high Calicum levels

[saltwaterguy112]

In need of some help my nitrate has not been the best lately so i have been doing alot of water changes. That helped my nitrate went down but my calcium levels shot up. Tested and they were at 520ppm-540ppm. Is this dangerous levels and how do i go about bringing down to the level i want which would be somewhere in the 400 hundred range.

 

[redfishbluefish]

...how do i go about bringing down to the level...

Buy a whole bunch of SPS! ;D ;D ;D

 

[saltwaterguy112]

is that really the only way? ???

 

[Phyl]

I don't know of a salt on the market that would put 520Ca into your water straight up, let alone when mixed with existing water. What salt was it and are you sure your test kit/use is accurate? What is your Alk? Mg? It would help to know what your other related parameters are (think of these as a triangle where when you move one point you also move the others).

 

[stcreef]

There are a few salts that can crank it up this high (Seachem comes to mind) but I would suspect a false SG reading when mixing. Make sure the batch has been mixed for a while and well before taking an SG reading.

As Phyl asked, what salt are you using, how are you mixing, how are you measuring? And what are your other parameters?

 

[saltwaterguy112]

I used kent sea salt i ran out of this one so i have a big bucket of reef crystal salt is this anygood? never used before. my level when i first tested was at 500ppm-520ppm but when i did the water change it moved up or it could still be the same but its still kinda of high.

 

[saltwaterguy112]

The salt is Kent sea salt, i place ro/di water in a trash bucket let it sit with powerhead running for 24hours, then mix salt and last let sit for another 24 hours. Check salinity. Also to add before doing reef i was doing fish only so i was useing none reef salt. dont know if this has anything to do with it. This might of been an existing problem just caught it now.

 

[stcreef]

Do you know what the salinity, ca and other parameters are of the freshly mixed salt just prior to the water change?

 

[redfishbluefish]

The other consideration is to mix your salt up before taking it out of the bucket (or bag), to make your water. Your salt contains different minerals that could settle. What I do is put the bucket on its side and roll it back and forth a whole bunch of times before I take anything out. Also, test your RO/DI for Ca.

 

[saltwaterguy112]

The salinity is just in the range i want but never tested the calcium ill have to look into that one. I believed i tested the calcium on the ro/di but dont remember ill double check it out again. So by the looks of it there is no way to bring it down then,because even with water changes im still adding calcium. Also is this in anyway harmful or dangerous. Thanks everyone

 

[pgordemer]

I used kent sea salt i ran out of this one so i have a big bucket of reef crystal salt is this anygood? never used before. my level when i first tested was at 500ppm-520ppm but when i did the water change it moved up or it could still be the same but its still kinda of high.

A fresh batch of water made with Reef Crystals to a 1.026 salinity (as measured with a reflactomoeter) with come out as:
CA: 420-440
ALK: 11-12 DKH
MG: 1250-1380

The above is pretty standard and a known #'s for Reef Crystals.

 

[saltwaterguy112]

These are all new fields for me i never tested for mg. Just purchased a reef test kit and do you think they included that one. No so ill be stoping by to pick up that test kit and the alk. one as well

 

[pgordemer]

If you have never tested for MG, then chances are its very low. (and it takes LOT of MG to bring it back up, but very little to keep it up. (for most people 20-30 ounces a month is all thats needed).

Low MG can give you problems keeping CA up. I always suspect testing errors when someone reports hi Calcium, but then says they have never tested for MG.

 

[vangvace]

I don't know of a salt on the market that would put 520Ca into your water straight up, let alone when mixed with existing water. What salt was it and are you sure your test kit/use is accurate? What is your Alk? Mg? It would help to know what your other related parameters are (think of these as a triangle where when you move one point you also move the others).

Oceanic will

 

[NJ_ychung1]

i had a similar problem but not from water changes. it was from uncontrolled calcium dosing.

anyway, i did some reading on this b/c i had some problems that i think was caused by high calcium levels.
also thanks to Nathan - calaxa I found some other issues with my water params (i.e. salinity creep to high levels.)


anyway, w.r.t. calcium, i think that level you have is fine as long as you have a matching/compatible alkalinity level in dKH or meg/L.

so high calcium with high alkalinity is great for stony corals as the calcium is ready to be used by the animals. the problem areas are when you have high calcium and low alkalinity. conversely the opposite of this (high alkalinity and low calcium).

These are considered bad- I think. High calc with Low Alk basically is a waste of calcium b/c it is not going to be effectively used by stony corals. also, the low alkalinity would be potentially hazardous/susceptible to bigger swing in pH. Obviously, swing in pH is not liked by any animal and stability is the key to greater success. Now High Alk and low Calcium. I think is also bad as it's def unbalanced but I don't know what the negative effect of this scenario is. Particularly if you don't have stony corals, then you don't really need that level of calcium and I imagine high alkalinity is good for long term stability of pH anyway. My only other guess is the higher levels of carbonate hardness maybe something that nuisance algae likes. This part remains questionable to me.

take care.

Jay

 

[ken6217]

Get an alkalinity test kit. This is more telling than mg. Test the alk and ca in the fresh made up bucket as well as the tank. What is the nitrate level now? By the way, how do the tank inhabitants look?
Ken