Charlie,

I think everyone else pretty much answered your questions - just to
reiterate a couple things... (below):


We're aiming for a reef tank, so I'd like to see some coraline algae in
there, if only to give the Coral Beauty something to nibble on. He
hasn't been eating much (if any) of the flake or frozen I've been
feeding.

Okay, coraline algae is a different ballgame. When ppl say *add algae*
- I think of macro algaes, usually Caulerpas. These you wouldn't want
in your display. Coraline is a solid encrusting algae (what gives LR
it's "purple" color), and no fish that I am aware of, will eat it.

Try some live or frozen brine or frozen mysis for the C. Beauty - see if
it will eat that.

Will kalkwasser lower alkalinity and raise PH?

Kalkwasser is a naturally balanced additive, and will raise both calcium
and alk. It also has an extremely high pH, and will raise that as well.

That high, eh? For some reason I thought I was aiming for 1.021. Thanks
for pointing that out.

A good article:

http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/a.../1/default.asp

In summary, 1.025 is the closest to the natural salinity of the reef
where most of our critters come from.

Can I just remove some tank water, say a gallon, add a bit of salt and
mix well, then return it to the tank? Via the sump, perhaps? A little
bit per day...?

You could ... what most ppl do to raise salinity is simply use sal****er
as topoff water (for evap), instead of fresh water. Another method is
to simply use a higher strength salinity water for you water changes.


After you wait out any potential cycle, and do a couple water changes to
bring your parameters in check, you might want to think about beefing up
your cleaner crew considerably - a bunch of different snails, maybe a
brittle or serpent star, etc.


Should I put in some live sand first?

If you're going to be adding LS to the tank, I would do this before you
do anything else.



HTH!!
Teri
http://www.reefsanctuary.com