Can Calc and Alk imbalance cause persistent cloudy water?

[jostafew]

Hey everyone, a couple weeks back after getting my tank settled in its permanent home I decided to pay it some attention and get the params back in line so I could start stocking again. At the time I measured calcum down around 320, so I started dosing dry calc supplement. Alk measured about 9.5dkh. Couple days later, measure calc again and it had barely increased. Added 2nd of 3 doses. Couple more days measured again and was barely up to 360 now. Final dose of calc went in which should have brought it up well over 400ppm.

Then somewhere around that time I noticed that the tank water had gotten a little cloudy. So I brought the carbon reactor back online with a fresh batch of carbon, and did a 20% water change. Now a good two weeks later, the water is still cloudy. I was doubting the measurements that I was getting from my Salifert Calc test kit (expired a year or so back) so I picked up a fresh kit and measured again today. New kit is measuring 500! Just for fun I measured again with the old kit which is now measuring 440? What the heck? To make things more interesting, the Alk has now dropped to 6.1dKH. Somehow, without any intervention from me calcium level in the tank has gone up 100ppm and the Alk has dropped way down! The only change has been the addition of a few fish and dosing Microbacter for the last few days.

I'm going to slowly correct the Alk now and watch Calc levels, but what's up with the huge swing, and could these whacked out levels cause cloudy water? Thanks in advance

[brotherd]

I'm wondering if the calc being that high is precipitating out of solution? I would think at this point the magnesium would also be out of ideal limits.

[jostafew]

Good thought, will check it tomorrow

[GoFish]

From what I've learned from Mykas guide here...
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=48321
Magnesium is an important factor in maintaining Cal and Alk levels. Do you test for that?

Edit: just noticed the Mag mention above sorry

[jostafew]

Under normal circumstances (tank stable and corals growing) I do check Mag levels from time to time, but in this case since the tank was more or less dormant for a few months and just had a couple big water changes I didn't bother as the levels wouldn't have had any reason to drop. Nonetheless I will check the Mag tonight

[tang daddy]

Doesn't suprise me everything is everywhere, the cloudiness could be precipitation or maybe a bacteria bloom. Depending on what kind of calcium you use it could cloud the water. I get cloudy water from dosing too much alk (soda ash) I've had my levels swing hard before.

It is important to test when dosing just so you know where everything is at. I was in the same position as you and basically took an 8 month break and let the tank do the auto pilot thing. When I restarted the tank I had the energy to do WC and test. The first test I did I was in disbelief. Tested it 3 times... Alk was at 4.5, ca 300, mg 800.

I didn't trust my alk test kit so I did another 3 tests with my friends test kits aswell as my own. When I tested their water with my test kit I knew my tank was fudged. So over the next month I slowly started dosing all 3 manually daily.

I was suprised at how much I had to dose to get ca and mg up... Even the alk. I started dosing the big 3 with brightwells. 3 cap full 3 times a day of each all at different times. Long story short.... Everything was going up and down.

When I ran out of the liquid stuff I started to dose powder, testing every other day I finally had a handle on it knowing how much to dose daily.
Got sick of manual dosing and bought a doser. Took me another month and a half to get the ratio and dosing correct.

My tank is filled with frags of everything sps,Lps and softies.
I am currently dosing 180 ml of alk and ca 160 of mg daily. That is a lot, so much so that if a day is missed my alk drops 1 point, ca drops 50ppm and mg drops about 60 ppm. I go through 2 cups of the big 3 every 12-14 days. That is a whole lot of stuff. I ordered 5g pails of each which should last me a year maybe. Every coral is growing fast. Sps especially, I frag often and it heals itself within 2 days.

I don't test every other day anymore. Usually once a week now but I still find big swings in the alk from time to time....

My advice to you after writing this lengthy story. Test and add slowly, keep testing even once things are stable. Good luck!

[jostafew]

Hey tang daddy, thanks for the story

In all seriousness, I appreciate you taking the time to reply. I never dose anything without measuring a deficiency which is why I was so baffled with that whole swapparoo! In any case, I've been dosing Alk supplement and the levels are rising at an expected rate, now up to 8.0 which agrees with what I've dosed. I also tested Mag tonight which came out at 1070ppm, so I dosed to bring that back up to 1300. The Calc supplement is Seachem Reef Advantage Calcium, same stuff I've always used.

When things settle down and corals start growing quickly again I may consider automating the dosage of Calc and Alk to keep up with things (already have 1 dosing pump).

I'm still baffled about the cloudiness though. Aside from the Calcium being higher than I'd like the params are now back in the acceptable range, but the water is still just as cloudy as ever. I think the only possibility left is a stubborn bacteria bloom that the Microbacter doesn't seem to be offsetting. I'm working on a UV sterilizer as a last stab in the dark.

[tang daddy]

Run carbon

[jostafew]

One of the first things I did. I have a TLF 150 reactor running with a fresh batch of carbon.

[toytech]

What salt are you using , when I got the to bottom of my bucket of instant ocean I suffered through a few weeks of un explained cloudiness
, switch to a new batch and it went away . I wasn't testing at the time so I don't know if cal and alk where out of wack but there was definitely something in the salt .