I am new to chalice corals give me the chalice 101 lesson!

[Dowtish]

I am seeing some spotting of transluscence on a couple of chalice frags. They are in low light, moderate flow. They do have their feeder tentacles out about 60% of the time, are they telling me they are starving??

 

[funny718]

bump! need more advice.

bump as well more info wanted i have a BGM thats lost its color. since then i moved it under some shade and out of my radion light thinking it may be to intense, but i have never fed the lil guy before do you think this could help?

60 cube with sump maybe around 65-70 gallons
alk 11 hanna
cal 450 salifert
Mag 1350 salifert
p04 0.01 hanna
n03 0 salifert
1.026 IO no dosing yet tank has been up since february

also started dosing vinegar 10ml a day so far

 

[Dave3112]

Chalices IME prefer higher Mg levels and a High Kelvin light (20k or greater) for best coloration. They can take a lot of different intensity of light but not a 10k spectrum. They are sensitive to Alk swings but not sure if they are MORE sensitive than my SPS. I never spot feed my chalices so I wouldn't know if they grow faster or not that way but I don't see why they wouldn't. I have most of my chalices in moderate flow some are low flow and the ones in the moderate flow seem healthier and grow faster. I have a lot of SPS in my tank and keep the water pretty "clean" and my chalices do very well generally. So I'm not a proponent of they do better in "dirtier" water. But everyones tanks are different. I think the ideal numbers for chalices would be an Alk of 9, Ca 450 and Mg 1400. That is where I seem to see the best color and growth. Also I believe T5 to be the best type of lighting for overall health/color.

 

[ColaAddict]

What do you guys like to feed your chalices? their mouths are kinda small, I just started feeding the BRS coral food. I tried feeding pellets, but seems like pellets are kinda big and I usually have to crush them.

 

[marlinman]

i feed mine oyster feast, if i see open mouths and its been a couple days, i drip some of that in there

 

[stylaster]

I agree on the higher kelvin lighting. I grow my chalices under 250w 20k radium bulbs. Most of them are about 3' away from the bulbs. Talking to an importer and they said that most chalices are collected in 60-80 ft of water. In that depth you get mostly blueish light that far down. What the par is im not sure, but would be cool for someone to go diving in the tropics and take a par meter down with them (hint hint)

 

[Mstansbery]

Some general info on husbandry!! -Hope it helps in some way!

The Allure of Chalice Corals — Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog

 

[Aznyoyoboy57]

i feed my chalice mysis shrimp...they will eat everyday and night...sometimes i feed them in the afternoon with all flow off and they will still eat it...lol

I got a question tho...i read that if i feed more i get more eyes(mouths)? however, how long does it take to gain an eye(mouth)?

 

[CJO]

It all depends on the chalice.

CJ

 

[MoeManTheSnowMan]

Say I had a t5 set up and I had 5 watts per gal, would this be to much light? I'm just trying to get a general idea if at all possible off of watts per gallon

 

[Braves Fan]

When ya'll say a heavy SPS tank will / might inhibit Chalice growth, I am guessing you are talking about low Phosphates and Nitrates, good for SPS corals, not so good for Chalices. So what are good Phosphates and Nitrate numbers for a Chalice heavy tank? Since a lot of people are running LED's over their tank now, I know this next question about LED lights has a few variables to it such as, how high you have the light's mounted over your tank, the different brands of lights that we are using and the different wattages of the LED bulbs themselves. The question is, if it can be answered in general terms, if you have a predominately all Chalice tank, that is your main coral in the tank, that is the coral that you are setting your lights over your tank for, a Jason Fox Chalice type of a tank for example. What would you set your LED percentages at during the brightest part of the day and how long would you run this cycle? What would your cycles be at the rest of the day, before and after the brightest part of the day?

 

[Isoprene]

I agree with this big time. I have these exact two chalice to start and brought them from frags to small colonies to recession to back to growing like crazy. I have my alk around 9 - 9.5 dkh and I keep mag at 1400 - 1450 ppm. I have learned how to keep them using these two beginner chalice corals as testers, definitely great advice

 

[Isoprene]

Anyone that is new at chalices should consider starting with one of the more hardy pieces that have been in captivity for a while, like the Original Mummy Eye or the Miami Hurricane. They are relatively cheap, beautiful, and are hard to kill. When you feel comfortable with how they react and what parts of your tank are good for them collect more

This is what I meant to quote

 

[Stomp]

this is a great idea for a thread. ive kept a couple chalices in the past, but never really got into them more than that. id like to add a couple to my current display, so this thread has been a big help.

 

[frags]

does anyone keep chalices in high flow with good results?

 

[Eienna]

As far as them growing better in "dirtier" water or not, I would suspect that too much emphasis is on the nitrates. There are many, many other nutrients. You can have low nitrates and still have an abundance of other things, such as amino acids, proteins, etc. On the flip side, you can have a lot of nitrate and still be low in other beneficial nutrients. Nitrate and phosphate alone can be general indicators of organics in your tank but should not be the only thing considered when talking about high or low nutrient tanks being better for certain corals.

 

[nature786]

These are the three Chalices I'm getting:
Cornbred 3G Mummy eye
Miami Hurricane
Vivid Pink *******

All will have 2 eyes and this will be my second try at keeping a chalice; I do have a very big hermit crab in my 125 so I'll watch him & if he isn't a good sport then he is out. My tank will be stocked with about 15 fish and I plan on feeding twice a week same thing I do with my Acans. I totally agree with the Alk swing comments; learned that the hard way.
Thank you guys for this thread and all your tips & knowledge; one more reason i love REEF2REEF.

 

[jcollinsks]

I have a question I haven't seen in this thread, how do you tell if it is happy, two and see the mouths open when I feed reef chili, and they will grab on a piece of mysis, but how do you tell if they are growing/happy, do the rims change color like an sps branch tip turning white when it's growing?

Also thanks for the advice, it is now time to get the octopus out of my coral only tank and put him in a home just with hermits, I have about 15 in a 10 gallon so he doesn't go hungry and now I am afraid to go to sleep tonight with them in there.

 

[iretthepirate]

I had a cool chalice. had for a year ,grew alot but then suddenly started to deteriorate and died within a week don't know what happened trying my luck with another one but this one isn't as pretty as my first

 

[that Reef Guy]

Someone said they like High Magnesium.

Do you guys all Dose Magnesium for this reason?

Also, If you have high magnesium doesn't that in turn lower your calcium.

I heard when one goes up or down the other does the opposite.