Chalice Care

[marriedtothereef]

Hello Reefers. I’ve been having a hard time keeping chalices. Can you give me any tips on caring for Chalices? Lighting, Flow and placement. Do they need more pristine water parameters? Or does it all depend on the type of chalice? Thanks

 

[Littlemikey]

I’ll go on a limb here with my experience. Recently I have purchased three chalices so far keeping them in the sand bed and more towards the corners I’ve seen growth and more eyes

9dkh alk with 6ppm nitrate and the highest 16ppm nitrate and .02 phos.

I’m also using led lights. I’ve learned it’s a matter of movement and seeing how they react.

 

[Eastlake]

In general they like lower light and flow, and light acclimation is key when adding new specimens to the tank. I had one that I thought died completely and put the "skeleton" in a shaded area and it grew back completely. I've read many places that they like magnesium a whole lot and if you maintain a slightly higher magnesium level that you'll get better growth out of them, that in conjunction with keeping your calcium and alkalinity where they need to be. What kind of lights are you running? You may need to shade new additions even if they are already on the bottom of the tank. They also like "dirtier" water, I've seen several that declined slowly in low nutirient sps tanks. And, from my experience, freshly cut chalices absolutely HATE my tank and several freshly cut chalices including a rainbow crush that still breaks my heart that it died have perished in my tank when they were fresh cuts. If you're getting frags make sure they're already healed and have an established growth ring

 

[marriedtothereef]

I’ll go on a limb here with my experience. Recently I have purchased three chalices so far keeping them in the sand bed and more towards the corners I’ve seen growth and more eyes

9dkh alk with 6ppm nitrate and the highest 16ppm nitrate and .02 phos.

I’m also using led lights. I’ve learned it’s a matter of movement and seeing how they react.

Thank you for this

 

[marriedtothereef]

In general they like lower light and flow, and light acclimation is key when adding new specimens to the tank. I had one that I thought died completely and put the "skeleton" in a shaded area and it grew back completely. I've read many places that they like magnesium a whole lot and if you maintain a slightly higher magnesium level that you'll get better growth out of them, that in conjunction with keeping your calcium and alkalinity where they need to be. What kind of lights are you running? You may need to shade new additions even if they are already on the bottom of the tank. They also like "dirtier" water, I've seen several that declined slowly in low nutirient sps tanks. And, from my experience, freshly cut chalices absolutely HATE my tank and several freshly cut chalices including a rainbow crush that still breaks my heart that it died have perished in my tank when they were fresh cuts. If you're getting frags make sure they're already healed and have an established growth ring

Thank you. My Magnesium stays at 1500, Alk 8.0 and Calcium 445ppm. Very stable and I have my 2 part dialed in. For lights I have 4 Kessil LEDs and a generic Reef bright unit.