Phosphates and alkalinity.

[Earl Karl]

So I have this separate frag tank that I am doing an experiment on. I could care less about color, I am STRICTLY focusing on growth. I can always adjust later if I wanted to.

Last time I did something like this, I was keeping my frag tanks at 12 dkH and 0.1 ppm phosphates. I used true UVs (365nm) so that my corals would still bring out their colors. As a reference, my red planet acro was growing over an inch per month.

Now I just want strictly growth. I plan to put them in 14-15 dkH and 0.1-0.2 phosphates. Lighting would be 300 par with Radions on one side, 100 par or less on the other. I know my acros will do fine (although they will be ugly), but I'm more concerned about chalices as they are more finicky with me.

Can chalices handle the parameters I mentioned above? I can care less about their colors, but I don't want them to die. Of course, I will do my absolute best to keep the parameters stable, I'm just wondering if they can handle that high alkalinity.

Is there anything else that would encourage tissue growth in general?

 

[jda]

You should be OK. Once alk hits 8, then you probably don't need to be much higher... if you are not growth limiting, then anything extra is just extra and 14 is probably the same as 8.

I would not let the N and P get much lower than this or else you can get burnt tips.

I still get the fastest growth with N, P, alk and calcium at NSW levels.