My bad luck with Chalices...

[mallorieGgator]

So, I seem to have terrible luck with chalices. This has me afraid to get another one. My tank is able to sustain zoas, and SPS, acans and NPS, but I am having a hard time with chalices. These are my experiences:
1) I was sold a chalice when my tank was only 2 mos old. I didn't know too much about them so I had it on hold for awhile to just make sure my tank was mature. I went to pick it up and it was receeding in the middle. I didn't know any better and asked if it was splitting. The lady told me yes and I bought it. I got it home and put it into a tank that was still unstable. It had a ton of tissue loss. I finally got it to where it was nice looking and healing. I then had an emeralb crab decide it wanted to eat half of the chalice, skeleton and all. So it healed again, and stupid me moved it too high in the tank, it bleached and then died.
2) Got another chalice (my only one left). It was growing great and along with the previous chalice I moved it up too high and it also bleached. I have it almost on the bottom of my tank and it is in the process of recovering.
3) got a cheap "I don't know if this will survive or not" piece ($5) and I wanted to try and fix it...it died. It was already in terrible shape.
4) got a beautiful red chalice with yellow eyes and a purple rim. It was doing so great! THen a zoa colony fell on it and was on it over-night. It bleached and the tissue was receding and it eventually died.

I don't think it's my tank now. I'm just having poor luck and was making beginner mistakes. But just in case here are my tank params:
So, My tank is almost a year old. I have a 4 bulb AquaticLife fixture (which is very bright surprisingly) and 2 ATI Blue +. 1 KZ New Gen, and 1 KZ fiji purple bulb.
Parameters:
Ammonia/Trite/Trate:0 ppm
Phosphates: 0ppm using a 'fuge and GFO (in a bag in the sump- no reactor)
Calcium:420
Alk:8.9
Mg:1500
Temp:79F

This just has me discouraged. Chalices are my favorite LPS and I would like to give them another try. I'm just terrified now with my bad experiences.

 

[Salty Dog]

you really have to take your time with adding corals, making sure your water quality is stable and good. Securing corals and not just dropping them in is a better idea so things dont fall onto each other. I waited years before going into chalices. There is no rush and chalice's are a difficult coral to keep besiides SPS. If your SPS are doing well then thats most of the battle. Go slow and be patient

 

[Bubbles_B]

You should not worry too much. I too have trouble sustaining small 1 eyed frags but when I get my hands on a 3 to 4 eye frag they seem to do better. But honestly I have gone through way too many chalice frags in my time and don't want to be dicouraged to try again but I only have luck with the inexpensive ones. DO you have hermit crabs? They tend to crawl over your chalices and it in turn stresses them, especially if they are attempting to grab food from their mouths.

 

[mallorieGgator]

you really have to take your time with adding corals, making sure your water quality is stable and good. Securing corals and not just dropping them in is a better idea so things dont fall onto each other. I waited years before going into chalices. There is no rush and chalice's are a difficult coral to keep besiides SPS. If your SPS are doing well then thats most of the battle. Go slow and be patient

I had that zoa frag attached. lol. I attach all of my frags with superglue gel, epoxy, superglue gel. I guess it just wasn't attached good enough. My SPS are doing great and they grow well and sustain beautiful colors. I'm in no rush to keep a ton of them or anything, I just want to try another one. I will be patient though. :)

You should not worry too much. I too have trouble sustaining small 1 eyed frags but when I get my hands on a 3 to 4 eye frag they seem to do better. But honestly I have gone through way too many chalice frags in my time and don't want to be dicouraged to try again but I only have luck with the inexpensive ones. DO you have hermit crabs? They tend to crawl over your chalices and it in turn stresses them, especially if they are attempting to grab food from their mouths.

I do have hermits. They are small but they sure do like to crawl over stuff. They like to take up nightly residence on corals to rest there. I only have about 7-10 hermits in my 55 gallon tank.

 

[fab1971]

Your numbers look fine to me. You just have to be careful with the lighting, other then that I think you've just had some bad luck. Next one you get, keep in a shaded area and slowly acclimate to the light. Feed on occasion and you should do fine. Don't be discouraged from a couple of mishaps. Good luck!

 

[gar732]

I feel your pain, I just lost my ironman and pink fame chalices:cry:. Same deal all my sps are doing well but I'm losing a few chalices and acans. It's actually kinda funny in a twisted way, the cheaper chalices are doing ok and I'm losing the expensive ones and its not because of frag size as most of these I've had for a while and are a pretty good size. It sounds more like mishaps are keeping you from being able keep them alive. Get a good, inexpensive frag and see what happens. Just make sure you put it in a place where it can't be damaged by other corals and if it growing and doing well in a spot, leave it there, if it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

[mallorieGgator]

Thanks everyone. Gar732, nice panther chameleon. Nosy Be? I had a Nosy Mitsio. Cool animal. :)

 

[Troylee]

you will be just fine!!!!! i have lost my share i don't want to even comment on the last one i lost...:cry: let's just say it was sold for very good money and the day before i was shipping it decided to peel while i was at work......:sad:

 

[nixer]

let me put it a few ways
1 if a mistake wasnt made you havent learned anything
2 mothernature has killed corals too.
3 your not alone we have all killed something

 

[KLR]

Sounds like just bad luck. Not very many chalice like very high light but on the other hand certain ones do. Also,some chalice species die really really easily. So if I were you, I would buy an aquacultured chalice frag,even if it isnt exotic, and try it in your tank. Because when you get a chalice that came straight from the wild it chances of bleaching,browning, and/or death are ALOT higher.

 

[gar732]

Thanks everyone. Gar732, nice panther chameleon. Nosy Be? I had a Nosy Mitsio. Cool animal. :)

Yes he's a nosy be. He is very cool even though he doesn't like me, the red comes out around his eyes and he gets even brighter blue when ever I go near his cage. He loves the wife though, I think she could handle him if she wasn't afraid to. He drinks water right out of the spray bottle when she does it.

 

[mallorieGgator]

Thanks everone! Makes me feel a lot better. :)
gar732- our nosy mitsio loved us. Well, as much as a chameleon could. lol. I hand fed him crickets as well as super worms. I also handled him a lot. He never bit me or even tried until he had a freak problem. He had an anal prolapse for some unknown reason. We took him to the vet and had it fixed but the stress did him in. :(

 

[gar732]

I had a blue-barred ambilobe that developed a respiratory infection and the antibiotics were ruff on him and he didn't make it. He turned bright red and yellow for a few days until he died. They are delicate thats for sure. If you've got any pics I'd love to see them.

Back on topic, if you can find something like a miami hurricane frag that would be a great one to try. Despite the decline of some of my chalices that one is still doing great and popping out eyes left and right, and they aren't too expensive especially if you can get one from a fellow reefer.

 

[SteezySPS]

definitely yes on the miami hurricane and also the bubblegum monster, fast growing chalices and both look realy nice as a large colony. those two are also reasonably priced Good luck with your chalices.

 

[mallorieGgator]

gar732- here's Octavius, our chameleon.

 

[rockinzebra457]

I used to have a huge veiled chameleon that was also very mean and he actually bit me a fee times

 

[Bugg_zy]

definitely yes on the miami hurricane and also the bubblegum monster, fast growing chalices and both look realy nice as a large colony. those two are also reasonably priced Good luck with your chalices.

+1 on these 2 chalices. They seem the easiest to grow out and the price on them has dropped alot. Start whatever type you get in a shady area as recomended. I only have a 4 bulb T5 myself. I start em off in the shade for a few days, then move em out a tiny bit, wait a few more days, repeat.
You guys have peaked my interest on the cameleon's, last time I laid my eyes on one IRL my wife had to drag me out of the store!! As long as I would not have to feed em crickets(been there done that lepard geko) that would be cool, time to do some research.