High CA reading after water change

[Sapp]

Hi fellow reefers,

I did a water test after changing about 15% of my water. All parameters are ok except calcium. Read more than 500ppm. I am using Salifert testkit bought less than 3 months. Test on the reference water provided is accurate. Was wondering if its ok to just let it be and let the calcium be slowly absorbed by the corals. What are the cons in this situation? Using TM salt and DI water by the way. Mg is about 1450ppm.

Hope to get some advise from helpful reefers.

[jervismun]

Emm... such high Ca from Tropic Marin salt? Quite unusual leh

Your 1450 Mg is highly desirable

What other means of Ca you add to your tank bro?

[Sapp]

I dosed with TM Calcium additive (powder form) about 2 weeks back. Then took water reading and found the spike in my CA. Thought it was becos the CA i dosed has not fully settled yet. Took reading again last week and still the same. Did water change hoping it will rectify the problem but still getting high calcium reading. (>500ppm). hmmm suspecting my testkit to be contaminated but tested the control sample that comes with it and the results are accurate. arggggg

The only other things I dosed are Iodine and Strontium. I dun even use drip Kalk at this point in time. Hopefully there will not be alot of calcification in my pumps...

[madmac]

What is ur SG and pH. Your water is super-saturated with Ca & Mg ions and it is best in cases like this to balance off it off with a low dKH and pH. Keep your temperature low too.

If you can afford to lower ur SG, then driping kalk would help reduce them too; otherwise do nothing but the usual and just wait for the levels to come off over time.

[Sapp]

SG is about 1.023 +-0.001 roughly... cannot remember exact . pH is 8.2~8.3. KH is about 4meq or 8dKH if I calculate correctly.

Think will just let the system self adjust and take readings again later in the week. Keeping my fingers crossed.

[jervismun]

Yes doing nothing is a good way... another indication of a super high Ca is the hardening of the sand bed, do stir it a little once in a while I'm using the TM Bio-Calcium too. It is not super potent IMO, only manage to increase around 20+ per day. How many days u been dosing the TM Ca powder? Don't tell me you reach 500+ within a single dose

Do provide a bit more info such as your tank volume and Ca lvl before dosing (last 2 weeks). What Ca test kits r u using?

[Sapp]

Hi Jervis,

So far, I dosed it 3 times over a period of 2 months. Average is about 1 dose per 1.5 weeks. CA level seems stable with this regime until now... last stable reading was about 480ppm 1 day after dosing. Using Aquaz calcium testkit. Got it mixed up and thought it was Salifert. Will take your advise and stir my sandbed tonight.

Current setup is a 2ft x 2ft x 1.5ft with a 1.5ft x 1ft x 1.5ft sump. Volume is about 40 ~ 45 gallons giving allowance for the LRs I have. 3~4 inch sandbed, running FR, chiller (Temp@27) and skimmer. Phosphate, and ammonia not detectable. Nitrate and Nitrite is low... cannot remember exact but its between the last 2 colour zones with the lowest reading. Testkits are Salifert and Tropic Marin I think. Only the calcium kit is from aquaz.

[madmac]

I wouldn't go anywhere near your sandbed. You should leave it alone... two wrongs don't make one right.

Try to get a confirmation on your Ca/Mg readings with another test kit.

[jervismun]

As suggested by Madmac, perhaps stirring it violently is not a good idea right now. My previous suggestion was, make sure the surface does not hardens (by the excessive Ca). Yes, you should get a proper test kit to be certain, I've tried both Salifert and TM, both are good.

If you follow the instructions carefully, each dose of TM Bio-calcium will give you a max of around 30ppm. And you only dosed 3 times so far with 1 1/2 weeks apart each time. So it is quite unlikely the Bio-Calcium causes such high Ca (if you are not overdosing).

I suggest you get a reliable Ca before doing anything to your system.

One thing to bear in mind, I notice my Alkalinity (KH) goes up drastically too everytime I dose TM Bio-Calcium.

[Sapp]

Thanks Bros for all the advice. Time to go shopping for a new calcium test kit. So far, my KH has maintained ard 4meq or 8dKH. Did not notice any drop or spike even with water change cos i use KH buffer before i pour to main tank. Quite stable so far. Anyway, LS and corals are still doing fine. Dun look stress out to me and eating happily. All my test kits are either Salifert or Tropic marin. Only exception is the Calcium test kit that is Aquaz. hmmm...

[jervismun]

Thanks Bros for all the advice. Time to go shopping for a new calcium test kit. So far, my KH has maintained ard 4meq or 8dKH. Did not notice any drop or spike even with water change cos i use KH buffer before i pour to main tank. Quite stable so far. Anyway, LS and corals are still doing fine. Dun look stress out to me and eating happily. All my test kits are either Salifert or Tropic marin. Only exception is the Calcium test kit that is Aquaz. hmmm...

My tank onced experienced 500+ Ca too... no harm to LS... just that it may not be healthy for the long term...

[madmac]

Thanks Bros for all the advice. Time to go shopping for a new calcium test kit. So far, my KH has maintained ard 4meq or 8dKH. Did not notice any drop or spike even with water change cos i use KH buffer before i pour to main tank. Quite stable so far. Anyway, LS and corals are still doing fine. Dun look stress out to me and eating happily. All my test kits are either Salifert or Tropic marin. Only exception is the Calcium test kit that is Aquaz. hmmm...

Sapp,

An alk of 4 meq would give you 11.2 dkH, not 8.

Aquaz may not be bad or a suspect all all. All you need to do is confirm the levels obtained with Aquaz with those of another brand. If they match, then you've fine... keep using your cheaper test kit until the finished, then use the more expensive... or alternatively, buy another new test kit and test with the expensive one to counter-check... and continue to use the cheaper one.

Sometimes test kits go thru bad batch productions too.

[Sapp]

Sapp,

An alk of 4 meq would give you 11.2 dkH, not 8.

Aquaz may not be bad or a suspect all all. All you need to do is confirm the levels obtained with Aquaz with those of another brand. If they match, then you've fine... keep using your cheaper test kit until the finished, then use the more expensive... or alternatively, buy another new test kit and test with the expensive one to counter-check... and continue to use the cheaper one.

Sometimes test kits go thru bad batch productions too.

Thanks Bro. Will be shopping for another calcium test kit to confirm the reading. In the meantime, 11.2dKH... is it too high? According to the info printed on the testkit, 4 to 6 meq is the acceptable range.