allenspidey Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 I check my calcium levels about every third water change. They normally stay around 420-450. So last night I checked them and they were off the charts. Around 560! So what can I do to lower them? Will this have any ill effects on my livestock? I use Oceanic mix and it was a new bucket. I also checked phosphates, which registered between 0 and 0.25. Nitrates were also between 0 and 5. Nothing to worry about. So everything else is in the normal range for my tank. SG is 1.025. Temp 79. So whats up? Link to comment
medachef Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 I check my calcium levels about every third water change. They normally stay around 420-450. So last night I checked them and they were off the charts. Around 560! So what can I do to lower them? Will this have any ill effects on my livestock? I use Oceanic mix and it was a new bucket. I also checked phosphates, which registered between 0 and 0.25. Nitrates were also between 0 and 5. Nothing to worry about. So everything else is in the normal range for my tank. SG is 1.025. Temp 79. So whats up? Should be fine. Oceanic has a high Calc level to begin with. Just make sure alk is on point and let your calcium loving corals have a field day. Link to comment
allenspidey Posted January 30, 2008 Author Share Posted January 30, 2008 Its funny because my halimeda looks like crap and that stuff loves calcium. Maybe too much turns it white. Strange. Link to comment
allenspidey Posted January 30, 2008 Author Share Posted January 30, 2008 Any other thoughts? Link to comment
The Propagator Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 It goes through spurts of changing from white to brown to green. Nothing to worry about. Its a very tolerant plant. Do you dose calcium as well? If so then stop for a week and check it every two days during that week. Then you will have a better idea how much to dose based on consumption. If you do not dose calcium hold back a week on you water change (monitor your parameters just in case ) then do a normal one. It should help lower it. Did you do a large water change this time? Link to comment
allenspidey Posted January 30, 2008 Author Share Posted January 30, 2008 What's up Prop? My water change was nothing out of the ordinary. I dose calcium every couple of days using the Kent Liquid Calcium. I havent' added any for about a week. I'm not going to dose anything until those levels come down. So this shouldn't cause any major problems then? Good to hear that the halimeda will green up. It was nice and green and then all the sudden turned white. I thought is was dying. Thanks for the help. Link to comment
mstrofdisaster Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 What's up Prop? My water change was nothing out of the ordinary. I dose calcium every couple of days using the Kent Liquid Calcium. I havent' added any for about a week. I'm not going to dose anything until those levels come down. So this shouldn't cause any major problems then? Good to hear that the halimeda will green up. It was nice and green and then all the sudden turned white. I thought is was dying. Thanks for the help. You need to measure your Alk, as this has an important relationship with calcium. Don't dose anymore until you know what issues you are dosing for in the first place. What test kits are you using? Link to comment
Phixion Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 I once had Ca rates of slmost 620ppm once! I freaked out, but it didn't seem to affect anything. Oddly enough it didn't start percipitaitng out of the water either, which I'd thought it would have at that high of rate. But it all worked out and was back down to around 520ppm within a couple days. Link to comment
rhunter513 Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 You need to measure your Alk, as this has an important relationship with calcium. Don't dose anymore until you know what issues you are dosing for in the first place. What test kits are you using? +1 if your ca is high then your alk (kh) will be low - usually. So if you add a kh buffer that will bring the ca down and the kh up. Then you can work on that balance and things will be great. RO/DI water has 0 buffering capacity, your salt mix can only do some much and so over time your kh will go down and buffering will be necessary. my 2 cents Link to comment
jeremai Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 560ppm high? lol, my tank spiked to 850ppm a couple weeks ago. No biggie. Link to comment
tinyreef Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 mix up another batch of sw and test that batch. doublecheck your tank water as well. this just doublechecks that everything is where you'd expect it. 450 -> 560 after only a couple of changes sounds a bit too much (depending on the volume of each change). the oceanic would need to test around really high, i.e. 800+ to really push the whole tank to that level assuming no/little calcium use within the tank, which is unlikely as well. but i agree, 560 ain't disasterous. jere's 850 is disasterous. Link to comment
el fabuloso Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 That's Oceanic for you. I've had batches with 560ppm of calcium but are usually much lower at around 500-520ppm. By the end of the week it's usually down to around 420ppm. I can't imagine why you'd dose for calcium if you're using Oceanic, that stuff is full of calcium. Unless you have a lot of SPS. Link to comment
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