Ca & KH results

[jasond]

I recieved my J&L order, and tried out the Elos test kits I ordered. Results are:

Ca: 250
dKH 9
PH: 8.23

For Calcium I have "Kent Marine Concentrated Liquid Calcium" and Salifert KH and pH buffer.

Judging from what I was able to dig up, my Ca is fairly low, should be around 400, and dKH might be a tad high. Should I dose Ca every day and and not the KH buffer, and just monitor that the Alkalinity&pH dont fall? Or when I dose Ca should I always dose the KH&Ph?

Sorry for the rookie questions, I know where the numbers are supposed to be, just not sure what the safest way to get them there!

Thanks in advance.

[Reefer Rob]

I would just dose the calcium supplement. Your Alkalinity is perfect, maybe even a tad low IMO. Judging by your numbers it looks like you've been using Instant Ocean salt. If thats the case you should check your magnesium before you raise your calcium too high.

[jasond]

You guessed it :biggrin: . Instant Ocean. When I had my water tested for Mag test a couple weeks ago, it was low too. I have been dosing that too, but only once a week as instructed on the Kent bottle. Test kit to come.

From what I understand, if Mag isnt high enough, it is difficult to raise the Ca, correct?

[mark]

Your right about the Mg, if it's low it will keep your Ca down. Should be about 3:1 with NSW @ 1280ppm

[Myka]

Also, be aware that your Alk will rise when you add Calcium, and vice versa.

[Bryan]

Before you start dumping money into the tank perform some large water changes. That should get you back up to NSW conditions, then fine tune with the supplements. Instant Ocean mixes to about 350-360 ppm Ca

[jasond]

Thanks guys!

Bryan, I will give that a shot and do a couple larger changes, thanks for the tip.

The few corals I have dont seem to be doing too bad, but maybe just not thriving like they would with ideal water conditions. On a side note, do any of these three affect fish health at all?

Jason

[mark]

Before you start dumping money into the tank perform some large water changes. That should get you back up to NSW conditions, then fine tune with the supplements. Instant Ocean mixes to about 350-360 ppm Ca

I was dosing Ca, pushing a reactor and doing water changes and the Ca just wasn't staying up and seemed to be going down more that the Ca demand should have been for the corals I had. Finally clued into that it might be the SW used for changes so started testing fresh batches. One pail of was getting CA of 325 ppm, second pail with 275 using both ELOS and Sailfert kits, salt was IO, with low values for Mg as well.

[jasond]

I was dosing Ca, pushing a reactor and doing water changes and the Ca just wasn't staying up and seemed to be going down more that the Ca demand should have been for the corals I had. Finally clued into that it might be the SW used for changes so started testing fresh batches. One pail of was getting CA of 325 ppm, second pail with 275 using both ELOS and Sailfert kits, salt was IO, with low values for Mg as well.

So did you switch salt? Which brand? I will test my fresh SW with my elos kit tomorrow and let you know what mine comes in at.

[Reefer Rob]

Test the water at the start of each bucket. Once you find out how much Mg and Ca you need to correct the levels you can add it to the water before you add the salt mix.

[mark]

So did you switch salt?

No and see no reason to.

I'm still testing every couple of mixes (finding pails are consistent top to bottom btw so will probably do what Rob Reefer says, test at the start of each new pail) then since I know where I'm low, I'll supplement using bulk Mg and Ca (plug to littlesilvermax). Figure supplementing adds about $5 to the cost of the pail and maybe a extra 10 minutes to make 20g of SW. Doing this, my Ca and Mg is where I'm shooting before I even add it to tank.

[jasond]

Great idea, thanks!

Should I be bringing it up slowly....when I do the water change with the higher Ca/Mg do it over a longer period of time? I would guess because of it only being a 20% wc, it wont be too big of a shock to the whole tank.

I will be sending littlesilvermax a pm as soon as my kent runs out, which wont be long, I have heard nothing but positive feedback!

[Reefer Rob]

You can bring the levels up over a couple of days with no problem.
BTW here's a Reef Chemistry Calculator (http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html) just in case you haven't found one yet.