Calcium vs. Alk.

[tigerman88]

I seem to have a problem getting my calcium over 340 I have been adding Kent Kalk daily for a week and it hasnt budged a bit. I tested the Kalk and it was at 600 or so. SO my question is I read that the alk plays a major role in the amount of calcium available. I tested my alk (with a hagen test kit) which reads in ppm which was 170 I believe the conversion is like 10dKH is this a good level to raise Ca at? I also add Kent Liquid Calcium daily as well.. All this and only three corals. Any advice to get my Ca up? Thanks

 

[r6_rider]

i had a hagen test kit (upgraded to salifert) and i am almost 100% sure that hagen recommends that the alk be in a range of 105-125. at 170 your alk is too high. alk and ca are like a balance beam when one is high the other is low, so your trying to get them both balanced. (there are always exceptions to the rules) but that is normally how it works. the conversion is divide by 10 to get dKH and 50 to get meq/l. which is what i commonly see posted on the board. i just had this problem but in reverse my alk was low and Ca was high. i would recommend doing a couple of water changes to bring your alk levels down a bit. and by doing the water changes your Ca levels should come up a bit. it has taken me about 3 weeks to get my alk and ca levels back to 2-2.5 for alk and 400-450 for calcium. once u get the levels back to were they should be test for both ca and alk for about 3 days to see what your reduction is. i think that for every .1 meq/l drop in alk it should be about 10 ppm drop in ca. at least that is what i have seen. hope this could be of help.
also search the board i think my thread is still here when i had my problem and there are also alot of good post explaining how the 2 work together.

 

[Robf]

What Ca test kit are you using?

In the past, I have found the Hagen test kits to be EXTREMELY unreliable. I was disappointed because of the attractive prices.

A level of 600ppm Ca in fresh kalk does not sound right. I believe it should be higher than that. I would begin to question my Ca test kit.

I could be wrong.

As well, what's your pH range throughout the day? And do you test for magnesium? I started testing Mg, and It helped me to identify a potential problem. I was fighting with my Ca and Alk for about 6 months, and I just got the problem fixed 2 weeks ago.

R.

 

[C5H403N4]

8O We have resurched this balance for our super hybred CaCo3 chilled co2, ozone reactor.
Watching the Nh4+ + H2o--NH3 + H2o+
and the Zn + Cu2+ -- Zn2+ + Cu, we have found that a good way for this to stablize is starting with 2tlbsp of Arm+Hammer baking soda, for the cheeper method.
We use pharmacy chemicals, but this will start in you recovery. Also please do 15% bi-week changes untill this is settled.
If you are not useing RO, you might have problems and you should let your RAISED ions settle out of your fresh salt mix, for two days before you switch water.
The raised levels will attach themselves to tanks water on a improper water change.

Good luck. :wink:

"Can we Fathom our Reality?"

 

[Ben1]

"We have resurched this balance for our super hybred CaCo3 chilled co2, ozone reactor" This sounds like the talk of anouther crazy person! Or maybe you can explain this reactor?


Anyway, Kalk isnt good for raising CA it is good for maintaining it though. I would try Kents grainular CA, Turbo CA. It will raise your CA. Also try new test kits to be sure.

HTH

 

[randy holmes-farley]

Ben:

You are quite right. C5H403N4 is probably a 10-year old that is posting nonsense that he read in his mommy's chemistry book, and thought to impress us with it in this and other posts. You were impressed, weren't you? :mrgreen:

Just ignore it.

Tiger:

If your alkalinity is really 10 dKH, and the calcium is 340 ppm, then I'd raise the calcium with an unbalanced additive like calcium chloride. If you try to raise the clacium with a balanced calcium and alkalinity additive, like limewater, you'll end up driving the alkalinity too high, and will not attain the calcium levels that you want.

 

[ReefLion]

I can only assume C5H403N4 is our former friend known as saltcritter.

Tim

 

[Anonymous]

I have found the following conversion chart to be a big help. Hope it helps you all.

http://ozreef.org/reference/alkalinity_conversion.html

 

[brokekyle]

I seem to have a problem getting my calcium over 340 Any advice to get my Ca up? Thanks

hmmmm??/ are you using tap water?? what's your SG and low temp ??