Calcium consistency ideas

[QuiGonJay]

My tank is about 1 and a half years old. For most of its life (until this jan) the CA stayed around 380 to 390 while alk was around 8.5 to 9 and mag at 1320 or so. I'd do the two part seachem additions at 10 ml twice a week with water changes every two weeks. I measure about every 2 weeks with red sea kits. Starting in jan, I've struggled with keeping the alk and Chem up. Same routine but alk is between 7.5 and 8 while mg is around 1250 and CA still at 370ish. I decided to increase the amount of two part to about double and that increased the mg a bit (1310), the alk a lot (10) and the cams not at all (370). Don't want to add more and throw the alk further off. I feel a bit stuck and not sure what to do. I have mostly softies, but a candy cane frag and Duncan frag and blade gorgonian frag which are still growing well, a gorgonian and zoa that arent. Would like to find a way to be more consistent, is Kalkaska a good option? For some reason it scares me. Any advice appreciated.

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[theatrus]

Calcium consistency ideas

A ton of successful reef tanks run off of two part solutions. As alkalinity and calcium is depleted dosing even daily or more frequently is not unheard of.

I'd first correct your calcium imbalance by dosing more calcium daily (10-20ppm a day) to bring your levels up towards 420, and then resume dosing to keep a stable level. Doubling the dose may have been too much, so feel free to use less to keep the numbers stable.

There are various calculators out there to know how much of which additive to dose in order to raise levels.

Kalk in top off water is a good way to stabilize your tank. Dosing two parts with an automated doser is in my opinion more flexible, but a lot higher startup cost.

 

[Sk8r]

I just 'set' my calcium at 420, alk at 8.3, and magnesium at 1350, dump a pound of of Mrs Wages' Pickling Lime, aka kalk, into my 32 gallon Brute trashcan ATO reservoir, and trust it to keep those readings rock stable as long as I add ro/di periodically---undissolved kalk will kick up and dissolve as needed, at a guaranteed 2 tsp per gallon. I can go off and leave my tank for a month with no fuss. Tank on autofeed, ro/di going in with kalk, no sweat.

 

[QuiGonJay]

How does one 'set' your calcium and is there any risk of doing Kalk in a smaller container (my ATO is 5 gallon, tank is only 45) and is it OK for the ATO to run low before replenishing (in other words, I normally top off the ATO container once a week, it gets low but not empty.)

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[QuiGonJay]

Theatres, thanks, looking into one of those calculators is probably needed.

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[Dombake]

I have Kalk in my ATO and my Alk/ca/mg fix at the numbers Sk8r mentions (I went this route following one of her posts). My water volume in my system is around 120litres (30g) and my ATO resivior for is a 10l water bottle. I generally just top the water up once a week, but it never runs to empty, always 1/4 left and I decide based on any Kalk I see at the bottom, how much Kalk I should add.