Help me with calcium

[ninjamini]

Tonight at the meeting my Calcium tested at 520. Normally I test with aquarium pharmaceuticals and get a 480-500. My alk tested at 10.2 dkh. I did not test ph there.

I do not dose anything. I use natural sea water I buy from the store. I have live sand and not crushed coral. Its a mixed reef with softies, LPS and a few SPS. Coraline grows real fast.

Why would it get so high? I am going to go the the LFS tomorrow and get some water and test its calcium. I wonder if it comes that way or if it finds it in my system.

Thanx.

 

[ahoyhoy239]

it probably not being used up as fast as your doing water changes. if you do them often, try doing a little less, maybe that will level things out. either way i dont think 520 is WAY out of range. i think some people with lots of hard corals tried keeping their levels higher, though im not sure.

you could always add more hard coral, that will help even it out lol

 

[ReefWreak]

Who knows. I tested my Alk at the meeting tonight and it came out to the low 3s on the 1-15 scale of alkalinity (dkh). I came home and tested it with my salifert kit at home and it came out to like 13ish, so it's a good thing that I tested it before I started dosing two part. My calcium also came out to 435 and I dose only pickling lime with topoff water. Can anyone tell me if these numbers make sense? What/how should I start dosing? I've already got 2 part B-Ionic sitting around.

Sorry for the thread jack ninja. IMO I would trust the salifert more than the AP test. It's possible that your sand and/or water are just raising the calcium levels. Maybe excess CO2 in the water would dissolve the sand to release more calcium? Check your pH, and also are you running an air-injection skimmer?

 

[ek9vboi]

Hey ninjamini, I was the other guy next to you basically the whole time at the meet. The best advice I could tell you honestly would be to mix your own water and do your own water changes to see if the calcium levels drop. I am pretty sure the LFS doesn't add calcium into the NSW, so it could be anything.

I also went home and tested the exact same water to see if the results were the same. My calcium level at the meet was 490ppm and I got 460 or 470 on my kit. Same thing for the alk, it was a little off on mine but that could be because I took time when I got home to test.

 

[ek9vboi]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9996051#post9996051 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReefWreak
Who knows. I tested my Alk at the meeting tonight and it came out to the low 3s on the 1-15 scale of alkalinity (dkh). I came home and tested it with my salifert kit at home and it came out to like 13ish, so it's a good thing that I tested it before I started dosing two part. My calcium also came out to 435 and I dose only pickling lime with topoff water. Can anyone tell me if these numbers make sense? What/how should I start dosing? I've already got 2 part B-Ionic sitting around.

All I can think of is user error. From what I saw, some of the people didn't know how to use the kits properly. Such as cleaning the syringe and vial before testing, not saying you were one of them.

As for the calcium level you have, dosing kalkwasser will bring it up but you have to watch out for the pH levels. Usually when I dose a lot my pH can raise up as far as 8.4, but during the day when I don't dose too much it stays constant at 8.3 and the nightly swings to 8.0.

 

[nyvp]

high lvls of calc is fine your tank just isnt using it dont try to bring it down. Just realise that adding baking soda or lime water effects not just one of the big three( ph,alk,calc ) same thing with mag. now ph and alk are diff to high in those does effect. what ever you do just raise or lower slowly. ph no more then .20 diff/day . mag can be 100/day.
here is where you want to be:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

here is a good calc to get there:


http://reef.diesyst.com/



.

 

[Rogger Castells]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9997228#post9997228 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by nyvp
high lvls of calc is fine your tank just isnt using it dont try to bring it down. Just realise that adding baking soda or lime water ...........

Yeah but as he mentioned above he is not dosing anything. it is probably the test, try again with your test kit and see if it changes.

 

[ninjamini]

Thanx all for the input. I do not does anything. My own test has always put me at 480-500. Yesterdays test at the meeting was the conformation at 520. I am just trying to figure out why its so high.

 

[rawbomb]

Purposely keep my CA at 500 and DKH at 14 and ph at 8.4 (BLU coral method) with no negative effects. My CA reactor has been out of commission for a few weeks so it has dropped lately but as long as you don’t spike it too quickly in any direction up or down there are no negative effects to maintaining them that high. So I really wouldn’t worry about it too much if it is that high.

 

[jeffbrig]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9997908#post9997908 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rawbomb
Purposely keep my CA at 500 and DKH at 14 and ph at 8.4 (BLU coral method) with no negative effects. My CA reactor has been out of commission for a few weeks so it has dropped lately but as long as you don’t spike it too quickly in any direction up or down there are no negative effects to maintaining them that high. So I really wouldn’t worry about it too much if it is that high.

What are you running your magnesium at to make that work? 500/14/8.4 sounds like a recipe for massive precipitation if conditions shift much at all.