Calcium raises when adding coral… how??

Aaron Soliz

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Hi everyone, i added back my coral this past Sunday and i have been keeping up with my calcium and alk to see how much they drop so i can dose accordingly.

weirdly, the levels do not drop. Monday morning I started out at 455 calcium. It’s been slowly creeping up and today it’s at 470. Alk is stable which it stays around 9.7

with that being said, how is it possible that i don’t dose but my calcium is increasing. I never seen this before. PH stays around 8.0-8.3 day and night.

can someone fill me in because it’s driving me crazy lol

only thing i dose is “fuel” from aqua vitro. 2.5 mils

i check my salt everytime and it reads the same parameters so not sure
 
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Thor2j

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Very doubtful your alkalinity is staying at 9.7 without some type of augmentation. My guess is test kit has some issues.
 

blaxsun

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I have all those test kits, and it's very easy to get a slight mis-reading simply based on how much agent you draw into the syringe. I find that no matter how many times I draw reagent into the syringe, I always have a slight variation in the air bubble (anywhere from 0.125 to 0.175ml) and find I have to repeatedly empty and refill until I get a consistent amount.

I've since switched to the Hanna calcium tester. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
 
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Aaron Soliz

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I have all those test kits, and it's very easy to get a slight mis-reading simply based on how much agent you draw into the syringe. I find that no matter how many times I draw reagent into the syringe, I always have a slight variation in the air bubble (anywhere from 0.125 to 0.175ml) and find I have to repeatedly empty and refill until I get a consistent amount.

I've since switched to the Hanna calcium tester. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Interesting. I might just have to do that myself. I just bought the nitrate one and it was a game changer!!
 

blaxsun

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Interesting. I might just have to do that myself. I just bought the nitrate one and it was a game changer!!
I still use my Nyos kit for nitrates, which is stupid easy and impossible to screw up. Just counting the days until Hanna comes out with a magnesium test kit...
 
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Aaron Soliz

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I still use my Nyos kit for nitrates, which is stupid easy and impossible to screw up. Just counting the days until Hanna comes out with a magnesium test kit...
Very true!
Well, in the mean time i don’t know what i am going to do. Maybe i do need to change salts. This bag came slightly busted up and open but the salt inside seemed fine.

just irritating on how this is happening.
 

blaxsun

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Sometimes you can get a slight variation between calcium depending on where you spoon from in the bag. It's not common, but it does happen from time to time. Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it. Better to have a bit more calcium and not need it than the reverse.

It's entirely possible your second test is accurate and the first was in error, or vice versa. Or you had a slight variation in the salt. ±15ppm is within the margin of error even with my Neptune Trident tester, so don't feel bad.
 
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Aaron Soliz

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So do you think it’s best to leave it alone?

when i mix my salt I’m at 430 everytime and then i dose a bit to get it to 450. Now i do leave it mixed and later on that day i check it and it’s at 445-450.

maybe not dose anymore and get it to around 430 and if it goes up, no big deal because it’s not higher than 450 snd when i do a water change, it will bring it back down. I just hate not having it stable.

i just checked it with best salifert and Red Sea and salifert shared 470 and Red Sea at 475.

a few days ago it was at 460.
 
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