riddle me this. bought my first coral two days ago (a few threads on that debacle out there), but the LFS told me to start dosing Ca. i measured my alk and my Ca, and found that the alk was good at 9dKH / 3.2meq/L, and that my Ca was waay low at 260. Last night i added 3ml of the Kents Ca stuff. this morning, i measured my Ca again, and it was at *drum roll please* - waay low at 260. WTH? bottle reads to add 1-5mL/50G. is this a magnesium problem? am i just not adding enough? did it all get eaten during the course of 8 hours?
Ca levels
- Thread starter kolosy
- Start date
scrmbld33
New member
id try testing the test kit on some fresh salt water to rule it out being bad, i had one that read the low all the time and it was the test kit.
what was the alk tested at in the morning? i find it unlikley that one coral to be using it up over night. or you may have not dosed enough.
what was the alk tested at in the morning? i find it unlikley that one coral to be using it up over night. or you may have not dosed enough.
D to the P
New member
It would depend on the brand of salt, and what type of water you are using. Sometimes on the side of the salt bucket it will say what the salt content should be. If you mix up the salt water and they don't match up pretty close, than I would think it was your test kit that was wrong. You could also ask the LFS to check it for you and see if their numbers match yours. It is unlikely that the coral would have soaked up all the calcium that was added overnight. The fact that your alk is fine is weird, but it still could be a magnesium problem.
Check out the salt contents on this thread:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1287118
But I'd also check out some of the links in this thread, even if the test kit was the problem it is still a wealth of information. If the test kit wasn't the problem, most of the articles should give you a general idea of what the problem might be, and how to fix it. There are also a lot of online calculators for figuring out exactly how much calcium chloride (liquid calcium and the like) to add.
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=102605
I'm not giving up on your problem, but I got to go to work, and right now I think RC's traffic is pretty low. This way you'll be able to gain insight into your problem, and maybe even solve it yourself (although i would ask before devising a plan).
Check out the salt contents on this thread:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1287118
But I'd also check out some of the links in this thread, even if the test kit was the problem it is still a wealth of information. If the test kit wasn't the problem, most of the articles should give you a general idea of what the problem might be, and how to fix it. There are also a lot of online calculators for figuring out exactly how much calcium chloride (liquid calcium and the like) to add.
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=102605
I'm not giving up on your problem, but I got to go to work, and right now I think RC's traffic is pretty low. This way you'll be able to gain insight into your problem, and maybe even solve it yourself (although i would ask before devising a plan).
