Monsieur Kam Posted April 18, 2014 Share Posted April 18, 2014 Tested calcium the other day and it was 150 ppm. If I wanted to raise it to say 300 in one day would that be possible or can you add calcium too fast? Link to comment
ZephNYC Posted April 18, 2014 Share Posted April 18, 2014 im wondering how your calcium got so low, but raise it in two large doses a couple days apart. your ionic balance is way off. Link to comment
MikeTR Posted April 18, 2014 Share Posted April 18, 2014 i'd just do a couple 50% water exchanges at this point with a good reef salt. 50ppm / day is recommended to not harm SPS. You're in a whole other ballpark though that only water changes are gonna fix. With a reading like that you're either completely neglecting the tank or your test kit is wack. Link to comment
sunburn Posted April 18, 2014 Share Posted April 18, 2014 I would seriously question the accuracy of your test kit. How can it get so low? I would do water changes to bring it up instead of dosing. If you dose and then find out your test kit was off, your calcium will be too high. At least with water changes you won't go higher than whats in the salt. Link to comment
jservedio Posted April 18, 2014 Share Posted April 18, 2014 What are the Salinity, Alkalinity, and Magnesium levels? If everything is low you may have mis-measured your salt on a few water changes. I can't think of any way for calcium to get that low without massive dilution or precipitation. If your Alkalinity isn't off the charts high or magnesium basically non-existant it wasn't precipitation. If your Salinity is normal it wasn't dilution. If it is neither of those - you need some new testing equipment. Link to comment
Monsieur Kam Posted April 18, 2014 Author Share Posted April 18, 2014 Salinity - 1.026Alkalinity - 11 dKH Magnesium - 1200 I don't know how calcium was 150... I am using Red Sea Reef test kits I use Instant Ocean salt I seriously think calcium was 150, because I had a Kenya Tree and Xenia not doing well and as soon as I added some calcium they both perked right up. Frogspawn got bigger, purple polyps started spreading. All in one day after adding calcium. Link to comment
Bobyboy Posted April 19, 2014 Share Posted April 19, 2014 Retest with a different test kit Link to comment
Monsieur Kam Posted April 19, 2014 Author Share Posted April 19, 2014 Well I have been reading up on Instant Ocean salt and I think it's low calcium in the salt mix. It is definitely low though. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted April 19, 2014 Share Posted April 19, 2014 Regular IO salt mixes to calcium around 380-400ppm. After dosing, did you test again to see if it went up? The test kit reagents may be bad. Link to comment
jservedio Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 Yeah I am betting the test kit. If you didn't dose anything prior to your calcium "dropping" and your Alkalinity was 11 after your calcium "dropped" it means it couldn't have precipitated out. And since salinity is correct, it isn't dilution. There is really no way for your calcium to be that low from natural upatake without also using alkalinity so your calcium problem was one of 2 things: 1. Bad test kit - most likely 2. Bad IO - extremely unlikely. Mix up new water and test it with a different test kit, if it mixes correctly, it isn't the IO. I wouldn't be making changes to your tank to correct for "low calcium" without having another test kit to verify your problem. Test kits can go bad easily and are very prone to user error. Link to comment
Monsieur Kam Posted April 21, 2014 Author Share Posted April 21, 2014 Well I am up to 350 ppm calcium now, it was not the test kit and not user error. I took a sample to my LFS and they used a Salifert calicum test and it was the same as what I was testing with the Red Sea calcium test. I think it is the instant ocean salt. I am going to switch to their reef crystals here in a couple weeks and hope for better results. Link to comment
MikeTR Posted April 22, 2014 Share Posted April 22, 2014 I think It is the instant ocean salt. I am going to switch to their reef crystals here in a couple weeks immediately and hope for see better results. FTFY Link to comment
Monsieur Kam Posted April 25, 2014 Author Share Posted April 25, 2014 FTFY Thank you. I have not made the switch to Reef Crystals yet, since I had so much of the other salt left. When doing water changes I have been adding calcium chloride and now my levels are a lot better. pH - 8.3 Salinity - 35 ppt Alkalinity - 8.2 dKH Calcium - 390 ppm Magnesium - 1250 ppm Link to comment
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