720ppm of Ca?!!!!

[titus]

Hello,

Just received my Salifert dkH test kit so decided to give the system a routine test. Here are the interesting and puzzling results:

Ca = 720 ppm
dkH = 10.6

What the???!!! I used the Hagen's Calcium test kit and counted 36 drops of Reagent 3. So 36 * 20 = 720 ppm.

[Canadian Man]

wow that off???
i had this problem a few months ago before i discovered the chemistry that occours in a tank and i purchased a calcium test kit(hagen) and an alkalinity kit and my calcium came out at 650 and calcium was at 2.0 meq/l so......
just stopped dosing calcium for a while but i was confused too at how my calcium could get so high.

[Delphinus]

Jon - If nothing is using up the Ca then it can accumulate. Are you using tap water? Our water is very high in carbonates so it is pretty easy to get a pretty high Ca reading.

If Alk is low then even if you have stuff that can use up the Ca, nothing will be able to. Thus I find it more important to dose my buffer soln over dosing my Ca soln (although by dosing the Alk I do have to dose the Ca in order to keep it near NSW levels).

Ah, one day I'll get me a Ca/Rx. One day...

[titus]

Hello,

Well if the dkH reading is low then I'll have a problem. But my dkH is 10.6 so my corals are just sucking up the calcium. :D

[Troy F]

As I understand it and from my experience Ca precipatates out of solution around 550ppm. I think that unusually high Mg will allow it to go higher. If it were me, I'd post this question, with all parameters at the ready, to Randy on reefcentral.

[pocilipora]

I wouldent trust Hagens test, I wouldent even bother testing calcium levels. Only test and adjust your alkalinity. That salifert test kit works well for me. I usualy keep between 11 and 12dkh, but I have gone as high or low as 15dkh. If your calcium got that high, it would have precipitated out of solution and you would have what looks like a snow storm in your tank. Id blame the hagen test kit for a false reading. Do you have a reactor?

[DJ88]

Oh I Know where the snow is falling!

Titus is sending it somewhere else. ;)

Go here to see the snow. (http://www.canreef.com)

Seriously tho.

Titus you would have a huge snowstorm. Like Troy suggested. Is your Mg high? I don't know if it woudl let the Ca get THAT high tho.

[stephane]

DJ and troy are right IMO

[Mak]

Sorry to hop in here but... How accurate is the hagen test? I've been using this kit for 6 months and my calcium levels are always 420 to 480(480 on average)using IO salt and weekly use of Coral-Vite and Tech I. And in my 20G (weekly 4g change) with 12 or so corals and 2 small anenomes maintains 440-460. Can anybody recomend the most accurate test out there for Cal and dkH? Or is this kit sufficient? Thx!!! ;)

[titus]

Hello,

From what I know Ca should have precipitated out of the system by now. However, I have no snow storm yet. I'm not sure how accurate are the Hagen's test kit but my gut feeling is that the test kit is the one to blame.

And yes of course I'm running a reactor! :rolleyes: Who asked that question?

[titus]

Hello,

Bottom line is my inhabitants are all doing great so I'm not even worried about this. Just some weird and interesting measurements. From what I can tell, my brain is as swollen as it gets. Same thing goes for my frogspawn, candy cane, finger, and other polyps.

[Tau2301]

Titus

I had the same problem with my Hagen test kit. You have to really, really shake up the reagent #2 before adding it to the tube.

[titus]

Hello,

Ha good one. I did have different results before depending on how much I shake Reagent 2. Oh well.