Calcium Supplement Recommendations?

[JerseyGuy]

I run a simple 75 g FOWLR tank (10 years old) and it's running fine.

I've never tested for or dosed calcium (no coral) but I just bought a test kit and noticed it's a little low (380). I'm looking for a simple supplement that will bring it up a little. I really want to keep it simple since I don't have coral. Any suggestions as to what to use and how to use it would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Dustyboots]

Rather than dosing maybe you can find a higher calcium salt mix.

 

[3dees]

you really don't need more than that for a fowlr. my calcium went from 380 to 410 by switching from IO to RC. I do not dose and have softies and lps.

 

[JerseyGuy]

Oh I though my Calcium minimum was 420. I have buckets of IO so I really don't want to buy any other salt mix, so my options are just float along at 380 or dosing.

I do have snails and a pistol shrimp, am I safe at 380, I'm not really much of a fan of dosing anyway?

 

[explorer07]

Yhea for your yank calcium is not really priority.There really is nothing using it.

 

[JerseyGuy]

Bump - Any other opinions on running along with my calcium at around 380 considering it's a FOWLR with only a couple of snails and a shrimp??

 

[JammyBirch]

You're fine at 380, if you must bump it though the easiest way is to use a two part. I use B Ionic, it adds alk and calcium, 1ml of each per gallon of water in your system will raise the Calcium level by 16ppm.

For me a water change gets my calcium up to around 390 i add 30ml of alk and 30ml of calcium to bump it to 410-415 range.

Again if you don't have coral you're probably fine, the nice thing about B Ionic is it also contains the correct doses of other trace elements like mg and iodine, your shrimp will need the iodine for molting.

Pretty easy way to do it, check out calcium dosing on BRS youtube video.

 

[JerseyGuy]

Thanks for the help, I'm going to do exactly that.

I only have on shrimp, a Pistol, but his YWG buddy would miss him terribly so I want to make sure he's healthy.

 

[tmz]

380 is fine. Caclium chloride can be used to raise it if you are so inclined. Typical ocean surface level is 420ppm;recommeded range for a reef tank is 380 to 450ppm. This calcualator is helpful:

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html