never ending calcium - Help !

shivu

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Hello reefing friends
this is my first post on reef 2 reef , iam still beginner to reefing.
i own a 15 gallon reef tank which is 7 months old now and noticed that my calcium level was at 490.i thought it was high and decided to maintain them at the range of 420 to 450,after that i stopped dosing calcium and observed for a week and didn't notice any drop in calcium levels . again did the same on next week but no difference in the levels.now its a month without dosing any calcium supplements or water change my calcium is still at 490.as of now iam having 5 sps coral frags,5 lps coral frags(1 colony),and 10 softies species(all corals are growing nicely). except for calcium tank is consuming every other elements and they are being replaced by dosing . what might be the cause?is this a serious issue? how to reduce this calcium level?
tank parameters:
nitrate : 0 ppm
calcium : 490 ppm
alk : 8 dkh
mag : 1450
salinity : 1026
 

blasterman

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490 is fine, although I would like to know what salt mix is doing this.

Most tanks consume alk much faster than calcium. SPS frags, especially acropora don't eat much calcium until they really get growing. LPS barely uses calcium at all and softies almost nil. I have a 10 gal that consumes 50 parts of calcium a night, but it's crammed full of montipora. If I pull out all the digitata and just leave the acros calcium would barely move.
 

proxy001

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How is your ph?
I have a similar issue, tank has been using zero Alk or Ca or Mg for weeks.
Can those elements leech from sanded or rocks?
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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How is your ph?
I have a similar issue, tank has been using zero Alk or Ca or Mg for weeks.
Can those elements leech from sanded or rocks?

Yes, but only with large amounts of alkalinity also being released, about 2.8 dKH of alk for each 18-20 ppm of calcium and 0-2 ppm of magnesium.
 

proxy001

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Yes, but only with large amounts of alkalinity also being released, about 2.8 dKH of alk for each 18-20 ppm of calcium and 0-2 ppm of magnesium.
Thank you. I just puzzled at the "equilibrium" in my (old) tank. My alkalinity won't budge for weeks. 8.98. How does it not go in any direction? Is it possible that the amount used by the system is exactly balanced by leeching?
 
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shivu

shivu

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Are you dosing alkalinity? If so, how much per day (in dKH)?

Are you doing water changes?

490 ppm calcium is perfectly fine.
i dose 0.3 dkh of alk daily.before i was doing 10-15% of monthly water changes.after i noticed this issue i didn't do any water changes.now its 38 days with out wc.
 
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shivu

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490 is fine, although I would like to know what salt mix is doing this.

Most tanks consume alk much faster than calcium. SPS frags, especially acropora don't eat much calcium until they really get growing. LPS barely uses calcium at all and softies almost nil. I have a 10 gal that consumes 50 parts of calcium a night, but it's crammed full of montipora. If I pull out all the digitata and just leave the acros calcium would barely move.
i use aqua forest reef salt. mine is 15 gal
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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i dose 0.3 dkh of alk daily.before i was doing 10-15% of monthly water changes.after i noticed this issue i didn't do any water changes.now its 38 days with out wc.

I'd just keep dosing the alk as needed. :)
 
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