Carbonate Ion Attachments

[Huey_Gnr]

Question: What other ions do carbonate like to attach to?

I am trying to understand why I continue to have a drop in measurable carbonate in the water column without seeing a change in my calcium levels?

Testing: I continue see a steady decline in my Alk of .3 to .4 ppm each day which I add to bring back to my desired level of stability, but I am not seeing an associated fluctuation in my Ca of the tank. I know that Calcium and Carbonate are used in the building process, but I would have assumed that there would be a noticeable difference in my Ca levels with the continual loss of carbonate. I continually hold steady at 430 for some reason.

Is there something else in the water column that the carbonate is attaching to and inhibiting the attachment to the Calcium?

 

[taricha]

Alkalinity (carbonate) and calcium are removed from the water in a near precise consistent ratio. (I forget what a ballpark PPM of calcium per dkh alkalinity is)
The issue is that the removal of alkalinity is large enough that test kits can easily detect the drop over a single day or two. Calcium on the other hand needs to be depleted over many days, maybe a week or so before the calcium drop is larger than the test kit error.

So it's a test issue, not an imbalanced consumption issue.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

There is nothing in the water that binds to and removes carbonate or alkalinity without removing substantial calcium.

But there are other ways to deplete alk, such as rising nitrate and sulfur denitrators.

 

[Huey_Gnr]

There is nothing in the water that binds to and removes carbonate or alkalinity without removing substantial calcium.

But there are other ways to deplete alk, such as rising nitrate and sulfur denitrators.

Is there anything natural in the tank that would cause sulfur dentration to occur, or would only occur through some form of mechanical filtration? My nitrates hang fairly consistently around 6-8 ppm.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Is there anything natural in the tank that would cause sulfur dentration to occur, or would only occur through some form of mechanical filtration? My nitrates hang fairly consistently around 6-8 ppm.

No. You need to add yellow chunks of sulfur.