CAl and alk levels

[Skimmerking]

WTH, Well I tested my Levels and my ALk is 9.0 DKH , which is great IMO. Now my Cal is 490PPM. What the heck is up with that.

I have a Kalk Reactor that is dosing a drip every 5 seonds. Now in my tank I have 7 clams,1 maxima clam, 3 derasa's 3 crocea's a have a small colony of sps that is 5x5 about there, and a frag that is 3x3 and I have some lps's in the tank, open brain, bubble coral, well you get the picture. I hooked up a Sulphur reactor and and have been watching it to seed. so My nitrates are about 40 in that range, so I wanted to get the nitrates down the natural way and ended up doing a 15 gal water change in my tank total water volume is about 140 gal. I use IO salt and I know that the CAL level in the salt is 390 ppm and ALk is about 8 something. SO my Question is.............................

HOW IN THE HECK DO I GET MY CALCIUM DOWN. ITS 490ppm...............

[BC564]

I have been having the same issue for the last month or so.....but I dont know how my CALCIUM got so high......Im sitting at 500....I dont have a reactor.
Sorry....my dKh is 9 also

[untamed]

Well...generally speaking, you can't bring Ca DOWN...you can only bring both Ca/Alk down, then try to rebalance by adding whichever one ends up low.

So if you think you are too high (which could be debatable), slow your reactor down just a bit and wait. Both Ca and Alk should fall. If the Alk ends up low, you can dose a bit of baking soda to adjust.

[Skimmerking]

that is what I figured I didn't think you could bring CAl down..

[BC564]

and if you dont have a reactor? Just wait it out?

[Megalodon]

My calcium is off the scale, more than 500ppm as per my Salifert test kit. And that's the case for freshly mixed saltwater too. Something about Tropic Marin.

[scumchug]

For what its worth, My target for calcium is 500. I don't see a problem?

[mseepman]

I too have the problem of ALK and CAL being too high. I use AquaCraft Biosea and out of the bucket, I get ALK levels of 7 and CAL levels of 450 very consistantly between bags. Somehow over the last 3 months, my tank has crept up to ALK of 9-10 and CAL of 500. I use both Salifert and Hagen test kits with similar results. I don't have a reactor and I don't dose for Calcium or ALK.

Any suggestions would be great.

[untamed]

and if you dont have a reactor? Just wait it out?

Yes...or add slightly less of whatever balanced supplement you are adding. Natural usage in the tank will bring the levels down if you don't supplement.

For what its worth, My target for calcium is 500. I don't see a problem?

Yes, that's why I thought it was debatable as whether he has a problem that needs fixing...or not. Although his problem may not be so much that the Ca is too high...it might just be that the Alk is too low to be "balanced" with a Ca that is that high. Even that is debatable.

I too have the problem of ALK and CAL being too high. I use AquaCraft Biosea and out of the bucket, I get ALK levels of 7 and CAL levels of 450 very consistantly between bags. Somehow over the last 3 months, my tank has crept up to ALK of 9-10 and CAL of 500. I use both Salifert and Hagen test kits with similar results. I don't have a reactor and I don't dose for Calcium or ALK.

Any suggestions would be great.

How's your salinity? Maybe you've gotten over-concentrated. You do have an unusual problem, to be sure. You are not dosing anything to supplement Ca/Alk, yet your Ca/Alk is RISING. That suggests that you have nothing in the tank that would use up Ca/Alk. Even a normal growth of coraline aglae would eventually use up Ca/Alk in a tank if there were no supplementation.

Do you happen to have a very clean, fish-only system? I'm baffled by that one.

[scumchug]

I too have the problem of ALK and CAL being too high. I use AquaCraft Biosea and out of the bucket, I get ALK levels of 7 and CAL levels of 450 very consistantly between bags. Somehow over the last 3 months, my tank has crept up to ALK of 9-10 and CAL of 500. I use both Salifert and Hagen test kits with similar results. I don't have a reactor and I don't dose for Calcium or ALK.

Any suggestions would be great.

I'd be willing to bet that your not using RODI water for top offs, or your DI filter is done. As you keep adding water, it evaporates leaving behind calcium among other things. Eventually the calcium builds up.

[Farrmanchu]

Mike, why not take the Kalk Reactor off line for a bit, while dripping Baking Soda or other Alk supplement until Ca gets used up. I have the same problem, when I use Kalk alone, Ca rises and Alk drops slowly. The fish and other bioload use up Alk. I find my tank uses around 10ppm a day of Ca, so when I stop Kalk, it drops 10ppm per day, but I keep Alk high with baked Baking Soda dissolved in RO. Once the SPS and Clams get bigger, you may get away with Kalk alone, just more of it, with a bigger demand on Ca from Corals.

[mseepman]

To give you a little more info, my salinity is a 1.023. I have not been dosing anything for quite a while now, although I did up until about 7 months ago using Reef Complete. I have mostly softies, but a few SPS as well. I also have a reasonably decent Bio-load with 10 fish in a 70 Gallon tank. I don't have an RO/DI myself, I purchase RO water from a local vendor (same stuff I drink). I don't use any tap water and have not used any in 2 years. I don't have a lot of new coraline algae growth, but my rocks are nicely purpled up from the last few years.

Any other suggestions?



How's your salinity? Maybe you've gotten over-concentrated. You do have an unusual problem, to be sure. You are not dosing anything to supplement Ca/Alk, yet your Ca/Alk is RISING. That suggests that you have nothing in the tank that would use up Ca/Alk. Even a normal growth of coraline aglae would eventually use up Ca/Alk in a tank if there were no supplementation.

Do you happen to have a very clean, fish-only system? I'm baffled by that one.

[untamed]

mseepman, I am at a loss to offer an explanation.

There is no mechanics that I can think of that would allow Ca/Alk to go UP beyond the levels of the replacement SW in any system that is supporting SPS and coraline algae.

I don't think that fish or overall bioload are a factor as they don't pull Ca from the water.

[mseepman]

In order to try and bring things back into line, I am doing a 20% water change this weekend. I did a 20% last week as well but it didn't seem to do much.

Without having my own RO/DI, big water changes are a real pain in the butt!

[Bryan]

I do...have you checked for a faulty test kit. What test kit are you using..A lot of problems with Salifert as of late, could be your alk or Ca test kit.


There is no mechanics that I can think of that would allow Ca/Alk to go UP beyond the levels of the replacement SW in any system that is supporting SPS and coraline algae.

[mseepman]

I thought the same thing...but I have a Hagan test kit and the Salifert and both read similar. I bought the Salifert kit after getting these readings from the Hagen kit. I have a friend with a red sea kit (ugly I know) but I will have him do a test and see if he confirms.

[Captainhemo]

Test the RO water you are buying for Ca, not being run through a DI filter I'd bet it contains Ca.
As mentioned by Scumchug, you are then adding Ca everytime you top up your tank and slowly increasing Ca levels.

[mseepman]

I will try testing it, but wouldn't it show when I test my newly mixed salt water too?