Weird occurrence

[LOZReefer]

I actually checked it yesterday and it was 1.025 but have not calibrated it in a while.

I would calibrate it and check again just to be sure. Sometimes we get caught up in these issues and forget about the basics. I say this because I just recently did this exact thing

 

[ebencic2]

Hello everyone,

I wanted to see if anyone has experienced something similar. About a month ago, while testing my water parameters, I noticed that my calcium and magnesium levels were rising, while alkalinity remained stable. I began gradually backing off my dosing, but the levels continued to increase. Eventually, both my Hanna and Red Sea calcium and magnesium tests were reading off the charts (calcium >600), so I shut off the calcium and magnesium dosing heads entirely.


For context, I’ve been using the Red Sea 4-part dosing system for the past year and have since turned off the auto-calculation feature. Since then, I’ve been struggling to get my parameters back in balance. Even though I am not dosing any calcium or magnesium, they are consistently testing around 430 ppm for calcium and 1240 ppm for magnesium.


Has anyone experienced a tank that was stable for months and then suddenly seemed to stop consuming calcium and magnesium? The only notable change around the time this started was trimming my refugium.


This is a mixed reef tank, and my current dosing is:

• Calcium: 0 mL
• Magnesium: 0 mL
• Alkalinity: 17 mL
• Trace elements: 8 mL of each bottle

I’m a bit stumped and would really appreciate any insight. I’ve been testing daily for the past 10 days—alkalinity fluctuates as expected, but calcium consistently stays around 430–450 ppm and magnesium around 1240–1260 ppm. I don't really know what to do other than an ICP test which I have ordered. It almost seems like my coral have stopped intaking calcium and magnesium. I have had 5 acros die so far and would love to prevent any further coral death.


Thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions.

If anyone is following I thought I would provide an update. After extensive research I have found what I think to be the culprit that I did not previously mention. About 3 weeks before trimming my refugium I started dosing Lanthanum Chloride as my phosphates were extremely high (~0.337 ppm) while my nitrates were low (~2-5 ppm). I believe this is the culprit from overdosing. After researching I have found that overdosing can especially in sps corals can cause them to go into shock basically and prevents them from intaking calcium (which explains why my calcium started rising). Since then I have essentially been waiting for the corals normal metabolic function to return and have been dosing alkalinity to just maintain stability in the chemistry. I have unfortunately lost 90% of my acroporas but I'm hoping everything starts to stabilize and go back to normal. Now the question is how to reduce my phosphates when everything returns to normal. Of note I did dose the lanthanum chloride into my return with the thought that would be best as the precipitate would get caught in my reef mat.

 

[rayadog]

Sad and interesting. Hope it turns around now

 

[Freenow54]

Hello everyone,

I wanted to see if anyone has experienced something similar. About a month ago, while testing my water parameters, I noticed that my calcium and magnesium levels were rising, while alkalinity remained stable. I began gradually backing off my dosing, but the levels continued to increase. Eventually, both my Hanna and Red Sea calcium and magnesium tests were reading off the charts (calcium >600), so I shut off the calcium and magnesium dosing heads entirely.


For context, I’ve been using the Red Sea 4-part dosing system for the past year and have since turned off the auto-calculation feature. Since then, I’ve been struggling to get my parameters back in balance. Even though I am not dosing any calcium or magnesium, they are consistently testing around 430 ppm for calcium and 1240 ppm for magnesium.


Has anyone experienced a tank that was stable for months and then suddenly seemed to stop consuming calcium and magnesium? The only notable change around the time this started was trimming my refugium.


This is a mixed reef tank, and my current dosing is:

• Calcium: 0 mL
• Magnesium: 0 mL
• Alkalinity: 17 mL
• Trace elements: 8 mL of each bottle

I’m a bit stumped and would really appreciate any insight. I’ve been testing daily for the past 10 days—alkalinity fluctuates as expected, but calcium consistently stays around 430–450 ppm and magnesium around 1240–1260 ppm. I don't really know what to do other than an ICP test which I have ordered. It almost seems like my coral have stopped intaking calcium and magnesium. I have had 5 acros die so far and would love to prevent any further coral death.


Thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions.

Yes and I cant get it down ph too

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Very sorry to hear this update, and yes, dropping phosphate is risky and often not worth doing.