Hello everyone. Me again. I have a 65 fowlr. 80 lbs live rock, 2 inch sand bed 2 black and white clowns one shrimp, snails and hermits. Been running little over 2 mnths. Ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 7-9 usually ph 8.2. Im having trouble keeping calcium and KH up. Calcium goes as low as 340 and kh as low as 7. Thats after I started dosing as advised by the lfs. Ill check every 2-3 days and itll be low and then i dose and itll be kh about 10 calcium about 400 for day or so then drops again. Is it possibly the live rock sucking in all the calcium i have no coral. But the live rock has lots of purple red and green leafy stuff growing on it. Lfs said could be the instant ocean regular salt mix. Lfs said i need to use brand with more calcium in the mix. Im concerned about putting chemicals in the water every 2-3 days. It doesnt seem like itd be healthy for the fish. I put the doses in and it hits the powerheads and mixes then there the fish are breathing in what i just put in the water. Is this not a bad thing? Does anyone else have to dose every few days as part of normal tank routine or am i doing something wrong that is causing me to have to use these chemicals. I use liquid reef by brightwell for the calcium dosing and brightwell KH buffer for the KH. And its every 2-3 days it drops to where i need to add it. Any help will be appreciated. I wanna know how to avoid usimg chemicals and if it hurts the fishys to breathe in the stuff after i dump it in the other end of the tank from where they are. I was wanting to add a Flame angel and wanted to make sure all this is ok before i do so they aren't cheap...lol
kh/calcium question
- Thread starter JennyGutt
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I can't speak to Brightwell, but you're dosing elements not chemicals. The additives you're dosing are already in the salt when you mix your water, so obviously this has little affect on the fish. You're not introducing something new, you're supplementing what's already there and making it more potent. Calcium shouldn't have any direct affect on the fish. Alk does because it causes PH swings, which PH does directly affect the fish. These are all elements that are already in your system, you're just increasing the levels to accommodate for your coral. Your tank is still young, while not every system is the same, I experienced the same issues. My coralline algae was exploding and I later discovered it was absorbing much of the calc, alk, and mg in my system. When you use a doser, you're adding solutions to your system periodically all day every day. My doser adds a soda ash solution ( raises alk ), 6 times a day, every day. You don't want to over supplement the system, but doing so every day is essential. The worst thing for coral is when your levels swing up and down. Better to add a small amount every day than add a lot and then none. You can upgrade your salt if you wish, lower quality salt will require more dosing, higher quality salt may require less dosing, it all depends on your system. Hope this helps! 
Reflective
Active Member
If the rock has coralline algae on it, that could be sucking up your calcium. You should look into automatic dosers. They will dose in smaller amounts throughout the day and you will be able to maintain the levels you want without large swings.
How often do you do water changes? Have you checked what the water change brings the calcium and KH up to?
How often do you do water changes? Have you checked what the water change brings the calcium and KH up to?
Thanks everyone. I so far wc 25% every 2 weeks. I havemy checked what they were right after a change. I shall do that. Thanks i feel better abkut the dosing. I have lot of coraline algea in the rocks so that must be the culprit. What auto dosers would yall suggest and what products to put in it. Something neew didnt know they existed.
Oceansize
Active Member
Yes that purple stuff on your rocks is what is eating up your Calcium, Alkalinity, and Magnesium. Sounds like you're not testing for magnesium, but if you like all that purple stuff on your live rock, you should probably start testing and adding magnesium as well as calcium and alkalinity. Like Cody says, these are elements, not chemicals. They occur in saltwater naturally, and are also replenished in the wild naturally. But your tank is a closed system, so you need to replenish those elements yourself.
I use a bubble magus, link below, this allows you to dose up to 3 additives. You can buy individual dosers which are much cheaper, but they are not as stream lined, require timers, and after you buy 3 cheap dosers the cost is about the same. There are several other doser options out there. I use BRS solution for all of my dosing. They are very high quality and they have very informative videos on YouTube explaining how to mix and dose them.
Bubble Magus: http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/bubble-magus-dosing-pump.html
Dosing: http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/calcium-alkalinity-trace-elements/dosing.html
Additives: http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/calcium-alkalinity-trace-elements/brs.html
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