when I fixed my Ca problem i brought it up at a rate of 50ppm/day.. I think this was less than what was recomended by RHF, maybe Brad can coment as he has used it more than the once I think.

Steve

What did you use and how much? What is your water volume? I can't raise by anything because it's not moving.

I assumed 120 gal for my water volume and used the calculator on reef central to figure out how much I would need to raise the ca level in 120 gal of water 50ppm

then I desolved that amount into 1 gal of ro water and slowly added into a fast flowing area of the sump.

Steve

Couldn't find a calculator on RC But I used this one from OA's web site
http://www.andy-hipkiss.co.uk/index.....uk/cacalc.htm
it say I need 10tsp to raise 50ppm

thats the same on the link from RC went to.. and yes I did the 17tsp I think i even did 34 the one day.. I did do some reading in the chemistry forum on RC about how fast you could bring it up.. do a serch on turbo ca in the chem forum and you will find a lot of info.

Steve

Thanks I'll do that.

Thank you everyone. What I did was, seeing as how nothing was working, I mixed up a batch of IO( 5g) brought it up to temp, added my salt to 1.026sg let it circilate over night and tested it. Cal= 260ppm, mag=700ppm alk=9dkh. So that was where I was getting the problems from :evil: . I have been slowly changing my salt brand to Crystal sea. ( readings are, cal 390ppm, mag 1300ppm alk 10dkh) Talked to Robert at Crystal sea and he said do the change over slowly. I'm changing 5g per week. Had to dose 10tps of turbo calcium for 4 days to get up to 420ppm. It has now been stable for the past 3 days. cal 420, mag 1400, alk 9.3dkh.
I got my IO salt back when there was all that trouble with it. Thought that after I returned my 1st bucket that the replacement would have been proper. So if anyone else is having troubles, CHECK YOU SALT!!!!!
Again, thank you everyone for your help.

That's just strange. I just tested my IO, and Ca=370ppm, alk=10.4dKh @1.025 SG.

That's what J&L said. They asked me to bring in a sample and if they tested it bad they would give me a new one. After serveral water changes there wasn't much left in the bucket 2-3 lbs so i didn't bother. I am going to keep- a closer eye on what I'm putting in my tank from now on.

I had some issues with Crystal Sea salt mix over time. I had more pods during that time but I lost coraline algae and clams. My results were in line with most people on RC as well. A lot of people also had sps bleaching. My tank's been happier going back to IO. I did notice that my pod population has decreased now back to where it was before I started using Crystal Sea though. So I'm almost certain that the salts had a role to play.

I don't know what the problem with Crystal Sea was. Reefs.org announced that Inland Aquatics was going to do a study of the salts 1.5 years ago but not sure where they are at now (The last I heard, they just ordered the equipment and were waiting for it so probably no tests performed yet). Probably doesn't matter now since the salt formulas probably have changed. So we will probably NEVER know what caused the urchin larvae to die in IO salt in Dr. Ron's test 1.5 years ago since IO's formula has already changed since then.

Keep us posted about your experience with Crystal Sea over time.