Calcium

[TheReefer2005]

Hello all my tank has been running for about 5 months now and I have torches, and the sticks of course. My salifert test was messed up and my calcium said it has been high for weeks. I got a new one and it said calcium was 100. It is right this time cause I got my LFS to test my water as well. Not sure if I should dose a lot or what to do cause I’m fairly new to reefing. Any tips would help!. I’m dosing red sea 4 part atm!

 

[20gallonreefer000]

Hello all my tank has been running for about 5 months now and I have torches, and the sticks of course. My salifert test was messed up and my calcium said it has been high for weeks. I got a new one and it said calcium was 100. It is right this time cause I got my LFS to test my water as well. Not sure if I should dose a lot or what to do cause I’m fairly new to reefing. Any tips would help!. I’m dosing red sea 4 part atm!

Stony corals should be dead at 100 calcium. Are you sure you are testing correctly? Can you send a picture of the test reference sheet?

 

[TheReefer2005]

I dont have a photo but its the salifert calcium test kit. I have recently lost a few acros too and do not know what to do with levels this low. Alk is coming out at 6 to. I can confirm these tests are all accurate as I got them done at 2 LFS’ and myself

 

[20gallonreefer000]

I dont have a photo but its the salifert calcium test kit. I have recently lost a few acros too and do not know what to do with levels this low. Alk is coming out at 6 to. I can confirm these tests are all accurate as I got them done at 2 LFS’ and myself

Does the sheet look like this?

 

[TheReefer2005]

I dont have a photo but its the salifert calcium test kit. I have recently lost a few acros too and do not know what to do with levels this low. Alk is coming out at 6 to. I can confirm these tests are all accurate as I got them done at 2 LFS’ and myself

Does the sheet look like this?

Yes

 

[20gallonreefer000]

Yes

This kit tests between 300-500ppm calcium. Make sure you are following the steps carefully and adding the 0.6ml. Could you test it now and make sure you add the 0.6ml and let me know the level?

 

[andrewey]

Before you do anything else, test your salinity. A low salinity will give you a low calcium and alkalinity. Your LFS may not have done this.

Next, if your salinity is correct, mix up some fresh saltwater. Test your calcium with your kit. You should be able to find out the rough calcium from looking up your salt. You can see how accurate your test kit is to this quick and dirty standard.

Next, and only if the test kit is accurate and your salinity is normal, I would suggest replacement initially via water change, not dosing in this case.

 

[Garf]

I agree with @20gallonreefer000 . Part of the test automatically eliminates readings below 300ppm. Perhaps you are reading 300 + 100, which is ok.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Yeah, I am inclined to say testing error. If your calcium was 100 everything would be dead/ dying in your tank. Do you have a photo of your tank?

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

Do you do weekly water changes or anything? mean 6 alk is also pretty low and alk and calcium usually will go hand in hand.

 

[TheReefer2005]

Do you do weekly water changes or anything? mean 6 alk is also pretty low and alk and calcium usually will go hand in hand.

Yes 15% weekly

 

[BryanM]

Yes 15% weekly

With regular water changes like this it is virtually impossible to have calc that low.

Something else is off.

As someone else said, check salinity - that could explain it, but I certainly hope your salinity is not low enough to account for this calc reading.

sticks = sps I assume. A fairly challenging endeavor. stability and lower nutrients are key, as well as high flow.

 

[TheReefer2005]

ICP came back to 389 calcium. Alk was 9
I am dosing the red sea complete 4 part. Could someone help me figure out how much to dose? On the app it requires a current and previous test to calculate. But my previous was wrong so I’m just trying to figure out how much I need to dose to get my calcium up to 430ppm. Tank is 143 gallons.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

ICP came back to 389 calcium. Alk was 9
I am dosing the red sea complete 4 part. Could someone help me figure out how much to dose? On the app it requires a current and previous test to calculate. But my previous was wrong so I’m just trying to figure out how much I need to dose to get my calcium up to 430ppm. Tank is 143 gallons.

What app are you talking about?

 

[TheReefer2005]

ICP came back to 389 calcium. Alk was 9
I am dosing the red sea complete 4 part. Could someone help me figure out how much to dose? On the app it requires a current and previous test to calculate. But my previous was wrong so I’m just trying to figure out how much I need to dose to get my calcium up to 430ppm. Tank is 143 gallons.

What app are you talking about?

Red sea’s reefbeat app. It tracks your numbers and doses based off your calcium levels

 

[20gallonreefer000]

ICP came back to 389 calcium. Alk was 9
I am dosing the red sea complete 4 part. Could someone help me figure out how much to dose? On the app it requires a current and previous test to calculate. But my previous was wrong so I’m just trying to figure out how much I need to dose to get my calcium up to 430ppm. Tank is 143 gallons.

https://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html . Make sure you account for water displacement and get it up over the course of a few days.

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

what salt are you using

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Red sea’s reefbeat app. It tracks your numbers and doses based off your calcium levels

That’s not the best idea, IMO. Calcium moves too slowly and has too much testing variability to be optimal as a way to decide what else to dose except calcium and magnesium.