High Alk and Calcium

ckfazz

New member
I just did a 3 gallon weekly water change on my 12g nano and figured it was about time to test my Alk and Calcium levels. I use Oceanic salt and know that it is high in calcium but I also have high Alk which is the opposite of what I have heard other users getting from their mix. Here are all of my parameters:

Temp - 80
pH - 8.3
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Phos - undetectable
Alk - 13 dKH (Seachem) 14dKH (Salifert)
Calc - 580 ppm (SeaChem and Salifert)

The only thing that I dose is kalk for top off every day of a total of 20oz to replace the evaporation. All of my inhabitants seem to fine and are actually growing fairly rapidly. I am mixing 1 1/2 teaspoons per gallon of RO/DI water to make the kalk. Should I lower the amount that I am mixing or maybe just dose every other day? These numbers are high but since the corals/fish/inverts seem to be fine, should I even try to lower the alk and calc? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Chris
 
yes your levels are high but at the same time you are running a nano tank.I mix 1 tbls of kalk per gal.You can even mix half a tbls per gal of kal.You may want to dose the 1 tbls and see what results you get.This will give you an idea as to what amount of kalk gives you what cal and alk levels.I think this will give you the best method of lowering levels without changing your tank dosing.Try that if you don't like the results then try the half a tbls method.These trial and error dosing methods might give you the results you are looking for.If you see that you require more amounts of kalk in the future you can go back to your original dose.
 
I do not know that anything will be "better", but the alkalinity will certainly decline a bit if you added less lime into the top off water. :)
 
Thanks for the quick answers guys, I really appreciate it. I will try mixing 1 tsp per gallon at first and see if my numbers come down to a more "acceptable" level and take it from there.
 
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