sucking up my calcium

imdaring · May 9, 2011

my calcium level is dropping out?
Feb 15th 440
march 3rd 440
april 28 400
may 4th 360
may 9th 320
been doin weekly 5 gal water changes and on may 4th I stared to add liquid calcium any other ideas? do you think the salt mix is old? Im due for another bucket maybe I should just get a new one

parrotchute · May 9, 2011

What's your alkalinity at?
Do you have SPS corals?

BL1 · May 9, 2011

5 gallons may not be enough of a change to keep your calcium up. 15-30 gallons would be 10-20%. You could try doing larger water changes and see if that raises it.

What is your magnesium? If your mag is low then you'll have trouble raising your calcium. One of your other parameters may be keeping it from going up, here's a good article to understand why.
A Simplified Guide to the Relationship Between Calcium, Alkalinity, Magnesium and pH by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

little_fish · May 9, 2011

Are you getting down to the bottom of your salt bucket? Often times the salt is somewhat layer and needs to be mixed back up again. When you get a new bucket, just roll it around on the floor for a bit to try and get it all mixed up.

imdaring · May 9, 2011

I had been doing a 15 gal water change 1 time a month and then read that if a person did a 5 gal change 1 time a week that it would be more beneficial because it was not such a shock to the tank? so thats why I have been doing only 5 gal at a time

imdaring · May 9, 2011

on April 28th the KH was 179, I have not checked it today
and Yes I do have SPS coral I do have a Med - LG fox coral and the stony part is looking thin

parrotchute said:
What's your alkalinity at?
Do you have SPS corals?

Bifferwine · May 9, 2011

The fox coral is an LPS coral. SPS corals are things like acroporas, montiporas, pocilloporas, stylophoras, etc.

imdaring · May 9, 2011

sorry my mistake lol, I do have 2 Acroporas

Bifferwine said:
The fox coral is an LPS coral. SPS corals are things like acroporas, montiporas, pocilloporas, stylophoras, etc.

Bifferwine · May 9, 2011

I don't think you have anything in your tank that would suck up calcium that quickly. It's weird!

imdaring · May 9, 2011

is it possible that the salt is old?

Bifferwine said:
I don't think you have anything in your tank that would suck up calcium that quickly. It's weird!

imdaring · May 9, 2011

list of what I have in my tank
nems
acros
fox coral
trumpets
mushrooms
frog spawn
hammer
ricordia
brain coral

imdaring · May 9, 2011

pics of my tank

parrotchute · May 10, 2011

How is your pH? Too high and it will precipitate faster, and the corals will use it faster.

KH usually should be around 7-8, so not sure where that number came from. Maybe PPM? If so, your alkalinity is good.

You probably need to dose magnesium, like others have mentioned above. Magnesium helps to block calcium from binding with the bicarbonate + leading to a precipitation event. So, as your mag drops, your calcium will leech out (do you have any indications of precipitation like pumps covered in a white coating?) and precipitate.

sen5241b · May 10, 2011

Your tank is old enough that it probably has lots of coralline which will suck calcium (and alk) out of the water very fast. There is really nothing abnormal about your tank's comsumption of calcium. You need to start thinking about a kalkwasser drip.

I max my change out water with calcium and a bit of mag and then do a 50% change out every 4 to 6 weeks. I match the temp and salnity precisely to avooid shock. I never have to dose calcium. But then a 50% change on a 29 is easy.

ccCapt · May 10, 2011

What brand of salt are you using and what test kit and how old is it?

chiqui bb · May 10, 2011

I switched from Instant Ocean to Oceanic brand salt over a year ago and noticed immediately that my calcium levels stayed quite high after that. It typically runs 540 - 560.

ccCapt · May 10, 2011

Using Oceanic salt and getting a calcium reading of 320 tells me your test kit is bad. The corals in your tank would never use up that much calcium. Is there any hard calcium carbonate precipitant stuck to your heater or pump impellers?

chiqui bb · May 11, 2011

ccCapt said:
Using Oceanic salt and getting a calcium reading of 320 tells me your test kit is bad. The corals in your tank would never use up that much calcium. Is there any hard calcium carbonate precipitant stuck to your heater or pump impellers?

ccCapt: I'm not the original poster of this thread. I just posted about Oceanic to offer her another option. I don't think she mentioned which brand she was using.

imdaring · May 11, 2011

Im use coral life right now, but its almost gone I just orderedSeaChem reef salt

Northstar24 · May 11, 2011

I'm using Coralife right now and I have the opposite problem, my Calcium is too high. My magnesium is a little low though, I just ordered two part from BRS to address the issue

To the OP, you may see a change after swtiching salts, hopefully for the better, but I would also test your magnesium levels as already stated

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