[Delphinus]

No flames, it's not a parameter you really NEED to track, unless you're trying to grow out stoneys and particularly SPS.

The reason I ask, is, with a higher alkalinity, coraline will grow pretty fast as long as you have the calcium. The relationship between Ca and Alk is a bit tricky, let me try to grossly oversimplify it by saying they tend to have an inversely proportional relationship (if you raise one the other will go down). In your case, without a huge number of stoneys in your tank that will be pulling down both values, you will likely have enough Ca from tap water to get good coraline growth, so long as the alkalinty is at or above NSW (natural sea water) levels. Basically, whenever I have tried to adjust my alkalinity levels by using buffer, my coraline growth has always accelerated. Until I started growing more SPS, my water had enough Ca from the tap water topoff that I never really needed to adjust the Ca values.

Anyways it's just food for thought. Don't rush out and get an alkalinity test kit unless you really want to. I watch my levels, but that's because I'm trying to geek out on my stoneys these days. I don't yet have anywhere near the results I want to see, so I'm still learning, so take all this with grain of salt or any other favourite condiment...

PS. You have the best attitude about it anyways, just wait a few months, your tank will likely be covered. The first little bit always takes long, but once it gets a foothold it will spread pretty quickly if the params are right for it. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 24 May 2002, 09:20: Message edited by: delphinus ]