Calcium, Alk, PH?

[EleganceMan]

I understand these are all related but i cant figure out what my calcium problem is. My tank reads calcium 600, alk 2.9-3.3, ph 8.3 according to my books that would be a false calcium reading ....is it i have checked it three times now?

 

[LFS_worker]

check expiration dates on your test kits. also some test kits are more reliable than others.
B

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It is not necessarily a false reading. That is not impossible by any means.

What salt mix? Some, like Oceanic, have excessive calcium already in them.

This article may help:


Solving Calcium and Alkalinity Problems
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

 

[EleganceMan]

i have used three test kits now and they all read the same. I use coralife scientific grade marine salt. but that has only been for the past month or so...my original salt was reef crystals. What is the best salt out there?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

There are many suitable salts (IO, Tropic Marine, others), IMO, but the reason for asking here is that Oceanic has excessive calcium in it, and that is the cause of high calcium in many tanks. You might check the calcium level in your salt mix.

If it is high, just maintain alkalinity and let the calcium decline on its own as described in the article above.

 

[EleganceMan]

Thanks, also i was wondering why my calcium takes so long to go down. I have about fifteen sps and lps corals average 4 inches.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Calcium declines far more slowly than alkalinity. By only 18-20 ppm for each 1 meq/L (2.8 dKH) of alkalinity. So it takes a long time.
This article has more:

When Do Calcium and Alkalinity Demand Not Exactly Balance?
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rhf/index.htm