Can't get my calcium up...

[Simon1]

My tank has cycled, and all my water parameters are great, except for calcium. I have never had it above 300ppm, but it normaly stays around 250ppm. I have added Tropic Marin's bio-calcium, and this helped, but my dKH got up 18. Now I'm trying B-IONIC (calcium portion only) and the Tropic Marin together with no real change in calcium. I am following the directions for each, should I try bumping up the amounts used? ( I know that too much will cause percipitation of calcium and a drop in pH and dKH)


Thanks guys.

 

[Len]

Permit me to move this to the General Reef Discussion since this is a rather complicated issue.

I have a hunch it's a issue concerning the relationship between your alkanity, calcium, and likely pH. I'm really not sure what it is though (chemistry and I never jived) but I'm guessing some others in the GRD will have insight on this.

 

[hillbilly]

Invest in a reactor, and chuck the chemicals!!!

 

[cdeakle]

Invest in a reactor, and chuck the chemicals!!!

If he has the money sure, but how does he fix his current problem??

 

[kim]

As you say, adding Ca with such a high dKH may cause precipitation - maybe that's why you are having trouble raising Ca in the first place ?

It shouldn't unduly affect pH, however.

Now, if you are causing precipitation, alkalinity should plummet. If you are not seeing any drop in KH when adding a calcium additive, yet Ca doesn't rise, then....I'm stumped. New test kits ? What do you see ?

Also, magnesium ? In a new tank, any aragonite sand needs to build up a "critical" coating of magnesium on the surface to prevent precipitation (as you know, calcium and carbonate are supersaturated in seawater, magnesium is vital in achieving this without precipitation). So you should also check Mg and be ready to supplement. Once things are a little older, Mg should be boring.

Hth,

kim

 

[hdtran]

Go check out the article in the Advanced Aquarist Online archives (Nov. 2002) by R. Holmes-Farley (I hope I didn't mangle the name), and the links referred to therein.

You probably need to do a water change to get your alkalinity down a bit, then, dose Calcium Chloride (not Kalkwasser!) to get your Calcium up. Given your excessively high carbonate alkalinity, you may precipitate out some Calcium Carbonate in the water, but that's ok--you'll be depleting the alkalinity at the same time. You want to shoot for alkalinity in the 4 meq/L range (I don't speak dKH, sorry, but I think that's around 10 dKH). That way, you can maintain your Calcium where you want it (e.g. in the 350-450 ppm range).

But do go read that article. There's a hotlink to Advanced Aquarist Online (don't be intimidated by the title) from the main reefs.org menu.

Good luck!

 

[hillbilly]

Invest in a reactor, and chuck the chemicals!!!

If he has the money sure, but how does he fix his current problem??

Have to do water changes to get the tank back in balance. Misuse of additives is so easy to do. That's why I said to invest in a reactor, sure it's not cheap, but it's a lot better than trying to balance additives all the time.

 

[ricky1414]

could it possibly be a faulty test kit? i had a faulty kit that read that my cal level was around 300, always 300. never higher or lower. replaced it and it reads perfectly now. Ocham's Razor- "the simplest solution is more likely when all other things are equal."

on a lighter note- if you still can't get it up, you might want to talk to your doctor!! 8O 8O

 

[CiXeL]

is there a such thing as a hang on calcium reactor yet? i bet alot of people would get one if there were.

 

[K9coral]

Nevermind

 

[sparatus]

this excellent article should help...

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

this is a calculator for bringing up alk and/or calcium (how much you need of various products to bring them up to the level you are trying to achieve)...

http://www.kademani.com/reefchem.htm

hth