Calcium Levels

[dmc Paul]

With the addition of SPS's to my tank I have started to notice an increase in the calcium being used in the system.

In fact a weekly test never showed any thing over 380 with it being as low as 320. to try and compensate for this I have set up a Kalk dripping system doing about 5ltr every 3 days.

This has really stablized my pH and Kh.

Yesterday I made the decision that I should seriously consider a calcium rector of some sorts, and started to price up and consider my options.

I also did a calcium test, and ran out of regent 3 half way through the test :angry:

So popped up to my LFS to get a new one.

Started a new test when I got home result...................640 :o :o

Retested today to check.....640 :wacko:

Was the old kit duff have I been whacking in kalk for no reason. Will this be detrimental to the system????????.

What next????????? :huh:

Cheers
Paul

[Martyn]

I try to keep my SPS propagation farm system at 350ppm to 430ppm of calcium i have not noticed much differents to my SPS corals in my Propagation farm at these levels.
However if calcium levels stay around 220ppm to 320ppm the SPS corals still grow but at a slower speed and become less dense and more soft the top half of the branches break or crush more easy if handling.
I tend to feel that calcium levels between 350ppm lowest to 430ppm highest gives a good result with a harder structure and reasonable growth rate.

Of course there are many other factors that come in to play other than calcium I.E water temps will also effect the growth rates.
And the different methods in the way you keep calcium levels up may effect the building of the skeleton structure of the coral.

Regards
Martyn

[Martyn]

Not sure about the test kits if the old one was duff or the new one is duff ?
640 is high and takes some input of what ever used to get the levels up that high.
over dosing kalk ? Ph i think would be the main thing to rise high not sure never use kalkwasser tried it but not for me.
If this is a true reading then to just make sure it won't harm anything which I doubt it would (I never have had calcium levels of 640 so I have no expereance what this may do to live stock in a system) dilute by doing a water change.
you could always take a water sample to you LFS and get them to test it for calc.

Martyn

[Aquastotty]

Check ph if thats ok then go get your water tested (calcium wise) 640 is hard to get! id tend to think it was the test kit.....i.m.o :thumbsup:

[bony]

i have over shot on calcium dosing in the past and it did not cause any problems in the tank. all i did was turn the reator off and did a partial water change. i would test again with a new test kit just to be sure. let us know if the levels were as high as you say, and if they are that high, how well all the corals do.
all the best
aNdY

[Sweetlips]

Hello Paul, I overshot Calcium addition on my old tank through a crap test kit, when my LFS did a test it was 550, I didn't see any bad effects because of it and I just let it reduce naturally....Steve

[danny]

I doubt that is an accurate reading as I would imagine it would be hard to get it that high with Kalkwasser alone as most peoples Kalk is not even as high in calcium as that (I know mine isn`t). What is your dkH Paul?

[dmc Paul]

Todays test results

Calcium 630 :o

Kh 120 mg/l

Mag 1410

Thanks again

Paul

[acropora_nut]

Hi

I our hard coral tank houses most of the time 90 to 100 hard corals and we use kalk .
I like kalk and will carry on useing it in the shop .

I would say the test kit is duff .When you said you ran out of regent 3 i took a guess that you are useing that test kit that you times by 20 .Hagen test i think .We used to stock them but found then not a lot of bottle .
I would always pay the extra and go to salifert test kits,they might be a little extra cost but worth it .

jason

[ReefSteve]

No offence Paul but is the test kit the same brand as the old one.

Could it be that you are reading the results wrong i.e. new test kit needs results divided in 2 or something...just that I noticed that the new test kit seems to be giving a value double that of the old kit (640 ppm compared to 320 ppm)

Don't want to sound like you don't know how to use test kits or anything...just an observation on the readings

What test kits are you using?

Cheers
Steve

[dmc Paul]

None taken..... ;)

No it's not the same brand, original was a JBL test kit, this time it's a Nutrafin as that was all the Lfs had :huh:

They both are add the regent and times by 20 the amount of drops added.

Just done another test today with the same kit result being 530 ca so it's reducing and i have stopped dosing Kalk.

Another hundred drop and I'll either be there or at about 300 ca :blush:

still when the weekend come I will get my Lfs to test.

cheers all

paul

[kim]

A drop of 100 ppm in two days ? :o

If that's a result of calcification/precipitation, your alkalinity would have fallen by 250 ppm, which is tough since it started at only 150 ppm. :wacko:

Plus 100 ppm Calcium is 2.5 meq/l. So in a 100 gallon tank (450 litres) that would be equivalent to 112 g of calcification - about 40 cubic centimetres. :thumbsup:

It's one hell of a fall. I find it hard to believe, suggest you keep an eye on your alkalinity. Something odd happening here.

kim

[Peely]

Kim, you astound me every time. I aspire to your level of knowledge. Legend.