it doesn't scratch off, you're good.

Why on earth would you just throw stuff in the dumpster? If everyone in the hobby did that at the first sign of an issue, there would be none of us left.

Everyone gets cyano....it's the oldest living life form on earth.

[water is wet]

You should definitely run your finger across it to see for sure.

[Corona007]

I took an exacto knife to it today, took some pressures and a while to get to different color rock. More like chipping away than anything. Hard stuff, I accidentally shifted the rock a few times.

I had Cyano but it never made it to the rocks. Always on the sand and I would just vaccume it up. About that time is when it crashed. Hasn't been back since it stabalized and added my skimmer. And that's been about 2+ weeks.

[Stackemdeep]

It is very nice coralline algae and yes, that much growing will drop your Ca and your Mg. Have you tested Mg yet? I would want to keep that alive and growing.

[Corona007]

Ok, thank you.
Still waiting on the Mg test.

[Corona007]

Noticed some new stuff.
Is there White green coralline?
It's got the same texture that some of my purple.

[CuzzA]

There is green among many other colors and growth patterns. I've seen coraline algae grow like a montipora cap, plating off rocks. White would usually indicate bleaching, but perhaps it's growing so fast it just hasn't colored up yet.

Nevertheless, you must have some good rock and coraline strands. I suspect it will eventually find an equilibrium with the tank and start to slow down. Or it won't and you're going to need a good glass scrapper.

Perhaps start looking into some easy to keep hard corals like montipora, birds nest and stylophora as they will compete with the coraline for the calcium and alkalinity. But if you do, be prepared to start dosing. Start with kalk.

[BigJohnny]

How do you dose magnesium if you currently have 2 part? Why don't they make 3 part

[Corona007]

Ok. Got a Red Sea mg test. And it shows at 1240 and 380 Ca Hk 11 w/api.
This Is with new bucket of RS salt and ro/di water. The weird thing is that the numbers I'm getting correspond more to the data that's on the label. (RS bucket) if my SG was 1021. Though it set to 1025 with refractometer.
I think something else is going on and I think it's my refractometer. I'm going to LFS tomorrow and pick some calibration fluid, Or can I calibrate without fluid?

Found a little star, I have read they are a neusance?

Also Picked up a nice neon green hammer. Every time I feed my fish the long tentacles come out. Pretty cool.

[Corona007]

I forgot to mention, what are these? I have seen about 3 so far. They are just tossing around on the sand. They get blown around once in a while.
Hammer poop? Lol. They look like tiny tiny hammers??
About .080 in dia.

[water is wet]

Originally Posted by Corona007

Ok. Got a Red Sea mg test. And it shows at 1240 and 380 Ca Hk 11 w/api.
This Is with new bucket of RS salt and ro/di water. The weird thing is that the numbers I'm getting correspond more to the data that's on the label. (RS bucket) if my SG was 1021. Though it set to 1025 with refractometer.
I think something else is going on and I think it's my refractometer. I'm going to LFS tomorrow and pick some calibration fluid, Or can I calibrate without fluid?

Found a little star, I have read they are a neusance?

Also Picked up a nice neon green hammer. Every time I feed my fish the long tentacles come out. Pretty cool.

I don't think that star is a concern.

Here's a nice guide.
http://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhiker/hitchhiker.shtml