460ppm Calcium too high?

[fitzgeraldjw]

I've been testing my calcium for a couple of weeks now, and it's been holding steady at about 460ppm. I've read 380-450 is an ideal range, so this isn't excessive, but do I need to do anything to lower it? How would I go about doing that? thanks

 

[kripas]

Stop dossing until you reach the level you want or do a water change will reset to normal range but i wouldnt worry about it, I used to have 480 and dont have any issue. Now i have 3 dossing pump system and everything is balance

 

[fitzgeraldjw]

I'm not dosing anything, and the last water change I did was four days ago. Everything seems to be doing great, so I'm not worried, just didnt know if there was something specific I needed to do to reduce it

 

[mikearoni]

darn. i wish my cal would go up like that without dosing anything.

 

[tmz]

460ppm is fine. I run at around 500ppm. What is the alkalinity?

 

[fitzgeraldjw]

Alk is at 107, and it's actually come down a bit

 

[JamesJR]

Alk is at 107, and it's actually come down a bit

i hope this is a typo.

if it is 10.7 it is a little high but otherwise fine. If your corals look good I would not worry about it.

 

[fitzgeraldjw]

no, was referring to 107 ppm....dKH is 6, so right where it needs to be

 

[jeffreylesser]

no, was referring to 107 ppm....dKH is 6, so right where it needs to be

I think 6 is probably a bit too low. I believe natural seawater is around 7.7dKH(138 ppm). If you want low ALK shooting for 8, or 143 ppm would be a pretty good number. I don't have a lot of luck in my tank under an ALK of 7dKH. If the tank is there too long bad things start to happen in my experience. What test kit are you using?

 

[bertoni]

I'd keep the dKH at 7 or a bit higher. Natural seawater is a bit below that, but not much, and most of our tanks tend to fluctuate a bit more than the ocean, so a bit of safety margin seems like a good idea.

 

[tmz]

This article may be of interest:


http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.htm

I run alkalinity arund 9.6dkh or about 171.4ppm,fwiw. Different brands have different levels of alklainity calcium , magnesium and alklainity . For a list see the sticky at the top of this forum.

 

[Chris Mills]

460pp is fine. I tend to run around 440 myself - tested with Salifert.

which salt mix are you using?

 

[Felixc395]

My calcium is at 520 now.... Only because I've done a ton of water changes and I only have an Idaho grape Monti and efflo at the moment. I'm also having some phosphate problems so my corals aren't taking at calcium from the water at the moment either.

But calcium that high should be fine

 

[fitzgeraldjw]

460pp is fine. I tend to run around 440 myself - tested with Salifert.

which salt mix are you using?

Thank for all the input. As far as my salt mix, I'm using Instant Ocean Reef Crystals