dosing of calcium

[terryansimon]

I have a bottle of Seachem calcium. and the thought of seeing my coraline algae die off is quite a turn off. thought of just dumping in calcium. considering the fact that I do not have a Ca test kit with me at this very moment, if I happen to screw up and don't follow dosage guidelines, will there be any detrimental effects?

afterall, this is no such thing as too much of a good thing. in my opinion that is.

PS. I hope the topic/description is informative enough.

[crazymarine]

I have been dosing my aquarium with kalkwasser solution almost everday using it as a fresh water top-up with no bad effect and the corralline algae is flourishing in my 1 month tank. Maybe the problem is lack of magnesium.

[terryansimon]

I'm not talking about kalk here. I'm talking about...the calcium in a bottle sort of thing. (=

[huskiesg]

Bro, I read somewhere that too much addition of a calcium supplement will drive down your alk level due to precipitation of cal carbonate in the tank and vice versa.

Here is the article.

Believed the addition of cal supplement should be accompanied by alk supp for a balance.

Which reminds me, I must get mine cal/alk test kits soon too..

[terryansimon]

ah thanks. will go read the article to digest some information.

[Achilles Tang]

Never NEVER never dose what you cannot measure.... overdosing is not a joke. You can't press the undo button.

[terryansimon]

wise words AT. I thought of that, which is why I'm pressing the hold button as it is. think I'll go get a Ca test kit. problem is...with all the akalinity business, how on earth am I going to equalise it?

side note. I had better brush up my chemistry. shite.

[Achilles Tang]

Its simple what... just get the PH, Alk and Cal in balance with each other. Do not overdose any single one of these or you'll affect the other two.

If in doubt, do a water change.

[terryansimon]

ah. rightO. is there a set guideline as to what the individual parameters are? like pH/Ca/Alk to make sure they are all in equilibrium?

say pH is 8.3 if I'm not mistaken.

and oh yes. another side note. is taking care of this just to enhance coraline growth ridiculously stupid?

[pospeh]

I have found that higher alkalinity level (+10 dKh) is more effective at promoting coralline growth than raising Ca levels.

Ca should be about 400 ppm.

[terryansimon]

thanks pospeh.

test kits to get. Ca. Alk. PO4. wah. broke siah.

[FuEl]

thanks pospeh.

test kits to get. Ca. Alk. PO4. wah. broke siah.

Hmm..you forgot nitrate.

[terryansimon]

I already have pH, NH4, NO2 and NO3. get somemore for what.

probably get another one as well lah. hehz.

[coralreef]

Never NEVER never dose what you cannot measure.... overdosing is not a joke. You can't press the undo button.

Cannot press redo button. but there's a Restart Button

[bawater]

I have a bottle of Seachem calcium. and the thought of seeing my coraline algae die off is quite a turn off. thought of just dumping in calcium. considering the fact that I do not have a Ca test kit with me at this very moment, if I happen to screw up and don't follow dosage guidelines, will there be any detrimental effects?

afterall, this is no such thing as too much of a good thing. in my opinion that is.

PS. I hope the topic/description is informative enough.

You will always here this:

Always get a test kit to see if you really need to dose. You may not need it and in fact OVERDOSE. Because its so true...and its amazing how much ppl can add without testing how much to dose in the first place.

with regards to the bottle you have, on the seachem site it states that "It has a pH of 8.2, is neither acidic nor caustic, and is based on a gluconate polymer demonstrated to be safe, effective, and avidly utilized by corals. It also contains a proportionate amount of gluconate strontium."

or more precisely polygluconate

The reason gluconate is used is that it keeps the calcium to solution to higher concentrations than possible without it.

What happend to this gluconate when you add it to the reef system? Most likely it is just metabolised by processing organisms. Seachem states on their site that it is a carbon source, assisting in denitrification. Which would make sense, bacteria could use it as a carbon source and accelerate the rate of nutrient processing. Though it may not have that much of an effect compared to the other carbon sources that are present in a well feed aquarium and may actually be excess.

Eric Borneman had some things to say about how gluconate will be utilised in the aquarium:

Gluconate is the salt of gluconic acid, if I recall? Yes, we do have a glucose derivative.

As far as reactions go, obviously sugars can be oxidized, reduced, cleaved, etc., although glucose is pretty stable. They are subject to enzyme attack, and with all the acids, bases and microbes in the tank, I would not want to venture a guess. I would imagine that, barring the many, bacteria would be the first to take up any sugar molecules. I would also imagine that the facultative aerobes and anaerobes would be the ones to benefit most. Bacteria phosphorylate sugars as they cross the cell membrane and can then use it in the respiration. Sugars are used by fermenters and in glycolysis. Animals, plants and bacteria can all utlize the sugar source.

polygluconate is a derivative of glucose and would be rapidly used up by bacteria in the reef aquarium. And as whether to use in your aquarium, the performance is variable. There are some who insist it works wonders, and others who think that it causes algae blooms.

It depends on individual systems.

For a quick fix- should be fine but you should consider something more balanced for long term usage.

Once you have your initial calcium or alk levels, you can then dose exact amounts to reach target levels - dosing details are always on the bottle. agak agak does not count.

Here's a reef chemistry dosage calculator

hope it helps

[shiok]

too long... dont understand... must print out to analyze 1st