Quote:
Originally Posted by shaggy52282
...Is it manly just SPS that are Calcium intensive?
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Tridacnid clams, Stony fast-growing reeftop corals(Acroporids, Pocilliporids, Montis, etc), some spp. of
Corallinaceae, some spp. of massives (Favids, Porites, etc). Most of the corals that use a lot of calcium and alkalinity are the true reef builders and are referred to as hermatypic corals. In the strictest sense, this is not just stony corals, as many octocorals also produce so many spicules of such large mass in their soft tissue that they contribute to the neobiogenesis of reef-building as their soft tissues decompose when they die. Tridacnid clams, as well as shelled mollusks in general (like snails), although not corals, may be considered hermatypic in that their shells contribute to the geological mass of the reef as other hermatypic organisms build on their bioclasts when the mollusk dies. Even though they do not comprise a substantial population in most aquaria, pelagic plankton that have shells or tests (foraminifarians, coccolithophorids, and non-calcareous tests of diatoms) make up much of the calcareous oozes found on the bottom of some environments along with fish bones and teeth. I imagine that spicules make up some of this as well. These spiculese, along with the valves of mollusks, snail shells, some small percentage as fish bone or tooth, along with stony coral skeleton, make up the majority of calcium use in a system. I might point out that significant calcium and alk use can go towards making crustose
Corallinaceae deposits and to make up the biomass of some spp. of macroalgae (esp.
Halimeda spp.). For this to become a problem, you would have to have a large popultion of such creaturese, and that's when the Ca reactor makes it easy to do regular supplementation of calcium and alkalinity.
Regardless as to whether or not these organisms build reefs, they DO use calcium and alkalinity in your system, as do the bacteria in your rock and sand. HTH.
