Chalices Keep Dying

[Mityboognish1]

I have bought four different chalice frags in the last three months where 3 of the 4 have died. They are fine for a week to ten days and then over night they have completely bleached out. The only one to survive was a Hollywood Stunner. All my other corals are doing fine, don't know what is going wrong any help is much appreciated.

Tank = 55gallon, 50# of live sand base and 70+# of live rock. Running a 15 gallon fuge full of cualerpa. I feed Two Little Fishies Marine Snow and Reef Nutrition PhytoFeast 2x a week. Also supplement with Brightwell Aquatics:

Koralle-Vm (1x a week), Iodion (1x a week) KoralColor (2x a week), Coral Amino (2x a week), Reef Bio Fuel (1x a week)

Water Params:
Temp = 76.5-77 degrees
Salinity = 1.024
Alk/KH = 9.5-10.2
Calcium = 400-425
Mag - 1380-1425
PH = 8.2-8.3
Nitrates = 0
Phosphates = 0
Ammonia = 0

Lighting:
PC = 144watts half white/half actinic
T5 = 108watts of actinic

 

[djkms]

How are you maintaining your alkalinity? IME chalices are just as finicky if not more so then SPS. Any alkalinity fluctuation can do them in pretty quickly.

 

[Mityboognish1]

How are you maintaining your alkalinity? IME chalices are just as finicky if not more so then SPS. Any alkalinity fluctuation can do them in pretty quickly.

Supplementing with ESV product. Was a little fluctuation, but not any major jumps.

 

[djkms]

How are you supplementing though? Manual dosing? Dosing pumps? Typically corals can handle fluctuations down not up. If you have ever waited more than a day to supplement and you "dose" more than what is consumed in a day then that fluctuation can do more sensitive corals in. I have lost corals with a 1dKH change UP over a period of 24 hours. I accidentally allowed too much water through my effluent from my CA reactor and over 24 hours my dKH shot up from 8.4-9.5 and about 2-3 days later my coral started receding.

 

[rangerbobb]

I have no problems with my chalices and alkalinity. I have had alk swings greater than 5 dKH with absolutely no problems with any chalice, or other coral for that matter. They are tough and don't care about much besides light. I have had a few bleach, but I just lower them down or shade them with great results. As long as the chalice frag was healed before they arrived, I have never lost one.

 

[Mityboognish1]

How are you supplementing though? Manual dosing? Dosing pumps? Typically corals can handle fluctuations down not up. If you have ever waited more than a day to supplement and you "dose" more than what is consumed in a day then that fluctuation can do more sensitive corals in. I have lost corals with a 1dKH change UP over a period of 24 hours. I accidentally allowed too much water through my effluent from my CA reactor and over 24 hours my dKH shot up from 8.4-9.5 and about 2-3 days later my coral started receding.

Manual dosing, but usually never fluctuates much, stays pretty stable right around 10. Guess it is just not in the cards right now.

 

[Mityboognish1]

I have no problems with my chalices and alkalinity. I have had alk swings greater than 5 dKH with absolutely no problems with any chalice, or other coral for that matter. They are tough and don't care about much besides light. I have had a few bleach, but I just lower them down or shade them with great results. As long as the chalice frag was healed before they arrived, I have never lost one.

Oh sure, just throw that in there, just when I thought we were on the right path, so what your saying is that i am SOL . Yeah I thought they were tough also. One of the last two I got one was from Stuart at MileHigh Aquatics and the other from ReefKoi during last weekends forum buy. So I am going to trust that they were fully healed. The first one from Stuart actually never fully died off a little corner was left with flesh and it is trying to come back, it is very slowly getting more and more color back and the second is the same. When I got home from work last night about 90% of it was gone with only a small corner left, curios to see if there is any change tonight when I get home. Thanks for the input.

 

[dvenson]

how close are the dying chalices to the hollywood stunner?

 

[rangerbobb]

Have you calibrated your pH probe recently? Is you thermometer correct? Are you sure your salinity is accurate? (I have low salinity that I thought was fine because my refractometer was way off.

 

[Zooid]

how close are the dying chalices to the hollywood stunner?

Hopefully greater than 12 inches.

 

[reefkoi]

keep chalices low in the tank as well, they dont like a lot of light

 

[Mityboognish1]

Have you calibrated your pH probe recently? Is you thermometer correct? Are you sure your salinity is accurate? (I have low salinity that I thought was fine because my refractometer was way off.

Don't have a PH probe, just manual testing and I check my refractometer every couple of weeks. I have two thermometers and they both read within .2-4 degrees.

 

[Mityboognish1]

keep chalices low in the tank as well, they dont like a lot of light

The most recent one (the superman I got from you) was on the sand.

 

[Mityboognish1]

how close are the dying chalices to the hollywood stunner?

Not close together, at least 12 inches.

 

[KhensuRa]

Have you ever noticed if the flesh is pilling off on the edges of your chalice? Are you getting frags on line or local? If so who are you getting them from?

 

[aztecdreams]

Just curious why the question about distance from a Hollywood stunner?

 

[Off The Deep End]

Just curious why the question about distance from a Hollywood stunner?

If i remember correctly they have sweeper tentacles.

 

[dvenson]

If i remember correctly they have sweeper tentacles.

+1
the sweeper tentacles of the hollywood stunner will kill anything it touches which is why that chalice is also know as hollywood stinger.

 

[Zooid]

Every eye on my stunner would send out a 6"+ sweeper.....it was like a wall of death.

 

[Wicked Color]

Hollywood first thing in the morning looks like medusa......pretty cool but def needs its own space.