Is my CA a concern and causing recession?

[Daniel91]

Smaller tank, only softies and lps - everything seems to be thriving (my new additions are slowly acclimating and opening up more day by day)

 

salinity .025

alk 10.1

mag 1320

ca 350

temp 79

 

My waterchange day is Thursday

 

I have one torch that started receding ~3 weeks back. I quickly placed it in lower flow area. Does not seem that the recession has worsened but it’s not getting better.

[markalot]

Calcium is fine, not the issue.  Alk is the param to be concerned about, while Calcium needs to be in a safe range but it doesn't have to be perfect.   Is the Alk at 10.1 stable, or does it fluctuate?

 

Torches can be tough, especially in new tanks.  Feeding them directly (gently) can do wonders if that's the issue. 

[Daniel91]

14 minutes ago, markalot said:

Calcium is fine, not the issue.  Alk is the param to be concerned about, while Calcium needs to be in a safe range but it doesn't have to be perfect.   Is the Alk at 10.1 stable, or does it fluctuate?

 

Torches can be tough, especially in new tanks.  Feeding them directly (gently) can do wonders if that's the issue. 

Thanks! Yes I am fairly certain of it being stable. I’ll check again in a few days and let you know.

 

Both my hammer and torch coral hate being spot fed, as the only ones - the rest munch on whatever I feed them.

Edit: By hate, I mean they will just let the go of the food instead of consuming it.

[Daniel91]

If everything checks out as stable, will it be worth chasing the higher cal?

 

if so, what’s recommended supplements?

[paneubert]

20 minutes ago, Daniel91 said:

If everything checks out as stable, will it be worth chasing the higher cal?

 

if so, what’s recommended supplements?

You will get varying opinions, most equally valid.  Mine is that if the values are stable while also being in the normally acceptable range, then there is no need to "chase" it higher.  Others will be of the opinion that running a tank "hot" shows benefits for them.

 

This is the chart I copy and paste from who knows where and who knows how long ago.  I have it stored as a draft in Gmail.  Think it came from a reef keeping online magazine.

 

EDIT:  Should have known it came from someone like Randy Holmes-Farley.  I googled one of the values from the table and found it.  It comes from  http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/

 

Great article below the table of values.  Like....really great.

 

 

 

Parameter:	Reef Aquaria Recommendation:	Typical Surface Ocean Value:1
Calcium	380-450 ppm	420 ppm
Alkalinity	2.5-4 meq/L 7-11 dKH 125-200 ppm CaCO3 equivalents	2.5 meq/L 7 dKH 125 ppm CaCO3 equivalents
Salinity	35 ppt sg = 1.026	34-36 ppt sg = 1.025-1.027
Temperature	76-83° F	Variable2
pH	7.8-8.5 OK 8.1-8.3 is better	8.0-8.3 (can be lower or higher in lagoons)
Magnesium	1250-1350 ppm	1280 ppm
Phosphate	< 0.03 ppm	0.005 ppm
Ammonia	<0.1 ppm	Variable (typically <0.1 ppm)

[Daniel91]

Exactly what I used to determine that my cal was low. 😬😀

[Lognor]

I found that Euphyllias don't like higher nitrates.  I don't see that mentioned here.  I have a few softies and a bunch of LPS and had periods where my hammers, duncan, acans, and frogspawn would not open fully.  Once I got my nitrates in the 5-10 range, they're all open, full, and growing like crazy.  My zoas and blue sympodium on the other hand are not happy now as I believe they like the higher nitrate values 10-20.

[Daniel91]

19 minutes ago, Lognor said:

I found that Euphyllias don't like higher nitrates.  I don't see that mentioned here.  I have a few softies and a bunch of LPS and had periods where my hammers, duncan, acans, and frogspawn would not open fully.  Once I got my nitrates in the 5-10 range, they're all open, full, and growing like crazy.  My zoas and blue sympodium on the other hand are not happy now as I believe they like the higher nitrate values 10-20.

I can definitely see this happening. Euphyllias can be quite bratty, with that being said my hammers and Duncan seem awfully happy with the current levels