Let there be light! Now how do I let there be growth?

[RobertG]

My lights are at about 6-8 inches. You will have to watch your temp. , if you notice any bleaching of corals you should move it up a little.

[manny]

Check out this thread Steve. Jim Norris recommended checkin out my magnesium level and it seemed to work out pretty good for me. Also some other pretty good tips. http://www.maast.org/index.php?name=...ight=magnesium

[brewercm]

what does kalk or lime do fro your tank , i am geussing it is for your inverts?

Driping a mixture with water helps keep calcium levels up for hard corals, clams, snail shells. Basically anything that has a skeletal type system that uses up the calcium from your saltwater mix in order to maintain growth.

[StephenA]

The CA level is for the whole tank, not just the corals. Even fish need a decent CA level.

[Nano_Steve]

i agree with brewercm, ever since i started dripping kalk night before last ive noticed a tiny bit of growht in all my inverts as well(at least the snail shells that i can tell). ive never really supplemented my system with any form of calcium so this is probably gonna continue to have extremely noticeable changes until the system settles down into a medium of growth.

nonetheless, im totally stoked that i can actually see growth. those 2 spots of coralline i posted about earlier are almost filled up in the middle, i checked this morning and it is now a very small round hole rather than the larger "line" through them yesterday.

thanks again for all the tips. josh, im definitely gonna keep an eye out. ive only received frags from tim and sam and neither of them seem to have those red bugs yet(hopefully never will) they sound terrible from your other thread! good luck with them and thanks for the dipping tip, ill be sure to do that from now on.

-steve

ps manny, thanks for that thread, ill take my water to be tested after i get back from my morning class and ill post it here in a few hours.

[Nano_Steve]

ok here are the readings i got a few minutes ago at aquatek:

pH: 7.8-7.9
NO3: 30
NO2: 0
Amm.: 0
kH: 9
Cal.:86 mg/l (anyone care to convert?)

anyone care to translate what i need to be doing now? id really appreciate it

i know i need to bring up my kH but i figured by just now starting the kalk drip that i would turn up low this first test. ill test it again in a week or 2 to see.

what do yall keep ur calc levels at?

-steve

[Nano_Steve]

oh yeah,

spec. grav.: 1.020-1.021

-steve

[SueT]

Steve, I don't know how to convert that calcium level but I keep mine at 460ppm. That is probably considered a high normal. I keep my alk. levels at 12 or less although right now I went to full strength kalk. and I'm up in the 13's for alk. right now. No problem just kicked 1 frag I had into wicked colors. :-D Do keep track for your magnesium too as that will allow the calcium to work at it's most optimun. I keep my mag. ~ 1200ppm. SG I keep at 1.024.

Salifert has test kits for calcium, KH and magnesium if you'd want to try them.