If I don't have enough calcium in the tank... what happens?

[Kinetic]

Will a lack of calcium just stunt coral growth or will it actually cause them to be unhealthy?

It's hard keeping up with my current calcium levels, I'm only doing water changes on my little 40g frag tank, which seemed fine for awhile, but now they're really growing and i'm finding I have to do more water changes to keep up.

Will a lack of calcium cause stn etc? Or just stunt growth?

[Mr. Ugly]

Alk is the more critical one. If you're only doing water changes to keep up, and your Ca is depleted, likely your alk is too.

Definately can slow growth and, I believe, cause stn.

[Mr. Ugly]

Also check your Mg. You may get tissue recession on your lps if Mg gets too low.

[Kinetic]

well the Ca is on the low side, though not depleted, I'll have to do a test on alk. i hope my salifert is good, i just got a new salifert test since I ran out... so not sure =/

[Nuuze]

Careful man! My Salifert was of by 1-1.5 dkh on the high side. So my 8 dkh reading was actually 6.5 dkh. Lost my big a$$ Tubs Horrida and Unarce Candlelight colony.

[Mr. Ugly]

:(

Yah, there were some bad batches of Salifert alk test a while back.

[Kinetic]

yeah that's true... well since I have it I'll try it anyway. I'll try to pickup a different kit somewhere else too.

[burris]

start using limewater to replace evaporation

[fishnfst]

I received a salifert test kit with an exp of 06-2012 from Habib as a replacement and it only read .2 off from the control solution.. The one that it replaced read 2.5-3 dkh off the control solution..

[raddogz]

Art pick up the Elos test kit whenever you pick up the tank from Jesse.

[Kinetic]

Yeah I"m going to get a full set from Jesse, but my tank won't be in until october 2nd or so =/

[mcurl98]

tough to say without knowing the numbers involved. Certainly anything in the 300s (CA) wouldn't hurt your corals.