calcium level to high need help

[undertcontrolj]

What do i need to do to bring my calcium back down. It has got up to 500 on me and I dont think that is a very safe level to be at. If it is okay to be at 500 just let me know. If not I can you some help on getting it back down to a safe level.

Thanks,
Justin

 

[ReefingMadness]

Water changes with a salt mix lower in calcium. That is the only thing I can think of. I thought it would be okay. I looked it all up and to be balanced. You would have to have an alkalinity of almost 20 Dkh.

 

[waynesworld]

What are your other numbers? 500 should be ok I would leave it. Are you dosing with anything? Cal works in conjunction with other things but I am not the science nerd so I will leave it to them to chime in on what it is.

 

[commonstranger]

I keep my Calcium between 450 to 490. Sometimes it will get to 500 or a little over. If this happens I just dont dose for a few days and let it go down. I checked it the other day and I was at 500 on Cal and 9.6 on dkh/alk. I think it will be fine, you can do some water changes like someone said if it doesnt come down after a few days if you wanted but, Id say you will be fine.

 

[poolkeeper1]

As long as your KH Is In the proper range your CA Is fine at 500. I keep mine at that level all the time! Good SPS growth with that much CA.

 

[undertcontrolj]

i think my alk may need to come up a bit then. Everything last night whenbi checked seemed to be in an acceptable range. As low as I can get them without a skimmer. That is coming next week though. What are the effects of low alk and high calcium? How are they correlated?

 

[Angela Short]

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=102605

A good sourse for almost any chemistry questions. The alk calcium article is about 5 down

If your calcium is high just don't do anything and let it come down on its own that is if you are stocked with calcium absorbing animals. Coralin will use it also but 500 is not crazy high, I wish mine stayed closer to that!

 

[Angela Short]

Also if you are using oceonic salt it mixes with a real high calcium. Switch to IO and I promis you will not have that problem . Maybe I need to switch but adding some dow flake is more cost effective that a more expensive salt seeing as how changing 50 gallons a pop can get kinda expensive!

 

[andywe]

500 is fine. I keep my aqauriums between 480 and 500 on averqage, with an average dkh of 13-14. Ph hovers 8-8.1 and my tanks are very healthy. I get great growth as well.

In relation to ALK, anything 17 and over is a worry factor. Below that, do not worry too much. Ca, the worst that happens is you start to coat your parts with Calc deposits. High Ca won;t kill anything other than equipment over a long time. Having a high Ca and high ALK in good relations is fine and healthy.

Like Angela stated, Oceanic is a mix that promotes growth and is high in CA and Mg. It's why I use it. Nothing wrong with other mixes, just a preference. IO and others I have to add stuff; Oceanic I mix and add to the tank.

 

[undertcontrolj]

I think I have been using red sea brand salt. Well I guess I really need to worry about doing a water change to bring some of my stuff back in line. I have been dosimg with DT'S three part cal,alk,mag. My alk is a little low so can I just use the alk part if those solutions?

 

[andywe]

Justin,

the one thing you have not answered is what are they at now? What is your Ca, ALK, PH, and Mg. Incidentaly, if you do regular water changes you probably do not need to dose Mg.

 

[undertcontrolj]

Calcium is at 500 alk is on a diffrent measure than the dkh I think it is 3.5 on the measure my kit uses ph is at 8.2 all the other stuff is close to 0. I don't have a MG test kit so I am not sure what it is at. Again all these are coming of memory from last night cause I am at the office right now.

 

[cee]

If your Mg is low and you dose to get the Alk up with that level of Ca, it is possible you'll create a snowstorm when calcium carbonate precipitates out. I would let it ride and it'll come down on its own. Nothing appears to be suffering, right? I'd shoot for 9 on Alk and about 420 on Ca, but obviously different people here have success at higher levels.

 

[gsusfreak]

justin if it makes you feel any better, i dont check for any of that stuff.....opppps!!! i wasnt supposed to say that

 

[Mikeyjer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14755312#post14755312 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gsusfreak
justin if it makes you feel any better, i dont check for any of that stuff.....opppps!!! i wasnt supposed to say that

John,
I'm with you there...lol... I started with the routine weekly water changes and I used IO and I dose Ca and Alk in the water change. Everything been going pretty good, getting good growth and everything. I test at the beginning and it's usually the same and now I just keep doing the same thing every week.

 

[undertcontrolj]

Yeah that is what I have been doing for about the last 3-4 months and for some reason a piece of SPS is not looking really good. Still alive just not opening up as much.