Calcium stopped at 350ppm

CoMMaNdeR

CoMMaNdeR

New member
I have been dosing Kalk and a product Reef Calcium by Seachem to raise my calcium for about 2 or 3 months but my calcium stays always at 350 - 360 ppm.

Here are my parametres.
PH - 8.4
SG - 1.0265
ALK - 5-6 meq/L
Calcium - 350 ppm
Amom/Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 2.5

Don't have a test kit for magnesium or irons etc.
Let me know what I need to make to boost up my calcium level ?

Thanks
 
you need to allow your ph to drop which allows calcium to disslove in the water. this is troublesome as a drop of ph is bad. solution is to use a buffer. and dose at night . this is when the ph in the tank drops a bit ,the buffer corrects it but not immediately so adding calcium at this time ensures a better dissolve rate and absorption. do you use a buffer? what brand? when do you dose it? this is all important.
 
just dose the kalk and stop using the other stuff too. kalk is a good product and your over killing the calcium. too mush dosing can inhibit absorption as it doesnt dissolve and instead clumps together. it needs to dissapate or dissolve to be effective.
use the kalk only for now.
 
Dear CoMMaNdeR,

At the beginning I was using this Reef Calcium by Seachem to raise my calcium, unfortunately the results it was the same, so I buy Ca reactor. Now everything is ok, so just have it in your mind to buy one in the future.
 
yeah but kalk is way better! reactor is a bigger step but kalk will be a better calcium doserthan that other stuff........ next is a reactor.
 
Sometimes when your magnesium is low, it's harder to acheive higher calcium levels. My tank was testing between 400-450ppm Ca, but once i started adding Magnesium, the calcium has been testing between 450-500 w/o adding more calcium. It's been 2 days w/o adding and still testing between 450-500. Let me go run another test.
 
good point to bring up we have neglected the additional connection of calcium levels and mag. first i would try to dose at night.....maybe the two products was causeing issues so use the kalk...that may be a solution..then i would monitor ph at all times. if at 3am its slightly down thats your opportunity to dose ...keep that dosing timeup and if no change look into mag levels...next
 
Guys, at first I dosed only Kalk to my tank and was not using the Reef Calcium by Seachem. Then when I saw that my calcium remains always at around 350ppm I bought the Reef Calcium.

I have been dosing 24/7 Kalk, and I dose Reef Calcium once every 2 days but still the calcium remained at 350ppm. If I stop dosing the Reef Calcium for a while like some of you suggested it will not help because I tried it before when I dosed only Kalk.

To mantain the PH at 8.3-8.4 I don't use any Buffers. I had never a problem with the PH parametre. My ALK increased a bit these last few weeks because a month ago was around 4meq/L and now it is 6meq/L.

Like I said before, if I have low magnesium I cannot say because I don't have a test kit to measure, but I was thinking to buy something and dose for some time a magnesium product to raise it.

What do you think I have to do guys ?
 
Last edited:
Ignore pH for now. Your Alk is way too high, 5-6meq is 14-17kH, this will be why you can't get Ca higher.

... and Ca at 350 isnt overly bad, are you getting it to 400-450 coz that is the figure you keep seeing?

Dont get overly worried about your parameters, are your corals looking ok? Are you still getting growth? I've been told many times in this hobby the key is stability.

I know its been said above, but you really need to go get a test kit for Mg and post it here before anything else. If its too low, get some Magnesium chloride. See here for a good calculator on amounts to add:

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html
 
In my tank I have soft corals only. I know that people say it is not neccesary to mantain calcium for a softy tank, but I wish to mantain high calcium because I want the corraline growth that still I am not having and want to keep my caulerpa alive, that for now is still alive but growing very very slowly.

Can I buy something to raise my magnesium without testing it ?
Can I do any harm with extra high magnesium ?
 
use this calculator, I suggest stop the seacheam and use either kent turbocalcium or dowflake to raise your calcium level and then use the kalk to maintain the levels, you really need to check MG levels. calc, alk, and mg work together. In my tank I use dowflake to get my calc at 450 and use limewater 24/7 by using float switches as topoff water. I still have to add alk everyday using baking soda. Every system is different.
you should be ok keeping calc levels between 380 - 400 and alk 2.5 - 3.0 mql
Don't overdose kalk it will shoot your PH high!
http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html

another link about alk anc cal
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rhf/index.php
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7080850#post7080850 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chImerAnz
Ignore pH for now. Your Alk is way too high, 5-6meq is 14-17kH, this will be why you can't get Ca higher.

... and Ca at 350 isnt overly bad, are you getting it to 400-450 coz that is the figure you keep seeing?

Dont get overly worried about your parameters, are your corals looking ok? Are you still getting growth? I've been told many times in this hobby the key is stability.

I know its been said above, but you really need to go get a test kit for Mg and post it here before anything else. If its too low, get some Magnesium chloride. See here for a good calculator on amounts to add:

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html
Click to expand...

I agree, I forgot to mention one time playing with baking soda I overdose it my alk was high and my calc went down to 320!!
 
Why my ALK is high, it is because I am dosing alot of kalk ?
But if that is the reason why my PH didn't rise too and not stay stable about 8.3 - 8.4 ?

Also I noticed that you guys don't recommend Reef Calcium by Seachem, am I right ?



Thanks for all your kind help guys.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7081594#post7081594 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CoMMaNdeR
In my tank I have soft corals only. I know that people say it is not neccesary to mantain calcium for a softy tank, but I wish to mantain high calcium because I want the corraline growth that still I am not having and want to keep my caulerpa alive, that for now is still alive but growing very very slowly.

Can I buy something to raise my magnesium without testing it ?
Can I do any harm with extra high magnesium ?
Click to expand...


go down to your LFS and get them to test you mag levels. once you find out they are low, which im pretty sure they are, then add some mag. personally i will recommend ESVs magnesium. what brand of salt are you using? how often are you doing water changes?

read what Randy has to say about mag here:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php
 
kalk adds equal parts of alk and calcium. I'm not sure what else is in the reef calcium, could be messing it up. I would stop dosing everyting and get the calcium to the level desired. Then use the kalk for topoff slowly dripp at night to match your evaporation rate. Turbocalcium will raiser your calcium fast. How are you testing your PH? right after adding kalk?. It's best to use a ping point monitor. By raising your calcium only the alk will start decreasing. test for alk every two days or so to figure it out how much your system needs, I have to add extra alk my tank. Your PH levels are good, how are you adding kalk slowly or fast?
 
I am doing 10% water changes every 3 weeks. The tank is only about 4 months old, few corals and only 1 fish inside.

ALK was always about 3-4 meq/L but yesterday like I said raised to 5-6 meq/L. I will buy a Magnesium test kit next week and check if the Magnesium is low or high.

The magnesium needs to be around 1250-1350 ppm right !!
 
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