calcium level

[speedymichael]

My calcium level is at 490. My tank was doing well until today I found a coral with RTN. So I was wondering if this might be to high? I just bought a sand sifting goby and my tank is real cloudy from him sifting through the sand. Could that be a problem?

 

[tike]

That is a little high. Tell us more about your tank. If you have a lot of sps that level of calcium will drop pretty quickly. How are you adding your calcium?

 

[speedymichael]

I have a 125 tank with refugium. I am running carbon and a calcium reactor. I just got the calcium reactor going about 1 month ago. All of the other water parameters are running perfect from the tests that I did. Up to that point I was dosing C-balance. The tank has been running for about 2 months. I transferred the contents of my 72 gal to this tank.

 

[speedymichael]

oh, I almost forgot. I have about 5 sps and 4 lps. RBTS, Mushrooms, zoas. Not much. I did not want to put to much until I made sure that the new tank was running well.

 

[El Salvador]

SPS colonies or frags? Whats your dkh at?

Test your DKH since your calcium is so high, I am sure your dkh is low. Test for that. you want your calcium around 400 to 450. (It works best for me at 420) And your Alkalinity around 9 to 11 (My tank is very happy at 11.2) Since your calcium is so high I bet your DKH is around 7 is way to low. You want it around 9 or above.It's very important to balance your CO2 output and your water going out of your calcium reactor. The best way I found to set my calcium reactor was to measure the PH going out of my reactor. You want it around 6.5 to 6.7.
You can get a Alkalinity buffer at your local LFS. If you add that, it will lower your calcium levels and it will make your DKH levels higher.
Test your water every 24 hours till you balance your system.
Just get your PH around those levels then test your water levels. (Every 24 hours I found to get the best read outs) If your PH in the reactor are with in 6.5 to 6.7(depends what type of media you are using) and the Calcium and dkh are to high, then lower the flow of CO2 going into your reactor and lower the drip count out of your reactor. Wait 24 hours and test again.
Hope that helps.

 

[speedymichael]

they are frags. Thanks for your help. That makes sense.

 

[dnjan]

All of the other water parameters are running perfect from the tests that I did.

Please don't take this as a personal criticism, but rather as a general comment to the many people who have made a similar statement:

Saying "other water parameters are perfect, correct, etc." is one of the most useless statements that I see posted.

First, because there are many different opinions of what "perfect" is, and
Second, because the actual parameter measured are not listed.

Best practice when requesting help, after stating the problem, is to list the most recently-measured values for all tests run, and indicate how the test was run (test kit brand, type of equipment, etc.).

Sorry for venting, but many people on this board ask for help, and in a lot of cases the first response (as is the case for this thread) is a request for more information. You will often see that when full information is provided, it is followed by excellent help/advice.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Yup yup. Often times - and this may not be the case here - ones perception of "perfect" is coming from what someone at a fish store said. Or what their buddy said. "My pH is right where it should be, it's perfect at 7.2" Heard that one before.

How long have you had the RTN coral, and what specifically is it?

 

[speedymichael]

It is a montipora. I have had it for probably 8 months now. I went ahead and did a water change for good measure. I thought maybe doing a water change would bring down the calcium level, but it looks about the same. Does that seem right?

 

[dnjan]

Need to know the brand of salt used for the water change, the percent of total volume for the water change, and the salinity of the tank before the water change as well as the salinity of the water change water (and how measured).

 

[speedymichael]

30 percent water change. 1.025 is the salinity level before and after. Instant Ocean is the salt I use.

 

[speedymichael]

I used a refractometer for measuring.

 

[dnjan]

OK. thanks.

Most people report IO salt being a bit low on Ca at SG=1.025 so a 30% water change should have made a measurable drop in Calcium level.

What brand test kits are you using, and do you have alkalinity and magnesium values?

 

[speedymichael]

ALK is 5.71, using Salifert. 490 Calcium level using Salifert test Kti. 8.4 PH using Aquarium Systems. Yesturday the Alkalinity was reading 8. Weird. No magnesium values. Thanks for your help Don.

 

[dnjan]

Take a look at:
calcium-alkalinity corrections
Good advice on where you should be and how to get there from where you are at.