Red Sea calcium

Jcrabb

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I have been die hard on using Red Sea calcium test kits. I also use Red Sea for mag but most others are salifert and Hanna. I have a 3 year old mixed reef and a 7 month old, soon to be sps tank. About a year and a half into the oldest tank I started testing weekly for anticipating alk and calcium levels to need more than water changes. All parameters were as expected except alk so I started dosing alk with a komer and it worked great for my 8.5 needs. Shortly after this my cal levels started to drop slowly so I hooked up another komer and started dosing a couple of ml per day to see what happened. The cal levels paused for a minute and then started climbing to my anticipated 470 expectations. Red Sea kit was very consistent with what I expected from dosing and I felt like I made good adjustments to reach and hold the 470 cal level for about a month or so. I then started to notice the coral not reacting as expected. I collected a icp sample and tested on my own at the same time for comparison . Red Sea was showing 470 but a couple days later my icp came back as 590 cal and warned me of these levels along with low iodine… blah blah blah. I turned my cal dose off because I didn’t know what else to do.
Along this time I started apex triton without dos on my newer tank. It ran a couple of months and seemed to be fairly accurate. Meanwhile my older tank was loosing lps and color. I am still on Red Sea calcium test kits at this time bc the mag levels were as expected and I still trusted the cal test. I started using Red Sea cal test to prove triton on the new tank bc I read so much about questionable triton accuracy. My triton would read 460 but Red Sea would read about 360 in the new tank very consistently? About a few weeks with test comparison inconsistencies I ran another icp on the old tank the same time as I tested using my kits. Again, icp said 570 and Red Sea said 460. I then started testing old tank, new tank and triton readings on only calcium at the same time. Red Sea always showed about 100 ppm lower than triton on the new tank and old tank started to drop cal level slowly from lack of dosing. Once the old tank started testing at 370 rs my corals started to grow again. As a test I used the fixed agent bottles that you get from Neptune with the reagent kits. The listed cal level was 465 on the reagent but my rs cal kit showed a level of about 360.
I feel like the Red Sea kit gives results about 100 ppm lower than reality? Maybe I’m doing it wrong after watching “every” you tube video available. I started cal komer dosing back on the old tank once rs started showing 340, 330 the 320. Brought it back to 370 and corals are still growing fine.
Anyone else notice this? Any help would be great.
 
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Jcrabb

Jcrabb

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Yes. Red Sea blue box. Weird you said that… why would you say that? It did read correct then, per specs? I forgot I had tested that before. I tried Red Sea salt on the new tank but my weekly water change guy uses reef crystals and wasn’t willing to change. The new tank chems were all over the place with my salt and his salt so I gave in. Ugh. Rs should still be inline with trident readings now? This is what I’m looking for.
 

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Yes. Red Sea blue box. Weird you said that… why would you say that? It did read correct then, per specs? I forgot I had tested that before. I tried Red Sea salt on the new tank but my weekly water change guy uses reef crystals and wasn’t willing to change. The new tank chems were all over the place with my salt and his salt so I gave in. Ugh. Rs should still be inline with trident readings now? This is what I’m looking for.


I was gonna say that, if its off compared to freshly mixed salt at 1.026, then I would say something is weird with the kit. I don't notice any problems with my calcium test from red sea (but then again I haven't used a different test in well over a year or so). I might be able to check it against a salifert of api Thursday. BRS did a video comparing the different test kits and the different numbers showed between them, but I thought that the red sea was their favorite for calcium.
 
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Jcrabb

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The brs dream kit used rs calcium. It has to be related to my particular water supply.
 

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The brs dream kit used rs calcium. It has to be related to my particular water supply.


I am not sure how it would be related to the water supply. If you are using tap water, the water could have higher than normal calcium when mixed, but that would'nt explain it the test differences. Also, I don't believe the high calcium levels would have negatively impacted growth at all unless it was precipitating a lot and dropping your alk too low.

Are you able to calibrate the triton?
 
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Jcrabb

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I calibrate the triton once a month. Overkill I know but it’s still new to me.
 

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PS I'll check my red sea against api and salifert tomorrow when I stop by the lfs.
 

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I would expect each different test would give you different answers. I've tried comparing my red sea results to salifert and the difference only made me more confused. Is your red sea regent expired? Do you clean the test tubes before running a new test?
 
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Jcrabb

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Yes I use rodi to clean and then store them on a rack to dry. The reagent I have now is only a week or two old. Still rock solid exactly 100 ppm below actual. I have even added more drops past the color change to see if it turns more blue? For now I’m just going to ride with it, now that I know.
 

\m/reefsnmetal\m/

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I know each test kit has it's own range of error, however I don't know the range for Red Sea. I just had the exact same situation with Magnesium. I bought new regent and the results were consistent with what I was getting initially. I was testing very low and the Salifert test at my LFS said I was right where I needed to be. I dosed based on my Red Sea results and now my numbers are normal with that test kit. I think its reliable enough because my coralline algae started coming back once I got my Mag level where I wanted it. I know everyone's experience will differ. Just sharing my story in case the info is relevant.
 

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I know each test kit has it's own range of error, however I don't know the range for Red Sea. I just had the exact same situation with Magnesium. I bought new regent and the results were consistent with what I was getting initially. I was testing very low and the Salifert test at my LFS said I was right where I needed to be. I dosed based on my Red Sea results and now my numbers are normal with that test kit. I think its reliable enough because my coralline algae started coming back once I got my Mag level where I wanted it. I know everyone's experience will differ. Just sharing my story in case the info is relevant.


The problem with test kit error ranges are that they assumes 100% robotic precision during the test. Buy yeah honestly I think picking one works because there is a big safe range fir calcium amd mag
 
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Jcrabb

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Yea. I have tried to be as precise as possible ie.. mechanical pippettes and such. This one is just odd bc of the consistency of the cal reading 100 ppm low to within a couple of points from the other caparison tests. Weird. I thought maybe it had to do with something specific to my location what ever that means. I’ve even tried to miss measure a little bit to see if it’s just me. Thanks for the help
 

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I've never had an issue with my Red Sea test either. Are you using the regular or the pro version? Not sure how or if they're different. I use the Pro version and I just looked back at records on my ICP test vs that kit. Kit said 420 and ICP said 421.26. So they matched pretty perfectly. Maybe you have a bad kit?
 
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Jcrabb

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Pro version. I switched to a new kit about three weeks ago just to see if it were different. I’m still going to use it bc it is still very consistent I just know to add 100 ppm.
 
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