need to get calcium down

[Eclipse1178]

Hey all,

I need to get the calcium level down in a new tank I started up. Any suggestions on quickest and cheapest way to do this. I am going to do a major water changed later this week. I'm getting ready to add some corals to it.

Thanks

 

[Angela Short]

What is the calcium running? If you have any stony corals or coraline alage in there already they will depleat it naturally over time. Also are you sure your test kit is acurate? Unless you doesed calcium seperatly and blindly it would be unusual for it to be to high. Oceanic salt mixes up with a kinda high calcium reading but not dangeriously high. If that is the salt you are using it also is known to mix up with a low ALK. I belive.

 

[Pickupman66]

My thoughts exactly. how high are we talking? In my tank i run somewhere in the low 500's to high 400's. Is is starting to precipitate out (snowing)? Water changes can help to Dilute it but it is depleted rapidly by SPS and LPS corals as well as Coraline algae.

 

[gflat65]

The best method (especially if there isn't anything in it yet) is to let it drop naturally. Just don't dose until it comes down. Check your alk (and magnesium), too. They can both be high, but I see high Ca and low alk or vice versa all the time. Magnesium helps in the balancing act. I wouldn't expect there to be a mag problem with a new tank, though. If alk is low, bringing it up can help balance out the high Ca. A water change will help, too, but I wouldn't use it as the main mode. Time is the best method.

 

[gsusfreak]

ummm...is it terrible that i dont even check for these things?

 

[gflat65]

They are among the needed test kits. I have alk/dKH, Ca, and nitrate (just for fun) all the time (Salifert). If you are running primarily softies, they will forgive lower levels. I never dose my wife's 20 softie because I always overdosed before even when I didn't add much... Since I don't dose, I don't test (don't really want to know). Over time, they will drop (except nitrate, which will likely level off somewhere and stay there with out a special cause). Don't add without testing, though. Alk is one of the forgotten killers. If things start to look bad (esp. SPS), checking alk is always step one for me (assuming nothing died in the tank or something out of the norm). Partial water changes help, but a lot of salt mixes might lack in one thing or another and you might actually lower your calcium or alk (depending on % WC).