Low Calcium

[rockpainter]

I have 5.5 gallon tank with various corals. I had grown lax with testing and recently discovered my calcium was down to 340ppm! I have been using 11 drops (5.5x2) daily of Kent Marine Parts A and B (waiting 5-10 mins to add B ) for about a week. It hasn't been helping.

 

My dKh is 8 and pH 8.2-8.4.

 

Should I try adding Part A until the calcium actually measures higher and then add the same amount of Part B? And then just 11 drops/day again? Or what? I'm scared of over dosing.

 

Thanks!

[Mariaface]

Yes, you should be able to add calcium alone until it's where you want it (assuming you don't bring it up by too much, too quickly) and then continue to dose. It's normal; tanks vary with how much calcium/alk they use, and the numbers don't have to be even. It just means your tank uses up more calcium than alk, and you'll have to dose accordingly. If that difference has occurred over a large time span, you might just need to dose additional calcium once in a while instead of every time you dose both. If it happened quickly, you're going to be dosing unevenly.

[rockpainter]

Thanks Mariaface. I think Kent Part A has more than just calcium though... (Salts of calcium, magnesium, potassium, strontium, rubidium, iron, zinc, manganese, nickel, cobalt, cesium, chromium; trace minerals. will that be a problem?

[Mariaface]

Yehp, it will be. You don't want to add anything you don't have a test kit for, generally. Try and find a supplement that's just calcium to make up the difference, then dose parts A and B normally?

[rockpainter]

Great! I will. One more question for you...what rate of ppm increase per day should I aim for so it's not too much too fast?

[CronicReefer]

I use kent liquid calcium and I see good results in my 29g with just a few drops. You should be able to find some at petco.

[Mariaface]

Great! I will. One more question for you...what rate of ppm increase per day should I aim for so it's not too much too fast?

 

No more than 50ppm. I'd aim for 25/30ppm if nothing's currently suffering from low calcium in your tank, so that the change can be decently slow.

[ghostgr]

I used that kent stuff before and it didnt raise my calcium either. I use vivid now and it does raise it no problem.