Calcium and alk

[NoobTank]

My calcium is at 361 ppm and alk is at 8.1 dkh, these are currently the only Hannah checkers I own and don’t have a phosphate reader and I know most people don’t like API but it’s currently what I have till I can get mor checkers. Waiting for a sale but ph is a little above 8 from the color. Nitrite 0.0 nitrate about 10 ppm and ammonia looked like 0 but I was wondering how could I get the calcium up without hurting the alkalinity, I read these aren’t dangerously low but I would like to get Calcium up with out lowering alk. Is there a product I add or water changes? I recently did a 20% last week thank you

 

[GillMeister]

I use calcium chloride to get my calcium up independently from alkalinity.

 

[NoobTank]

I use calcium chloride to get my calcium up independently from alkalinity.

Perfect, I’ll got to my LFS tomorrow and see what’s in store. Thank you

 

[GillMeister]

This is what I use.

 

[NoobTank]

This is what I use.

I e actually never seen something like that, it looks promising. Did you order online or you think they might have them in stores?

 

[GillMeister]

I got mine from BRS, but some local stores carry it. Don't expect to find it at Petco, though.

 

[NoobTank]

I got mine from BRS, but some local stores carry it. Don't expect to find it at Petco, though.

I don’t go to petco but thanks for the advice lol

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

My Calcifium is also low. It was hovering around 350 while alkalinity was around 7dkh

I started dosing b-ionic 2 part calcium alk. This has gotten my calcium up now to 380, but Alk is up to 10

I see mixed opinions on whether it’s ok to dose 2 part in unequal amounts.

we have only maybe 4 softies, 4 lps, and 2 sps (All relatively small). 28 fish. No coralline yet. 8 months old 300 gallon. We use Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt.

I suspect our MASSIVE amount of green hair algae is absorbing calcium? We’ve turned our refugium down from 19 hours a day to 2 hours lol. Still nitrates and phosphates around 0 I think due to the GHA forest on all of our live rock and sand. Finally got some Sea Hares and bunch of tangs to fight it, but it’s going to be a long battle I suspect. I scrub rocks and it’s back to 4 inches long on all rocks within weeks.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Welcome to reef2Reef!

When making corrections like this, you must use just an alk or just a calcium supplement, or the appropriate part of a twopaprt. You do not want or need to use both.

In this case, do not use the alk part or it will get way too high.

That said, algae does not take up calcium, so that's not the issue.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Welcome to reef2Reef!

When making corrections like this, you must use just an alk or just a calcium supplement, or the appropriate part of a twopaprt. You do not want or need to use both.

In this case, do not use the alk part or it will get way too high.

That said, algae does not take up calcium, so that's not the issue.

Oh wow, Algae doesn’t take up Calcium? I wonder why our calcium is low, and almost always has been regardless of the salt type we’ve used. We’ve used multiple tropic Marin salts, and also cheaper Reef Crystals.

I always thought it was our massive GHA forest in DT, combined with massive Chaeto and Sea Lettuce sections of refugium.

if our tank has small amount of coral for a 300 gallon tank, what else could be using the calcium? I’ll do a test of Calcium in new water change water next time, maybe it’s Salt mix? The Tropic Marin - Pro Reef we used this time says it mixes at 420-460 Calcium.

so what you’re saying is don’t do unequal of 2 part because they’re meant to be dosed equally together. Instead, buy a Calcium only supplement. Great. Will search BRS YouTube for recommendations

Still very curious where our Calcium is going. Does skimmer remove Calcium? Does live rock absorb it?

Update: while I was writing this I called my local coral shop and he told me the German sourced Tropic Marin is messed up along with the Turkish one, he says he is hearing a lot of people getting GHA with it and low calcium. Wow. Gonna switch to blue bucket Red Sea he recommended. He says it may help with Calcium and our GHA and coral issues. Crazy stuff! We had the Turkish and it almost killed a bunch of our coral. We switched to German and it got a little better but coral still seem weird.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Welcome to reef2Reef!

When making corrections like this, you must use just an alk or just a calcium supplement, or the appropriate part of a twopaprt. You do not want or need to use both.

In this case, do not use the alk part or it will get way too high.

That said, algae does not take up calcium, so that's not the issue.

Oh wow, Algae doesn’t take up Calcium? I wonder why our calcium is low, and almost always has been regardless of the salt type we’ve used. We’ve used multiple tropic Marin salts, and also cheaper Reef Crystals.

I always thought it was our massive GHA forest in DT, combined with massive Chaeto and Sea Lettuce sections of refugium.

if our tank has small amount of coral for a 300 gallon tank, what else could be using the calcium? I’ll do a test of Calcium in new water change water next time, maybe it’s Salt mix? The Tropic Marin - Pro Reef we used this time says it mixes at 420-460 Calcium.

so what you’re saying is don’t do unequal of 2 part because they’re meant to be dosed equally together. Instead, buy a Calcium only supplement. Great. Will search BRS YouTube for recommendations

Still very curious where our Calcium is going. Does skimmer remove Calcium? Does live rock absorb it?
I use calcium chloride to get my calcium up independently from alkalinity.
thanks!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Have you ever used your kit on new salt water? It might be the test, not the salt.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Have you ever used your kit on new salt water? It might be the test, not the salt.

No I haven’t actually. I’ll try it! Sorry for double post, and thanks for the help Randy!

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Welcome to reef2Reef!

When making corrections like this, you must use just an alk or just a calcium supplement, or the appropriate part of a twopaprt. You do not want or need to use both.

In this case, do not use the alk part or it will get way too high.

That said, algae does not take up calcium, so that's not the issue.

Can you clarify what you mean here please. Are you saying

A) To use either calcium only or alk only supplements, OR just one part of a two part calc/alk? (So unequal amounts ok?)

B) Use Calcium only or Alk only supplements, and NOT use unequal parts of 2 part calc alk supplement?

is unequal parts of calc alk 2 part ok? For example can I not use the alk part and JUST use the calc part?

Thanks!

 

[nereefpat]

Can you clarify what you mean here please. Are you saying

A) To use either calcium only or alk only supplements, OR just one part of a two part calc/alk? (So unequal amounts ok?)

For dosing, you dose equal parts of alk and calcium based on the alk demand.

When making corrections every once in a while, which if you reef long enough you will have to, you can dose just one. For example: If your alk is 9 and your Ca is 350 and you want Ca to be 400, just add the 50ppm Ca.

Does that make sense?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Can you clarify what you mean here please. Are you saying

A) To use either calcium only or alk only supplements, OR just one part of a two part calc/alk? (So unequal amounts ok?)

B) Use Calcium only or Alk only supplements, and NOT use unequal parts of 2 part calc alk supplement?

is unequal parts of calc alk 2 part ok? For example can I not use the alk part and JUST use the calc part?

Thanks!

As nereefpat noted, it fine to use unequal parts (such as just one part) of a two part to make occasional corrections.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

For dosing, you dose equal parts of alk and calcium based on the alk demand.

When making corrections every once in a while, which if you reef long enough you will have to, you can dose just one. For example: If your alk is 9 and your Ca is 350 and you want Ca to be 400, just add the 50ppm Ca.

Does that make sense?

Thank you!

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

As nereefpat noted, it fine to use unequal parts (such as just one part) of a two part to make occasional corrections.

Thanks Randy!

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

UPDATE!

Ok so I think I figured out at least part of the problem. We had been keeping our salinity around 1.024, and recently it drifted a little lower even as low as 1.023. I'd been slowly increasing to be safe, and got it up to 1.025 now and now Calcium is testing at 410. Problem solved I think!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Sounds good. Happy Reefing!