ca and alk usage on my tank, calculators and randy's 2 part!!

[GQ22]

is this abnormal for ca usage?

i got 8 clams (two six inchers and the rest are around 3-4" , two 7 header lps, 1 four header and mutiple 1.5 inch sps frags and a bunch of zoas on a 155 total volume tank.

about a week and a half ago i tested my ca and it was very high around 500ppm with the usage of kalk water. my dkh was around 4-5 (i know this is bad)

today i tested my ca and it was a 50ppm. during the week and half i have been adding 10ml of each two part per day. obviously this didnt seem enough.

Can i have really used up that much ca?

Are clams high ca user?

how much two part do you guys does per day?

ps: i am using seachem ca test.

also to bring my ca back to the approp. level of 450, the reef calculator said i need to dose almost 2 gallons worth or randy solution 1!!! im going to test in a few min. i've already dosed half a gallon in about an hour. the site said it was okay to dose large amount. does 2 gallons or 6000+ ml sound right?!?! also to raise my alk it said to dose 22 oz of randy's solution two. can this really be right?!?!

 

[reefman]

from 500 to 50.i would be very doubtful on the test kit. have u try doing the same test on another sample like freshly made SW n see what readings u get?

 

[marrone]

Clams do use a lot of cal and alk. I would check the kit as 50ppm sounds extremely low and I would think either the kit is wrong or you did the test it wrong.

10ml is a very low amount, I have a 58gal tank with no clams and I dose about 20ml a day of each. So your way under what you should be doing each day.

Recheck the levels before you add all the solution as your don't want to over dose your tank. Also to make sure your kits is ok do a test on some freshly made salt water.

 

[PalmTree]

I think if your CA level was down to 50 ppm you would see something wrong in your tank. Especially that drastic of a drop. Like everyone else said I would try another test kit and check all the other parameters as well. whats your Alk levels?

 

[SlamaJama]

im curious about that as well, to go from 500--->50 does not seem right, i would have retested...but if it is, the clams do use alot of Ca, and watever else u may have...
as soon as u have everything balanced, test at 1 particular time of the day, u can test the next day (ie; test at 8am on monday, test @ 8am on tues)...this will show u how much Ca/Alk consumption u have on a dailty basis, and then u can dose the proper amt to maintain ur Ca & Alk levels.
gl galley
mike