High cal and low alk

[duncantse]

Slacked off on my water testing and here are the current parameters

Cal : 500
Alk : 6.8
Mg : 1500

Calcium feels a bit too high and alk too low. I was planning to stop dosing calcium and just dose alk to bring calcium down to 410 before I add more alk to bring it up to 7

One week later and my calcium is still at 500 and alk 6.8

Anyone have tips to correct my high cal and low alk issue?

 

[mcgyvr]

Could be testing error..
But just continue not dosing cal if you think the test is accurate.. It should eventually come down if its being consumed..
You could also just do a few larger water changes to bring it down assuming your new water is less..
Did you test a batch of new water?

 

[FishAndPhysics]

What salt are you using? How many water changes?

The most obvious, but not easiest, solution to any water chemistry problem is to simply replace the saltwater with water having the chemistry you want.

 

[duncantse]

I'm using regular IO salt right now and I haven't done any water changes in the week prior to trying to bring down my Ca.

Maybe I'll try getting my Alk to 7dkh in hopes of Ca going down.

 

[homer1475]

If your ALK is low, your corals will not consume any CAL either. They need them both to create skeleton.

Bring your ALK up to the desired level(not more then 1DKH per day), and stop dosing CAL.

Remember, stability is the key to success, not any exact number on a test kit. Slowly letting your CAL fall on it's own while maintaining ALK is far better then one or 2 massive adjustments with WC's. Letting things go on their own gives your corals time to adjust to the changes. Doing a couple large water changes will give you instant correction, but will not give your corals time to adjust to the changes, and can often cause more problems then just having low ALK and high CAL.

 

[duncantse]

If your ALK is low, your corals will not consume any CAL either. They need them both to create skeleton.

Bring your ALK up to the desired level(not more then 1DKH per day), and stop dosing CAL.

Remember, stability is the key to success, not any exact number on a test kit. Slowly letting your CAL fall on it's own while maintaining ALK is far better then one or 2 massive adjustments with WC's. Letting things go on their own gives your corals time to adjust to the changes. Doing a couple large water changes will give you instant correction, but will not give your corals time to adjust to the changes, and can often cause more problems then just having low ALK and high CAL.

Okay thanks that seems to make a lot of sense as my corals have been growing really slowly lately.

Will up it to 8dkh over the next 2 days and see if ca will drop. Trying to aim for 420 ca

 

[ajoe]

If your ALK is low, your corals will not consume any CAL either. They need them both to create skeleton.

Bring your ALK up to the desired level(not more then 1DKH per day), and stop dosing CAL.

Remember, stability is the key to success, not any exact number on a test kit. Slowly letting your CAL fall on it's own while maintaining ALK is far better then one or 2 massive adjustments with WC's. Letting things go on their own gives your corals time to adjust to the changes. Doing a couple large water changes will give you instant correction, but will not give your corals time to adjust to the changes, and can often cause more problems then just having low ALK and high CAL.

Plus one. I had a spike in CA up to 500 and it took 3+ weeks of zero CA dosing to return to 425. Give it time to come down and slowly raise that ALK. It will be just fine. Likely a salt issue.

 

[duncantse]

Plus one. I had a spike in CA up to 500 and it took 3+ weeks of zero CA dosing to return to 425. Give it time to come down and slowly raise that ALK. It will be just fine. Likely a salt issue.

It's reassuring that I'm not the only one that had this problem before.

Is there such thing as an ideal alkalinity levels as I will probably aim for 8 but is there a difference if I raise it slowly up to 9?

Corals are all doing fine and polyps fully extended but it's the slow growth that what worried me and I ended up testing my parameters.

 

[ajoe]

The most important thing is stability. Alk can be anywhere b/t 8-12 dKh and I think most shoot for somewhere b/t 9-10. Rather then chasing numbers find a level and work towards staying on point. Others will chime in with higher/lower levels of ALK and success but again stability is key.

 

[nycman]

I switched about a year ago from two part to a calcium reactor. Stopped two part completely. my Alk hovers between 7 and 8.6, usually on the lower end of this scale, and my calc 450 to 500+. Should I be lowering the PH of my affluent? I was of the view that a calc reactor keeps these two parms in equilibrium, but they seem to be pulling apart from each other. What am I doing wrong?

 

[duncantse]

It's been almost 2 weeks since I stopped dosing Ca and here are my current parameters

Ca 435
Alk 8

Going to wait for Ca to drop to 420 before I start dosing equal amounts of Ca and Alk again