Calcium high with Reef Code A & B

[Picassoclown]

Hi everyone,

So I started off with first dosing reef code A for low calcium in a 210 gallon system with 120ml/day and Calcium went from 200ppm to 480-500 over the course of a week and has been stable up until 2 weeks ago. I started dosing Reef Code B at night at 12ml/day (alk fluctuates from 8.6-9.0). Now my calcium is 521 ppm (checked with hanna) and I have been reducing the amount dosed from 120ml/day to 95/ml as of right now. I have not been doing water changes as I am trying to get nutrients higher, so I am not adding in any calcium besides dosing. My question is, when using code a & b, do they both work together in raising calcium that efficiently? I might need to lower calcium again to 90ml/day tomorrow.

BTW: No corals are shocked with too much calcium. They are all puffed up and looking beautiful.

Thanks everyone!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi everyone,

So I started off with first dosing reef code A for low calcium in a 210 gallon system with 120ml/day and Calcium went from 200ppm to 480-500 over the course of a week and has been stable up until 2 weeks ago. I started dosing Reef Code B at night at 12ml/day (alk fluctuates from 8.6-9.0). Now my calcium is 521 ppm (checked with hanna) and I have been reducing the amount dosed from 120ml/day to 95/ml as of right now. I have not been doing water changes as I am trying to get nutrients higher, so I am not adding in any calcium besides dosing. My question is, when using code a & b, do they both work together in raising calcium that efficiently? I might need to lower calcium again to 90ml/day tomorrow.

BTW: No corals are shocked with too much calcium. They are all puffed up and looking beautiful.

Thanks everyone!

I’ve seen this happen more than once
Stop applications for now and monitor CA then you will have verified it is the cause

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Hi everyone,

So I started off with first dosing reef code A for low calcium in a 210 gallon system with 120ml/day and Calcium went from 200ppm to 480-500 over the course of a week and has been stable up until 2 weeks ago. I started dosing Reef Code B at night at 12ml/day (alk fluctuates from 8.6-9.0). Now my calcium is 521 ppm (checked with hanna) and I have been reducing the amount dosed from 120ml/day to 95/ml as of right now. I have not been doing water changes as I am trying to get nutrients higher, so I am not adding in any calcium besides dosing. My question is, when using code a & b, do they both work together in raising calcium that efficiently? I might need to lower calcium again to 90ml/day tomorrow.

I think test error (or dosing error) is the explanation.

First, 200 ppm calcium is VERY hard to attain in a reef tank unless the water is only about half as saline as seawater.

Second, this sentence cannot be true as written:

"in a 210 gallon system with 120ml/day and Calcium went from 200ppm to 480-500 over the course of a week "

In 210 gallons of seawater, 120 x 7 = 840 mL of Brightwell Reef Code A will only raise calcium by 64 ppm, to 264 ppm, not 500 ppm.

 

[Picassoclown]

I think test error (or dosing error) is the explanation.

First, 200 ppm calcium is VERY hard to attain in a reef tank unless the water is only about half as saline as seawater.

Second, this sentence cannot be true as written:

"in a 210 gallon system with 120ml/day and Calcium went from 200ppm to 480-500 over the course of a week "

In 210 gallons of seawater, 120 x 7 = 840 mL of Brightwell Reef Code A will only raise calcium by 64 ppm, to 264 ppm, not 500 ppm.

Hi Randy. I can assure you this is 100% correct. I am using a hanna tester as well as a backup Red Sea and they both tested 200 at that time. Same is true when I tested it when it went up to 500ppm. I just tested again right now with the hanna and Red Sea calcium kit and I am getting 515 on Red Sea and 520 on hanna.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Hi Randy. I can assure you this is 100% correct. I am using a hanna tester as well as a backup Red Sea and they both tested 200 at that time. Same is true when I tested it when it went up to 500ppm. I just tested again right now with the hanna and Red Sea calcium kit and I am getting 515 on Red Sea and 520 on hanna.

Then either you dosed much more than you said, or Brightwell is not selling what they claim.

I still expect the 200 ppm was an error. As I said, it’s very hard to attain. It cannot happen from normal seawater without huge amounts of alkalinity added.

 

[Picassoclown]

Then either you dosed much more than you said, or Brightwell is not selling what they claim.

I still expect the 200 ppm was an error. As I said, it’s very hard to attain. It cannot happen from normal seawater without huge amounts of alkalinity added.

I think this was the problem. I was dosing alkalinity and did 2 water changes back to back due to adding livestock 2 days in a row. 80% of it was inverts so it sucked out a lot of water drip acclimating for 3+ hours. I didn't put much thought into it and thought it was a fluke that the calcium went down that low due to adding in so many inverts. I thought they would have been the issue, considering one of the inverts is a crocea clam.

Adding in too much alkalinity would drop calcium levels? Can you explain that a bit more? Thinking this over, my calcium is probably completely in line with what I was dosing and could just have been an issue with the alk. Right now it doesn't matter what I am dosing because the calcium is definitely 510ppm with just 90ml/day & 12ml/day of reef code b for alk. I am sure I will need to increase the alk dosing some more though.

Thanks Randy

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The only way calcium is consumed is by formation of calcium carbonate.

Forming calcium carbonate takes 2.8 dKH of alk for each 18-20 ppm of calcium. Thus, a 200 ppm drop in calcium would consume > 28 dKH of alk, which is far more than is present in seawater and requires huge doses of supplements.

Thus, my reason to expect calcium test error unless you massively overdosed alkalinity.

 

[Picassoclown]

The only way calcium is consumed is by formation of calcium carbonate.

Forming calcium carbonate takes 2.8 dKH of alk for each 18-20 ppm of calcium. Thus, a 200 ppm drop in calcium would consume > 28 dKH of alk, which is far more than is present in seawater and requires huge doses of supplements.

Thus, my reason to expect calcium test error unless you massively overdosed alkalinity.

Alkalinity was very high when I tested it, it was at 18.9dkh (and it might have been higher if the tester didn't pick up on such a high level. I screenshoted that figure about the bicarbonate; very useful information! Thank you both for the help gentlemen @vetteguy53081 @Randy Holmes-Farley and have a nice holiday.