Calcium and mg levels abnormally low

K

kilze1

New member
I don't post much because most of my questions have been answered by all the wonderful info and questions already on this forum.

Basically my issue is that I set up a marine color peristaltic dower 3 weeks ago
My numbers where consistent at about 134 gm per day of both calcium and carbonate maintaining a dkh of 11 and calcium at 450. Magnesium was not needing much supplementing about 10 gm per day. Level was over 1300 even 1400 so pump was off

Took out 4 large pieces of live rock full of zoas and traded to LFS for 4 large pieces live rock a staghorn birds nest and 2 candy cane corals 2 heads and a four head.

Protein skimmer is also down being repaired.

This week my calcium level has steady been going down and every day I increase amount of calcium to be dosed. Magnesium is also going down I have increased this additive to try and compensate. What is troubling is that I have doubled my calcium addition to 262 gm per day and my level is at 340. Magnesium is now also at 1050 and I have doubled this but only after loosing 100 ppm in 1 day.

Carbonate is normal needing slightly more than before the new aqua scaling but level is between 10-12 dkh

Tank is 300 g w/ 75 gallon sump
All ro di water
Salt mix is instant ocean regular
2 extra water changes this week due to skimmer down
Phos 0.03

Should I just keep increasing calcium I increased to 400 gm today almost 4 times my previous setting. Should I correct mag before calcium?

Thanks frustrated mixed reefer tank
 
I thought of this but kit had been working can they suddenly not be reading correctly.

After today's quadruple dose of calcium ca is at 310 and kh at 10 mg is at 1090

I was wondering if getting new rock and rearranging old rock has caused some sort of need for the tank to lay down new coralline algae.

I also was reading Farley's post on surface caco3 being created. I do get abiotic caco3 on my Gfo. I am thinking about shooting more for 8-9 for kh instead of 11-12 like RedSea pro salt has listed on container for 35 ppt salinity. Mine is actually 1.025 which is a little less than 35. I have to scrape off caco3 residue from sump walls every week even after moving ca and co3 dosing to the main tank to bypass GFO unit.

Water change tonight with instant ocean. The ca of 37.5 gallons new water was 380, kh 10.2, mg was 1050. I will get mg back up to 1300 using 75 gms per day dosing. Took carbonate Down by half to 70 g/day, and took ca down to 180g per day from 400(quadruple dose resulted in 310 reading tonight.)

No calcium I add has been staying in the water


Do these numbers seem ligitimate?

How long will birds nest, montipora, acro .survive this ca level
 
I thought of this but kit had been working can they suddenly not be reading correctly.


That can happen, if by user error if nothing else. But all chemical tests can get messed up if stuff gets into them, etc.

Most of the weird readings people get are test error, not some weird, unexplained chemistry phenomenon.

Have you used that kit on some new salt water, or a different kit on your tank?
 
The calcium in the water change was 380. It's a salifert test and I test almost every night. I'll take a sample into LFS This evening. Thanks for responding. I don't want to keep dumping calcium into a tank that is precipitating it out. I went back to my original dose of ca for the day today.
 
The calcium won't preciptate out without taking carbonate alkainity with it. Approximately 50ppm carbonate alkalinity to 20ppm calcium is used when calcium carbonate precipitation occurs.
 
I was having similar problems. Checked the actual amount out of the Bubble Magnus Doser:
Alk. 8ml/min
Ca+ 0ml/min
Mg. 35ml/min
Took the heads apart and put them back together...new numbers:
Alk 35ml/min
Ca+ 40/ml/min
Mg 35ml/min

So if you are using a doser to determine your daily amounts you are adding....check the actual discharge.
 
Are you sure doser is working... can you measure or draw a line on the container and make sure the unit is working. I bought one of these units and one of the motors was inconsistent. Also did a search and found a few others with problems.
 
Thanks everyone I am going to check the doser it is calibrated but maybe pump is not really doing what it is supposed to. I will put my data into the calculator to see correction info.

On my carbonate 50 ppm means what in dka. I am beginning to believe I keep dka too high anyway
 
Alright new numbers tonight. LFS WAS CLOSED. I will go tomorrow.

Numbers tonight with my own test

Ca - 340 so going up

Mg 1110

Kh 9.2 going down lost .8 or 14 ppm( thanks Farley I love conversions)

Overall very successful day.
Appears pump pumped what it was supposed to how do you know if it really did oh yeah the line on the bucket. Will mark it and check tomorrow

Thanks everyone I'm kind of excited not to have to chase this carbonate so aggressively

Thanks
 
Ok so LFS did testing on my water today. His technique worse than mine he did do it twice and both times got around 300.

At home bolused 50gm ca and increased dosing pump to run several more times today


Kh was 9.2

Mg was 1130 increasing dosing per day on this for tomorrow

Doser is pumping what appears to be what I am programming it to do. I am believing now that my corals are just sucking up ca. They all appeared to be out and flowing and with new white growth on edges. Does 225gm per day of ca seem reasonable for a 300 gallon tank with average amount of Stoney coral? When does it become more practical to use ca reactor?
 
When does it become more practical to use ca reactor?

There are three mainstream ways to dose calcium and alkalinity,thy can be used separately or in combinations,there is no definable point where one method is more practical than an other. That depends on the aquarist prefernces :

Calcium hydroxide/kal/limewater is one way. It must be dosed slowly to avoid pH spikes and the volume is limited by top off needs generally. It is self purifying and raises pH . it provides balanced alkainity and calcium in one part. FWIW this is my preference having tried all three.

Two part dosing provides calcium and alkainity in two parts via calcium chloride and carbonate/bicarbonate. Either part can be dosed for adjustments but it should generally be dosed in balanced proportions. Overtime chloride buildup and sulfate reduction can occur .Water changes can helps that .So does using magnesium with some of it as mangesium sulfate.

A CACO3reactor/ caclium reactor provides calcium and carbonate alkalinity. It also adds whatever is in the dissolving media . Since the effluent from the calcium reactor hal low pH ,using one generally lowers the Ph in the tank.Thris a good deal of equipment to manage. Randy has provide series of article on selecting a dosing scheme and limewater which you can find by clicking the link to Reef Chemstry articles at the top of this forum .Reading through them before decidng which way to go can help you make an informed decision to your liking.
 
Does 225gm per day of ca seem reasonable for a 300 gallon tank with average amount of Stoney coral?

Do you literally mean 225 grams of calcium, or 225 g of calcium chloride, or 225 mL of a liquid calcium additive?
 
Solution is 96 tablespoons fritz cacl2 anhydrous with RO/DI water 4 liters. I was putting in 600 ml per day through a doser so it is 225 gm of Cacl2.

I'm spending a lot on additives but all the equipment of calcium reactors seems unnecessary kalkwasser seems like a viable option and simple but the pH issues with it concern me. I don't have a good pH meter.

Today's numbers

Ca 400

kh 10.4

Mg 1190

I followed the reef chemistry calculator for calcium and have now put in the 2nd 1/3 portion of extra Ca and the Mg amount was astronomical but I keep going up on my doser today was 180gm of 50:50 mixture MgCl and Mg2SO4.

My open brain is the only coral not opening up all the way.

Thanks for keeping this forum going
 
Ok so I guess this thread is done

Ca 450

Kh 10

Mg 1210

It seems my calcium is sticking around now.

Thanks everyone :)
 
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