How to lower calcium?

[azul17]

Is there a way to lower my calcium?

Alk- 8.7dkH
Mag - 1800ppm
Cal - 590

I've been testing for a two weeks and my calcium and magnesium don't go down. My alkalinity went from 10 to 8.7dkH. Should I raise my alkalinity to 10?

Is there a way to lower both calcium and magnesium?

My water changes are every two weeks 10% I use IO reef crystals.

Stock:
Zoas
Frogspawn (2 heads)
Torch (2 heads)
Duncan (1 head)
Montipora (small Frag)
Acan (1 head)
Alveopora (1 head)
Favia (1 head)
2 ricordeas.
1 mini maxi nem


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[RobZilla04]

Probably time to being dosing Alk.

Cal and Mag will come down over time as coral uptake those. Eventually you may need to dose them as well.

 

[billdogg]

I keep my Alkalinity at about 8.5 and everything seems very happy. You may very well need to start dosing to keep it from falling further. IME, a higher Alk level will just increase the precipitation of calcium carbonate on your pumps and will therefore require more time spent cleaning, especially things like impeller magnets.

 

[azul17]

I keep my Alkalinity at about 8.5 and everything seems very happy. You may very well need to start dosing to keep it from falling further. IME, a higher Alk level will just increase the precipitation of calcium carbonate on your pumps and will therefore require more time spent cleaning, especially things like impeller magnets.

I'll be doing a water change tomorrow and I will test the new water to see what the results are. Most likely I'll be dosing Alk to keep it at 8.5-9 and leave calcium and magnesium alone until they go down.


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[mcgyvr]

Im skeptical that those levels are real if you arent dosing currently...are you?
They will fall on their own but take much longer than alk to drop..

Personally a change is more harmful than just leaving it so I would just let them fall on their own slowly and maybe look into a different salt with lower parameters like regular io..

 

[hkgar]

Check parameters of various salt mixes here and chose one that most closely matches your desired numbers.

Reef crystals is pretty high on both Ca and Alk.

 

[azul17]

Im skeptical that those levels are real if you arent dosing currently...are you?
They will fall on their own but take much longer than alk to drop..

Personally a change is more harmful than just leaving it so I would just let them fall on their own slowly and maybe look into a different salt with lower parameters like regular io..

Yea, I was skeptical too so I went to buy Salifert test kit and it read the same as Red Sea for both calcium and magnesium. So I'm thinking about just dosing alk to keep it at 8.5 and wait for calcium and magnesium to go down on its own.


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[azul17]

Check parameters of various salt mixes here and chose one that most closely matches your desired numbers.

Reef crystals is pretty high on both Ca and Alk.

I still have half a box of reef crystals but most likely I'll be replacing it when I finish this batch. Thanks for the link.


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[outssider]

Reef crystals doesn't mix that high on mag...should be around 1300's....if it's really that high, you have a bad batch...

 

[azul17]

Reef crystals doesn't mix that high on mag...should be around 1300's....if it's really that high, you have a bad batch...

That's what I was thinking too.


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