Help me with calcium

[Igarc009]

Okay, so I tested my water the day before I did a water change, here are my results

Ph: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0
Calcium: 320
Phosphate: 0
Kh: 179
Salinity: 1.025

Disclaimer: I used an API test kit

I do weekly five gallon water changes.

My questions is this, is 320 for calcium too low? I understand ideally we want to keep it 420. My thinking is this that when I do my water changes I replenish some calcium. How much? I'm not sure but over the week it gets sucked up and drops. What would be the benefits of keeping it at 420 through out the week? and how would I go about doing that without adding a calcium reactor?

Thanks in advance

 

[igotcorals]

What salt mix are you using?

what is the coral load in your tank? sps, lps, Softies??

It can be a number of things IE- if you are using low quality salt with low calcium you are not replenishing your calcium at all. Use quality salt- reef crystals, Red sea Pro, D-D.

It can also be that your system is sucking up a lot of calcium and you need to replenish some every day with either a calcium reactor or dosing two part or kalkwasser.

Also, API kits are not reliable at all. Do yourself a huge favor and get yourself some Salifert test kits..

 

[igotcorals]

Remember Corals need stable parameters to grow and thrive

A calcium of 320PPM is too low.

 

[Igarc009]

Okay, I have a lot of lps, frogspawn, torch, hammer, pectinias, various chalices, I have a few sps pieces. Too be honest with you I don't know what salts I use because I get it from my local LFS. I'm not too worried about it being so low because honestly my corals look great and I have good a growth rate going, I'm just thinking if having a higher calcium level would that increase growth rates. I've had the systems up for about four months now and see no signs of coraline algae

 

[Zoarder]

Okay, I have a lot of lps, frogspawn, torch, hammer, pectinias, various chalices, I have a few sps pieces. Too be honest with you I don't know what salts I use because I get it from my local LFS. I'm not too worried about it being so low because honestly my corals look great and I have good a growth rate going, I'm just thinking if having a higher calcium level would that increase growth rates. I've had the systems up for about four months now and see no signs of coraline algae

Could be your test kit.

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk

 

[Igarc009]

maybe, ill take some water samples to my LFS and see what the deal is

 

[igotcorals]

Yup, could be your test kits. Make sure your LFS use quality test kits. API is really non reliable. Your calcium might be at 420ppm but your test kit is saying 320ppm.

Best of luck,

 

[Igarc009]

thanks for the help guys really appreciate it

 

[Reefer Mania]

its not often test kits are off, most of the time operator error

Mg+Ca=happy corals and nice coraline, time to supplement