Seachem Reef Advantage Calcium

[trikeman37]

On my bottle of Seachem Reef Advantage Calcium it says:

"If used with Reef Calcium, it is not necessary to exceed 380 mg/L total calcium"

 

Is this true?

If so, why?

[The Propagator]

Because even though they are both calcium additives they are two completely different "forms" of calcium.

Taken from their website:

Reef Advantage Calcium is an ionic calcium that is very concentrated and very economical to use. Reef Calcium is an organic calcium complex that is very readily available. The calcium in this product is bound to an easily metabolized carbohydrate, hence it being very available and your corals do not have to expend as much energy to use this form of calcium. In using these products together, I would consider Reef Advantage Calcium your primary calcium supplement and Reef Calcium as your secondary calcium supplement.

[er1c_the_reefer]

i think it has to do with chelation; since the calcium is bound to a polygluconate molecule, it doesn't dissociate and won't show up on standard tests. therefore, even if you test at 380ppm, the 380ppm is testing for free calcium ions and won't pick up the calcium that's bound to the polygluconate, so there's actually more available calcium than the 380ppm tested for.

 

as for ease of absorption, i don't know if that's true or not. it would seem to me that its more difficult to absorb a large molecule than individual ion, but i supposed the polygluconates does have the advantage of providing glucose. what i do know is that gluconate requires oxygen to turn to glucose, so it may deplete oxygen rapidly in a small system. hopefully someone with more o chem experience chimes in.