Tropical Fish Forums

[Barby Girl]

Just a quicky question: Is maintaining proper calcium levels only important for corals or does LR requir it as well?
Thanks!
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Barby Girl

[FloridaBoy]

A quickie but also an excellent question... a question many never think about, and one reason many pounds of expensive live rock ends up declining to become... dead rock. What you are asking involves the calcareous based encrusting purple/red material coating the LR, called Coralline Algae. The answer is yes, LR does require calcium for proper growth of Coralline Algaes, also proper alkalinity, strontium, (look to Seachem products for help) also proper lighting... be advised, urchins will eat this stuff and phosphates, nitrates, DOCs will all hinder your progress. Of course, once you get the CA growing, then you get to have fun scraping it off the glass!
Here are some links with more opinions on Corallines:

http://saltaquarium.about.com/library/blank/bl_coralline.htm
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/corallinealg.htm
http://www.garf.org/coralline.html
http://www.garf.org/NORM/coralline/corallinenorm.html
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Keepin' marines happy for 25 years

[Pete Harcoff]

In addition to coralline, there are other types of algae like Halimeda and Padina that also use calcium.

And if you have hitchhikers like snails, feather dusters, etc in your LR, they will make use of the calcium, too.

[Barby Girl]

[Pete Harcoff]

I believe Seachem makes a strontium test kit. As for optimal levels, I think it's around 8 to 10 ppm (but don't quote me). A typical ocean salt mix should have appropriate Strontium levels in it, although some mixes do seem to vary in their mineral content. Some calcium additives (I.e. Seachem's Reef Advantage Calcium) also contain strontium.

DOC = Dissolved Organic Carbon. Your skimmer will take care of that.

[FloridaBoy]

DOCs = Dissolved Organic Compounds
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Keepin' marines happy for 25 years