Help with chalices! Please!!

AllAboutThatWrasse · Mar 6, 2017

Hi all recently I purchased a few chalices from a great vendor near me. I grabbed orange, pink and red convict chalice a watermelon chalice and one he called a golden nugget chalice. I was very careful with handling but over the last week the edges have started to recede over the skeleton. What would be causing this?
I use Red Sea Reef foundation A,B,C powdered supplements.
Water parameters have been steady

Any help would be greatly appreciated from you LPS experts
Thank you

Liquid360 · Mar 6, 2017

Feed live food! Pods/bribe shrimp/zooplankton

AllAboutThatWrasse · Mar 6, 2017

AllAboutThatWrasse · Mar 6, 2017

I forgot to add that I have been been feeding with reef chili but I'm in the process of building a brine hatching kit

Liquid360 · Mar 6, 2017

Can't tell if it's alive in photo...

AllAboutThatWrasse · Mar 6, 2017

Not seeing feeding response from the chalices everyday like my other corals

Liquid360 · Mar 6, 2017

Are you using live food or coral feed? The only factors there are are lighting, placement, chemistry, and food. All are easy except food. I try to reproduce natural feeding with live food.

Liquid360 · Mar 6, 2017

Here's mine in feeding mode...

randy4083 · Mar 19, 2017

Liquid360 said:
Feed live food! Pods/bribe shrimp/zooplankton

What is floating in the water in there because it looks like alot of stuff floating around

Liquid360 · Mar 19, 2017

randy4083 said:
What is floating in the water in there because it looks like alot of stuff floating around

It's a mixture of live brine shrimp, live zooplankton, and live tigger pods. I'm a strong believer in supplying as close to natural food sources as possible. Some it's floating, but most is swimming.

randy4083 · Mar 19, 2017

Yeah I feed live brine shrimp and sometimes zooplankton but I've never Fed pods to the corals but I'm sure that they get them out of the water in my tank

Paul C. · Mar 19, 2017

How big is your system and its age? First thing I notice is your Alk. I will assume since your dosing RS foundation your using Coral Pro salt?

AllAboutThatWrasse · Mar 19, 2017

I have a deep blue 55RR with a 30gal sump that is 1 year 2 months old. Yes I have been using all Red Sea products coral pro salt,foundation and coral colors.

Blue Lip · Mar 19, 2017

Liquid360 said:
Are you using live food or coral feed? The only factors there are are lighting, placement, chemistry, and food. All are easy except food. I try to reproduce natural feeding with live food.

You forgot pests. They can be a problem too.

Liquid360 · Mar 19, 2017

Blue Lip said:
You forgot pests. They can be a problem too.

Yes, true. I was wrongly assuming certain protocols were followed.

AllAboutThatWrasse · Mar 19, 2017

All corals are dipped with Coral Rx,intensively inspected and removed from original plugs. Corals were very clean upon purchase from one trusted hobbyist/vendor. Problems were only arising with four specimens of chalices. One of which has recovered after a new placement into the tank. I haven't lost them yet but I feel it's imminent if I can't figure this out. I tried putting them all in relatively the same area to help with flow and lighting. Which has worked for this one

I apologize for the picture quality it was the best I could do with my iPhone

Paul C. · Mar 19, 2017

Chalices are funny. Certain pieces will grow like weeds and others seem to just fade away no matter where you put them in the tank. I Once had a 75 stuffed with chalices. Due to a faulty doseer I lost them all. It spiked my alk, and the tank never came back. I lost thousands of dollars. I'm looking at your log, I must applaud you. You seem to be very diligent. However, as I'm sure you know, stability is key. Chasing number's isn't the best habit. You have a range in alk from 9.8-11.9 in a matter of two weeks. You didn't check the numbers on your water change water? Also, do you know what the parameters are of the tank they came from? Lets say it came from a tank at 8 kh and you put them in a 11+ tank, they are going to get alk burn (like I'm seeing) and usually the end isn't a good one. Running a salt that puts your alk on the very edge of disaster isn't IMHO a benefit. And I will say I started with the LFS recommended salt, which was Coral Pro.

I will say it, and I'm sure I will get blasted for it, but my chalices loved a dirty tank. Again I give you kudos for keeping a pretty clean looking tank looking at your numbers, but I'd be embarrassed to tell you what I ran my Phos at in my old chalice tank.

Robink · Mar 19, 2017

I agree with @Paul C. , when I had a lot of chalices doing well I had a skimmer that was too small for my tank. When I upgraded the skimmer for my sps I lost a lot of my chalices.
But my sps look great...