having hard time raising calcium

[chewieee]

My bro has a 90g Reef tank. Hes been struggling to get calcium to raise right now his tank is sitting at 350ppm calcium, he just did a 30 gallon water change with water that was reading 450ppm. He dosed it with some b-ionic when he did the change his tank is still sitting at 350ppm any ideas?

Ph- 8.1
dkh- 10
ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 10ppm

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You need to dose a calcium only supplement, such as just the calcium part of the B-ionic (not both parts), or less expensively, calcium chloride.

This article and calculator show how much and how:

Reef chemicals calculator
http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html

Solving Calcium and Alkalinity Problems
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

 

[chewieee]

he did just use the 1 part for calcium

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Then he needs more. There is never a time when enough B-ionic calcium part alone won't raise calcium however high you want it. Check the calculator. It may need a lot more than the recommended dose on the bottle, which is intended for maintenance, not boosting values substantially.