Calcium trouble.

[Clamhammer61]

As a new reef tank owner, tank is 13 months old, I was having trouble getting my mag, alk,cal, levels to where they should be. I asked my LFS for advice and he told me to do a weekly water change instead of bi-monthly. So since I've been doing this my calcium level has jumped from a 450 to a 500+, I'm freaking out why has this happened and what can I do to get back on track. Please and thank you all in advance.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Calcium at those levels isn't a concern. More importantly would be alkalinity.

I typically run high calcium levels without issue. As corals grow, they uptake the calcium.

 

[MERKEY]

As a new reef tank owner, tank is 13 months old, I was having trouble getting my mag, alk,cal, levels to where they should be. I asked my LFS for advice and he told me to do a weekly water change instead of bi-monthly. So since I've been doing this my calcium level has jumped from a 450 to a 500+, I'm freaking out why has this happened and what can I do to get back on track. Please and thank you all in advance.

Depending on what salt you mix with they all mix to a certain level of cal, mag and alk.

How many corals do you have?

Have you tested over a period of time to see what the consumption of cal, alk, mag is?

Time and water changes with a lower level of calcium mixed salt.

But it will go down on it's own eventually.

As stated above that's not that bad unless all is high.

Have you tested alk lately?

 

[Clamhammer61]

Depending on what salt you mix with they all mix to a certain level of cal, mag and alk.

How many corals do you have?

Have you tested over a period of time to see what the consumption of cal, alk, mag is?

Time and water changes with a lower level of calcium mixed salt.

But it will go down on it's own eventually.

As stated above that's not that bad unless all is high.

Have you tested alk lately?

Yes, my Mag, and my Alk levels are steady so I stopped dosing calcium the last 2 weeks, I use RED SEA CORAL PRO SALT MIX, and I do a 10 % water change every Sunday

 

[MERKEY]

Yes, my Mag, and my Alk levels are steady so I stopped dosing calcium the last 2 weeks, I use RED SEA CORAL PRO SALT MIX, and I do a 10 % water change every Sunday

The pro mixes higher for an SPS dominant tank, if that's what your going for I'd stay where you are.

You could try red sea blue bucket to lower while doing water changes as it mixes quite a bit lower.

 

[Clamhammer61]

The pro mixes higher for an SPS dominant tank, if that's what your going for I'd stay where you are.

You could try red sea blue bucket to lower while doing water changes as it mixes quite a bit lower.

I mostly just have softies as I'm have a difficult time keeping sps going, but was told to ramp up my lights to give a higher par value, but thank you for the input on trying a different salt mix, I will give that a try.