white stuff and high calcium reading

[Carl C]

hi all, in my previous post (below) i was asking bout this white stuff, someone suggested checking calcium so i bought a hanna calc tester my water reads 565 i then tested my RODI salt mix and that reads 555 (the salt is red sea coral reef pro which according to label contains 450 ppm)... i read my city's water content and it does not appear to be calcium rich (actually according to a report i had sent to me its minimal only 6ppm ,,, i tried just testing my rodi water it did show a high read again in the 550s but because you need to zero the meter with rodi i wonder its accuracy/validity i guess i can buy distilled from pharmacy and zero it with that ???
new to reefing ,, and scratching my head ...
PS i use the multi stage rodi system from BRS and tds last check was 0
:(

MY PREVIOUS POST
hi there community. i have a coral QT tank i recently set up and even more recently put 2 zoas and a anemone in there
on my heater this white film forms and then flakes off ; the filter might catch some of it, but some of it settles on the bare bottom tank bottom. my anemome is covered in it and hes not a happy creature ive tried blowing it off him with a low flow powerhead ; its stuck there pretty good, so either he will have to remove it himself (or not)
anyway the question is what is this ? i've done some googling and have seen the question posed (rarely) and people answering that "maybe" its calcium ? anyway just putting it out there ... perhaps someone has experience with this ?
thanks Carl (Boston)

 

[DSC reef]

Sounds like precipitation. I've only used the hanna alk tester (dkh) but only used salifert for calcium and magnesium. To many inconsistencies I've read to buy the calcium checker.

 

[hdsoftail1065]

Do you have pics? #reefsquad

 

[GoVols]

Sounds like precipitation. I've only used the hanna alk tester (dkh) but only used salifert for calcium and magnesium. To many inconsistencies I've read to buy the calcium checker.

Yep,
I don't like the hanna cal checker either.

(lol)
I'm still using API for cal, but the Hanna Alk Checker is wonderful.

It could be precipitation build up, due to 2-part overdose.

Gotta stay within the products max dose per day, and don't dose cal and alk at the same time.

 

[rkpetersen]

It definitely sounds like abiotic calcium carbonate precipitation. It will form first on your heater because the solubility drops as the water temp rises, and the water touching the heater is the hottest in your system. (Also likely to be forming on your pump's impeller, where you can't see it as easily.) You don't mention your alk level but with your calcium measuring high, if the alk is also high, that's why you're seeing this stuff.

You could check your calcium level with another technique if you're not comfortable with the Hanna checker. It works very well for me but some of the errors people commonly make with it will result in a low calcium measurement, so it's possible that your level is even higher than what you have measured.

The excess calcium is probably coming from the salt, not your rodi water esp if you're getting 0 TDS product water.

A product like Coral Pro is really designed for a tank with a lot of actively growing stony corals, thus the excess levels of calcium, mag, alk. I'd suggest switching to the blue bucket or another 'normal' salt for your QT.

Also what's your magnesium level reading? Another way to decrease abiotic precipitation is to increase mag, which interferes with combination of calcium and carbonate ions.

 

[Carl C]

phew ! i watched this video ; anyone with this hanna checker should watch this ! life saver !!

 

[rkpetersen]

That video is pretty much correct. Couple of additional tweaks.

The 'curved line' representing the water level is called the meniscus. And yes, you do always take readings and measure to the bottom of the meniscus.

I personally prefer drawing up exactly 0.100 ml with a high quality 1 ml syringe that has a clearly demarcated measuring line. Hanna introduced the auto-pipette a short while ago because so many people were having problems with this, but I still prefer the manual method as I am sure that way of how much I'm dispensing, unlike the auto-pipette which has no measurements on it.

People all seem to have their own way of opening the foil reagent powder packets. IMO they're unnecessarily complicated, take too long, and still run a substantial risk of losing some of the reagent. I use a small perfume funnel. I just tamp the packet down, tear open the opposite edge, hold the bottom of the funnel and mouth of the cuvette in one hand, and pour the reagent into the cuvette through the funnel. It takes literally 10 seconds and none of the reagent is ever spilt.