Getting Ca back in range

[Llarian]

I finally got some decent test kits for my little nano and found that my Alk is in range (~2.5 meg/L), but my Ca is way low (310 ppm), and my pH is slightly low (8.0 pH about 2 hours after the lights went off)

What would you reccomend to get the Ca back into range? I know the nano swings a lot with relativly small changes. I dose a small amount of Kalk, but I'm worried if I increase the amount of Kalk in my makup water I'll end up with way too high of an Alk level when I get the Ca around the 400ppm range.

Should I grab a Ca only additive to try to slowly bring it up to the correct level?

-Dylan

 

[bradreef]

you could drip kalk to help the ph and cal.

 

[Llarian]

I'm already dripping Kalk, but its extremely minimal (The only things using Ca in the tank are a small candy cane, and corraline algae).

From what I've read, 2.5 meg/L is towards the bottom of the range for Alk, while 310ppm Ca is way low, so I guess I'm worried that dosing more of a balanced additive is going to push my Alk higher than it should be. I am going to up the amount of Kalk I'm dosing on the next batch of makeup water and see what that does, so I suppose we'll see if that helps without putting the Alk out of whack.

-Dylan

 

[wrightme43]

Thought about 2 50% water changes? That will put all of the other trace elements that are used up back to normal, fix your ca, and alk, and improve water quality to boot. Its usually the cheapest way to fix any problem with out of whack parameters. To find balance alk/ca do a search on here for Toecutters reef chemisty calculator. Its cool, Boomer linked it. Punch in alk, punch in ca and it spits out a visual scale to look at and tells you balaced alk to ca, and balanced ca to alk. Also in the great threads area of this site are reef calculators. It asks how many gallons, what is the ca or alk what is the desired ca or alk and what it the product you are using to raise it. punch them in and out comes how many teaspoons of product. HTH STeve

 

[NaH2O]

ToeCutter's Reef Chemistry Visual Aid

This is a good one - you can choose your supplementation: Reef Chemistry Calculator

Dylan - when you do a water change, try and have your make up water to the levels you desire. With a nano, it might be the easier way to go about things. How small is the nano?

 

[steve-s]

Dylan - when you do a water change, try and have your make up water to the levels you desire. With a nano, it might be the easier way to go about things. How small is the nano?

This would truely be the easiest method given the volume of water your dealing with. Tweeking the saltmix after it's mixed for a day would be less frustrating in the long run.

I would however suggest you discontinue the kalkwasser addtitions until after you fix the balance. The kalk will continue to increase the alkalinity along with Ca. The higher the alk becomes, the harder it can be to raise Ca. If you do not choose the water change option, you will need a CaCl stand alone additive. You will also need to check Mg levels (3x desired Ca) to allow for the proper saturation of calcium.

The water changes would still be the easiest route..

Cheers
Steve

 

[Llarian]

Didn't think to check the salt mix. That yielded some interesting results.

Instant Ocean (admittedly a rather old bag) mixed to 35ppm salinity yielded Ca: 280, Alk: ~1.85 meq/L. That seems pretty low to me.

Its about time to get some more anyways since I'm about to upgrade the tank to something a little larger, so I guess I'll grab a bucket tomorrow and see if it ends up with a more favorable mix.

I'll test Mg when I have a test kit for it. My old one ran out and I'm pushing the limits of my aquarium budget for the month with buying drygoods for the upgrade.

-Dylan

 

[CarlaW]

From my experience, kalk only helps maintain the Ca level. A product like turbo-calcium is what you need to raise the Ca level to where you want it, then you can maintain that level with kalk. This has worked for me in the past.