Help with Chalice

[neoh74]

Anyone every seen a chalice continue to break down. Seems to be flaking off and receding. Water quality is fine. I just moved him today under some partial shade with less flow, hopefully that will help.

 

[Pond Boy]

Mine likes it when I ramp up flow at night. In the morning when the lights come on it will be nice and puffed up..

 

[Ron Reefman]

That looks like Hollywood Stunner (or a close relative). I've had great success with them over the years. One was almost 2' in diameter in a 180g tank!

The mouths on yours seem spread pretty far apart which is a sign to me that it's not getting enough light. My big one was up high, only 8" from the surface and under 250 watt MH at first and strong leds (PAR of 300) later and the mouths were so close together that it almost looked solid green with very little background. When it grew vertical up the side glass and down off the side of the rock, the light would be less direct and the mouths would be further apart. But never as far apart as yours. And mine was in fairly strong and VERY random flow. Also, the skeleton can get very thick and strong over time, but the edges are VERY thin and frail as it is growing. You need to be very careful of the edges. That's just my two cents worth of advise.

 

[AlSimmons]

What exactly are your parameters?

 

[neoh74]

1.024 salt, 20 nitrates, calcium 450. 0 amonia, o nitrites

 

[heathlindner25]

It's hard to kill stunner, I would try to make things as stable as possible

 

[mcgyvr]

1.024 salt, 20 nitrates, calcium 450. 0 amonia, o nitrites

I wouldn't consider 20ppm nitrates "fine"..
Under 10 would be better..

 

[Ron Reefman]

This is what my Hollywood Stunner looked like as it was getting big in my old 180g tank. Notice how close together the mouths are.

 

[neoh74]

I acquired the tank and left the bio balls in the overflow. I have heard many times these are a nitrate factory but have yet to remove them.

 

[neoh74]

Ron that chalice is amazing! I hope mine will grow the same way! I think if I target feed it and dont mess with it I can start to get some growth.

 

[dendrite]

This is what my Hollywood Stunner looked like as it was getting big in my old 180g tank. Notice how close together the mouths are.

My experience is exactly the same. The frag sat unoticed and unloved in the back of the tank directly under a radion 3 pro and in front of a vortech mp10 when two years later I noticed it growing two feet across the back and sending offshoots to the front, growing between and covering stands of acropora and trying to cover another vortech along the back wall. I trim it mercilessly because as mentioned it can get so thick you would need a saw. Taking the safe route I would say moderate flow and light but for me it's like crabgrass.

 

[neoh74]

I had it at the top of my tank in the rocks but i think there was way too much flow. Reading up on it more it says it likes darker spots with medium flow. I moved it to the bottom of the tank partially under an overhang. I hope the lighter flow will keep it from disintegrating any more. Seems pretty stable now. I plan to target feed it to hopefully encourage it to grow for a while.

 

[neoh74]

In all not a bad purchase I got it at my LFS for $10. It is 3 1/2 inches across

 

[AlSimmons]

1.024 salt, 20 nitrates, calcium 450. 0 amonia, o nitrites

What about your Alkalinity & Magnesium? What other corals do you have in the tank? How do they look?

Hollywood Stunners are not too demanding when it comes down to lighting & flow IME. Pretty much every LFS in my area has an unlimited supply of these things.

 

[neoh74]

My alk is 11, and waiting for the magnesium test kit to come in to test that. I use red coral reef salt so I suspect it is also high, but wont know exactly until my test kit comes in.

 

[neoh74]

I removed my bioballs from the overflow and now it is loud as hell!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Ron that chalice is amazing! I hope mine will grow the same way! I think if I target feed it and dont mess with it I can start to get some growth.

This is one coral I don't think you need to target feed. And you are right, many chalices do prefer less light, but I think the stunner eats it up. Mine really popped neon green under blue leds.

Just remember, it grows at the edge, so when it's small the amount of edge you have is short, so it seems to be growing slow. As it gets bigger, it has more and more edge so it seems to grow faster and faster. The growth isn't faster, there is just more of it. Double 2" and you get 4", big deal, doesn't seem like much change. Double 50" and you get 100". It isn't faster growth, it's just more.

I hope you have fun with it. When I started my current tank about 8 months ago I found a tiny chip of stunner that only had 3 mouths, now it has over 20! They are small as it's such a tiny frag, but it's growing like crazy.