Calcium off the charts...

Skidazl · Dec 19, 2009

Well, got me a new elos cal test kit today and at first i though it was a bad kit, so i tested twice and compared it to API and Salifert. It was a bit higher than both of them, but they read way high, too.

Alk was 11, mag was 1300 and calcium was 600. API and Salifert(Old test kit) both read about 550. I only did the approximate test on the elos. Anyways, I'm not sure why it is so whacked all of a sudden. I read all the articles i could on this and found 2 options. Add some calcium lovers, which i have none of right now and/or WC. I plan to do a WC tomorrow and will probably do another one tuesday or wednesday.

Another question, does anybody know what calcium precipitate looks like. I have this white stuff all over my rocks which i though was another, but i'm now wondering if it is that. Also, why would my coralline not take off at that level and use it up? Thank, Dave

Wes · Dec 19, 2009

Your ca/alk balance is untenable. At this point a water change would be best, but you could also just wait. Whatever you're dosing, cut back. my guess would be that you're doing 2-part and overdosing it. This is much less likely to happen when using kalk.

Don't stress too much, but do cut back on your dosing. The precip you see is calcium carbonate--annoying but not too dangerous. what is dangerous is that abiotic precip will occur most on hot stuff like pumps and heaters. when it happens on your pumps, if you have a restart they won't start back up again. They may even build up so much that they stop altogether. It would be a very good idea to take out all pumps and clean them very well when you're done.

Skidazl · Dec 19, 2009

Thanks Wes. Yeah, i will stop dosing. My issue is that it has been like this forever. I had an API test kit that always read way high, 550+, and a salifert, old, that read 400-440. I trusted the salifert thinking the API was a bad kit and not worth the hassle of a return. Looks like it was right. Thanks, will do WC and stop dosing immediately...

One last question, why does my coralline not grow and consume some of this calcium? Thanks, Dave

JOSE CASAS · Dec 19, 2009

Skidazl said:

Because there are more variables to contribute to the growth of coraline like Mag, strontium, and lighting. If one or more are off then that might be the reason why the coraline is not consuming the calcium. Wait a minute how do you know the coraline is not consuming the calcium?

Skidazl · Dec 19, 2009

Because it is not growing. When i had this tank 8 years ago, my coralline was everywhere, glass, rocks. Now I just have a few spots with it. And it has not once appeared on the glass since the clean up...

JOSE CASAS · Dec 19, 2009

Then is your tank heavly stock with sps?

Skidazl · Dec 19, 2009

nope, no SPS at all, all LPS and softies...

Skidazl · Dec 19, 2009

I want to keep SPS in the near future, thus the dosing...

Reefer08 · Dec 19, 2009

Stuff only grows when its happy and things only get happy when parameters are good. If calcium is off the charts its not going to grow. Hope that makes sense.

JOSE CASAS · Dec 20, 2009

Reefer08 said:

++:top:

Wes · Dec 20, 2009

yep, you want to keep things in line rather than "high"

IMO until you have a very high demand, kalkwasser is your best way to supplement. It is very easy to cut back on (just don't mix it as potent) and has other benefits that will wind up being quite beneficial (precipitates phosphates, raises pH, etc). It's been one of the best coralline accelerators I've seen. Definitely skip out on purple up/similar products and just keep your parameters in line.

OCReefMadness · Dec 20, 2009

Try to balance your kal and calcium you will see the growth. I suggest you should keep kal at 8.5 and cal at 425 you will see the growth.

coral diver · Dec 20, 2009

leave it alone don't do water change let the corals consume it, if you do W/C and drop the reading significantly you will put them into shock, just monitor your water every week
don't let the other reading go below keep it constant,the calcium level will go down and make a habit of testing PH, Cal, Alk, every week Mag every other week and do the whole battery of test once a month or two.

Skidazl · Dec 20, 2009

coral diver said:

i do weekly WC of 10% so i don't think the water change will affect it that drastically. This is the first time I have ever tested mg, but i do test everything else on a regular basis, weekly, but my tests were bad and reading normal levels, so this has been going on. I plan to test tonight and then tomorrow and then go to every other day after that till it either goes down or it stays where it is...

Skidazl · Dec 20, 2009

oh yeah and pH is on a probe so that is monitored constantly

Skidazl · Dec 20, 2009

ok, here's a pic of the crap on my rocks. I was told it could be calcium carbonate from the high calcium, just wanted more verification because i was planning on pulling out all the rocks and scrubbing the crap off before i found out just lowering my calcium levels will get rid of it...

Wes · Dec 20, 2009

a couple things:

First, calcium carbonate is NOT due to just high calcium. it is high calcium and carbonate. There is a threshold where you will observe massive precip like that, but it's generally due to having both levels too high. You'll also want to check your magnesium levels as Mg is what helps keep Ca/Alk in suspension anyway. Have you ever tried to mix part A directly with part B? you get exactly what you see in your tank. It's the Mg (among other things) that keeps it in suspension.

Additionally, it won't just go away if you just stop dosing. You'll want to suck it off when you do a w/c or blow it off with your hands or whatever. It's basically just very very fine sand. It will be very good at clogging things up though, so be aware of that.

If you leave your water alone, the excess Ca/Alk will either precipitate out until it's at a reasonable level or it will be consumed via biological mechanisms. Either way, it's not a huge deal. One risk is that sometimes precip events can 'snowball" and you wind up with low levels, but at this point that is less likely for your tank. IMO the most important thing is that you be VERY sure to take your pumps out and clean them really well with vinegar/dilute muratic acid once things are in line. I've seen more than one tank fail because the pumps didn't restart after a brief power outage.

Skidazl · Dec 21, 2009

thank you for the information, my mg and alk are in line at 1300 and 11, respectively. I have never mixed the 2 parts together. I always do just as the directions state, rinsein tank water after part 1 and rinse in ro/di water after part2.
I've tried siphoning it out when i do a water change but it sticks to the rock, and it also grows back in no time. I'm thinking I may need to pull all the rocks out. When you say leave the water alone, are you meaning not do WC?
Finally, I was told that it looks like a type of sponge, which is very possible since my lighting is very very dim at 175w 20k, think that's possible?
Any thought of getting rid of that? Thanks, Dave

Calcium off the charts...

Skidazl

2

Wes

New member

Skidazl

2

JOSE CASAS

Premium Member

Skidazl

2

JOSE CASAS

Premium Member

Skidazl

2

Skidazl

2

Reefer08

Member

JOSE CASAS

Premium Member

Wes

New member

OCReefMadness

New member

coral diver

New member

Skidazl

2

Skidazl

2

Skidazl

2

Wes

New member

Skidazl

2

Latest posts