Can't get Calcium levels up?

[azreefer]

A friend of mine recently converted his FOWLR over to a reef. I have been helping him out, as my reef is doing great. The tank is a 37 gal. tall with about 50lbs of figi live rock. He has only two small frags that I gave him and he can't get the calcium levels above 390. He's currently adding 30ml of b-ionic 2 part every day! I add 30 ml to my 40 every 2-3 days and the levels stay at 430-450 with 18 different frags. He is getting light amounts of coralline growing on the rock but I can't imagine it's sucking up that much calcium. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[DBW]

Are those calcium readings made with the same test kit? i.e. are you sure that if you are using two kits that they are producing the same values?

 

[Anonymous]

it is nearly impossible to raise calcium levels with two part solutions. do water changes it's much easier. maybe some turbo calcium though it supposedly shouldn't be used regularly.

 

[jeffsdesigns]

check you magnesium levels.

That cured my problem.

Get a magesium test kit.

You may need to add some to get the levels up to 1400.

That..will hold you down.

 

[CoralReefDreamer]

Ihave to agree with Jeff about the magnesium levels.

I had a problem with my Ca levels staying steady, and after talking with Randy Homles-Farley he advised me to check the Mg level. Mine was around 600. Once I brought it up to 1400, I had no problem with maintaining my Ca.

Hope this helps

 

[azreefer]

Thanks for the advice, I did a 15 gallon water change for him yesterday so hopefully that wil help. I did happen to find a article from advancedaquarist.com that mentioned magnesium levels may be the cause of early precipitation of calcium. I'll get a test kit and check it out.

Thanks!

 

[bowfront]

Not sure if you've seen this article or not but its easy to follow and should help you to figure out what's going on. Alkalinity also enters into the equation.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm