Calcium too high? Yikes!

kstaley12

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Testing this morning in preparation for some corals to arrive and my Ca was 525. Is this too high and if so, how can I lower it? I am using Red Sea Coral Pro salt.

Temp: 76.3
S.G 1.025
pH 8.
Alk 10.1
Ammonia 0.0
Phosphates 0.0
Nitrate 4.48
Calcium 525

Currently the tank is housing some snails. Adding some corals today, I have 2 fish in QT waiting to be transferred over. Tank is a RS Reeferr 200xl.

Thanks for your input guys!
 

ChaosAquaculture

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If your going for a mixed reef ive found that 500+ is too high for everything to be happy. The same goes for the alk of 10. are you dosing anything? How are your corals doing? - kali
 
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kstaley12

kstaley12

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If your going for a mixed reef ive found that 500+ is too high for everything to be happy. The same goes for the alk of 10. are you dosing anything? How are your corals doing? - kali
As of this morning my calcium is 511, Alk is 9.7, Mg is 1410. I am not currently dosing anything. Wait- that’s a lie. Alk fell a bit low so I did dose that the past 2day. Using Red Sea Coral Pro Salt. So far corals are ok. They are still pretty new though. Tank is currently going through an ugly diatom phase. :( I’m changing out about 5 gallons of water per week. Using RODI water to mix.
 
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Randy Holmes-Farley

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As of this morning my calcium is 511, Alk is 9.7, Mg is 1410. I am not currently dosing anything. Wait- that’s a lie. Alk fell a bit low so I did dose that the past 2day. Using Red Sea Coral Pro Salt. So far corals are ok. They are still pretty new though. Tank is currently going through an ugly diatom phase. :( I’m changing out about 5 gallons of water per week. Using RODI water to mix.

I do not agree that these calcium values are too high. IMO, the values you show are all fine.
 
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Treefer32

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I've run my calcium at 520-540 for most of the last 3 years. Not intentional, salt just mixed that high and I dose the same amount of calcium as I dose alk to keep balance. and 520-540 is where it stays. My MG stays around 1500-1540. Why? I don't know. It just does. Lol.

My Acropora, Duncans, hammers, and many other SPS all seem to love it. I dose trace elements as part of a calcium solution and everything maintains color and growth. In some ways too well. My montipora are going every which way (up, down, and out...) My Acropora are growing into each other. Hammers are growing new heads constnatly. My one frag of purple tipped hammers, started out as 3 heads. I've counted around 20 now in a year and half. More than 1 new head a month...

I'm happy with the 520... :)
 
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AshleyEnlow

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I've run my calcium at 520-540 for most of the last 3 years. Not intentional, salt just mixed that high and I dose the same amount of calcium as I dose alk to keep balance. and 520-540 is where it stays. My MG stays around 1500-1540. Why? I don't know. It just does. Lol.

My Acropora, Duncans, hammers, and many other SPS all seem to love it. I dose trace elements as part of a calcium solution and everything maintains color and growth. In some ways too well. My montipora are going every which way (up, down, and out...) My Acropora are growing into each other. Hammers are growing new heads constnatly. My one frag of purple tipped hammers, started out as 3 heads. I've counted around 20 now in a year and half. More than 1 new head a month...

I'm happy with the 520... :)
New to all of this and am learning lingo in the communities. So stupid question; are you doing a two part dose of like fusion 1 and 2 or a liquid of the like? Are you using a reactor to dose your alk/cal as well? You also said you dose trace elements as part of a calcium solution; what solution by chance? Is this in conjunction with your two part alk/cal? Sorry so many questions
 
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Treefer32

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New to all of this and am learning lingo in the communities. So stupid question; are you doing a two part dose of like fusion 1 and 2 or a liquid of the like? Are you using a reactor to dose your alk/cal as well? You also said you dose trace elements as part of a calcium solution; what solution by chance? Is this in conjunction with your two part alk/cal? Sorry so many questions
In the reefing world the only dumb question is the question not asked. Our critters depend on us and our knowledge. So, happy that you ask away. I had similar questions when I started! I have a heavily populated (finally) mixed reef of Acropora, montipora, duncans, acans, xenia, massive 12-15" Toad Stool, orange kryptonite encrusting stuff, GSP, and several varieties of hammers, a green fungia plate coral. So much to name, but they're all doing great! Plus a variety of anemones.

I try to find cheap ways to maintain my reef. I had a Bubble magus 3 pump doser from a previous tank I sold, so I replaced all the pump heads on that and reused it for this tank. So, I have 3 separate dosing containers.

For alkalinity: I buy the 10 or 12 pound bag of baking soda from Costco. Costs me like $9.00 and last my 340 gallon tank anywhere from 6 months to a year. I follow Randy Holmes Farley recipe on two part. I bake the baking soda in an oven at 350 for 1-3 hours (this turns it into soda ash). When dosed the baked baking soda has a tendency to raise PH. Which, I'll take whatever I can!

1. Alk - I mix 3/4 cup baked baking soda with 1.5 Liter of RODI water. 3 years ago I started with 10 ml a day. I'm up to 240 ml a day (or 10 ml an hour). This maintains my alk at around 8 DKH. My consumption has been creeping up because 240 ml a day used to keep it at 9-10 dkh. So, I'll need to increase dosing here soon.

2. Calcium Chloride: Per the recipe I buy CACL from BRS (just easier than trying to find alternate solutions) and I mix this at the same ratio as my alk 3/4 cup to 1.5 liter of RODI and I dose at the same amount 240 ml per day. (my understanding is to maintain balance alk and CA should be dosed in the same amounts even if CA is good)

3. I added in Magnesium Chloride and Magnesium Sulfate (BRS Components) and mixing at the BRS suggested ratio for 3 part. I dose this at a much lower dose because I've never seen my Magnesium go down. So, I'm dosing at 48 ml a day just to add some sulfates into my tank. Which, I'm told is good to have. I don't have any proof of how or why. This part I added in the last 6-8 months. for the last 2+ years I didn't dose magnesium. And if doing water changes I'm not sure how necessary this really is. My advise is don't worry about magnesium until you have tons of coral and even then, if you're doing regular water changes, don't worry about this at all.. :)

4. Trace elements: Again I'm not sure these are necessary if doing water changes. I stopped doing water changes 4 months ago and have not noticed any negative effects. If anything my corals are growing more. Lol. But I've invested a lot of money and time into filtration with Algae turf scrubber, large skimmer, filter socks, even have a Nu-clear cannister filter. So many things to keep clean. But, no water changes!

So, trace elements I use Red Sea Trace elements A, B, C, D at a 10:1 ratio. So, for 340-350 gallons of salt water around 30-35 ml per week. That's all I do. These I manually dose on Wednesdays / Thursday. I buy the 500 ml bottles and they last me almost 2 months.

I'd recommend an ICP test once in a while to verify your salt water chemistry. I had so much issues with corals receding or dying around a year ago and couldn't figure out why. I discovered that I had no trace elements - 0. And my phosphates were .66 ppm. The phosphates were killing my corals. I took steps to reduce them with massive more frequent water changes, upping the lighting duration on my algae scrubber, and dosing phosphate-e until the phosphates were down. I also switched from basic IO to reef crystals and did larger water changes to switch out the base salt water. Then started dosing trace elements.

Now, I test nitrates and Phosphates weekly with Hanna testers: My phosphates generally are between .04 and .08ppm now and nitrates around 11-19. I have around 26-27 fish. Some of them quite large.

Last, but not least, I also vodka dose to keep my nitrates and phosphates down. I'm dosing around 10 ml a day of vodka to feed bacteria. I get the cheapest vodka I can find. And have it on a BRS doser on my Apex.

It's a lot of information, just take what matters to you. My methods are old school with baking soda and so on. But, they are tried and true.
 
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AshleyEnlow

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Thank you so much for one, not making me feel stupid, and two, for taking time to type all of this out and explain it in depth.

I have a 90g mixed reef and run a Trigger Ruby 36 with an Octopus skimmer,300 micron filter socks, chaeto refugium and CAL Reactor. Tank includes Ricordias, leathers, xenia, BTAs (like 30 ), etc., and 8 fish. The 15 year old yellow tang is the largest of the 8.

I recently acquired a friends 17 year established tank, rock, (partial water) and majority of equipment and am learning in a hurry, sort of (had a nano for 8 months prior with some leathers and a few fish). I currently have (acquired in the transfer) a Reosreef 618 calcium reactor and was worried when the calcium was at 540, however after speaking with my friend he ran his calcium in this range with happy corals.

Everything "looks" fine including the sinularia, which I have found seems to show stress and overall attitude first when things swing in the tank, even just a little.

I will continue to just maintain and not chase until I see / test large swings or unhappy occupants!

I greatly appreciate the info and will be jotting all of this down and keep it in mind as I move to more difficult corals. Hope you had a wonderful holiday!
 

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Salted

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For alkalinity: I buy the 10 or 12 pound bag of baking soda from Costco. Costs me like $9.00 and last my 340 gallon tank anywhere from 6 months to a year. I follow Randy Holmes Farley recipe on two part. I bake the baking soda in an oven at 350 for 1-3 hours (this turns it into soda ash). When dosed the baked baking soda has a tendency to raise PH. Which, I'll take whatever I can!
I already purchase soda ash by the bucket for my swimming pool. Is there any reason I couldn't use that? It's more expensive that way, but I don't have to be bothered baking it and it's already here.
 
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JNalley

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I already purchase soda ash by the bucket for my swimming pool. Is there any reason I couldn't use that? It's more expensive that way, but I don't have to be bothered baking it and it's already here.

That is Baking Soda not Soda Ash. Soda Ash is Sodium Carbonate, and Baking Soda is Sodium Bicarbonate (The images in the Amazon listing show Sodium Bicarbonate as the active ingredient). You can bake it, and it will raise pH, or you can just add it like it is and it will not affect pH. If your pH is already high/correct, I recommend dosing it as is, if it's low, bake it and make soda ash.
1638123582019.png
 
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Miss the future

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I've run my calcium at 520-540 for most of the last 3 years. Not intentional, salt just mixed that high and I dose the same amount of calcium as I dose alk to keep balance. and 520-540 is where it stays. My MG stays around 1500-1540. Why? I don't know. It just does. Lol.

My Acropora, Duncans, hammers, and many other SPS all seem to love it. I dose trace elements as part of a calcium solution and everything maintains color and growth. In some ways too well. My montipora are going every which way (up, down, and out...) My Acropora are growing into each other. Hammers are growing new heads constnatly. My one frag of purple tipped hammers, started out as 3 heads. I've counted around 20 now in a year and half. More than 1 new head a month...

I'm happy with the 520... :)
Friends around me say that too high amounts of macroelements will damage corals. It just so happened that I accidentally added too much calcium chloride in the past few days, and the current calcium is 560ppm.
So I don't have to figure out a way to lower it?
 
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Randy Holmes-Farley

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Friends around me say that too high amounts of macroelements will damage corals. It just so happened that I accidentally added too much calcium chloride in the past few days, and the current calcium is 560ppm.
So I don't have to figure out a way to lower it?

No, you don't.

There are only two ways anyway.

1. Water changes.
2. Adding none over time as you add alk based on alk demand.
 
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Miss the future

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No, you don't.

There are only two ways anyway.

1. Water changes.
2. Adding none over time as you add alk based on alk demand.
My current data is
ALK:7.7(It used to be 8-9,After adding cacl, it was found that the decrease)
CA:560
MG:1400
NO3:2.5
PO4:0.05
Is there anything else that needs to be adjusted besides raise the alk slowly everyday?
I don't want to do a lot of water changes because my new water has a calcium level of 450-480 ppm and it's too tired to do it.
 
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