Adding calcium

saltynovice378 · Jan 2, 2015

Hi, I have a red sea max 130d and I am ready to start adding calcium and Iodine. What is the best product out there to do so. Thanks.

UK_Pete · Jan 2, 2015

Not sure about adding iodine, thats quite an 'advanced' thing I believe, its toxic if levels get too high, its depletion is questionable, and most people don't dose it AFAIK. Randy has written an article about it for the details. As for calcium there are many products, choose your price. Randys calcium chloride DIY solution is cheapest and just as good as any off the shelf product (you source the calcium chloride yourself from one of several sources). You also need to add alk (bicarbonate or carbonate) and for this baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is fine, or off the shelf products once again. Calcium and alk are the usual 2 things to add. Randy has a detailed article you can find by searching google for "Randys diy 2 part".

First though you need decent test kits for these two, without test kits I don't think its wise to add calcium or alk, just do plenty of water changes if you dont want to buy test kits. Salifert seems pretty good and many people use them.

If you want a source of calcium and alk thats effortless to source, use balling lite salts. You can get calcium chloride, sodium bicarbonate and magnesium chloride balling salts, which are the main 3, although magnesium is probably not important to dose initially unless you have lots of SPS in your tank.

reefguy40gal · Jan 2, 2015

I use a small white (square) "chalk-like" substance that I bought at the local fish store...it claims to release calcium over time. It's a little bigger than a matchbox. It says it suggests I use another powder (they sell) to balance out something else.

Am I doing more harm than good by using that white chalk-like substance in my sump?

UK_Pete · Jan 2, 2015

Testing calcium and alk is probably essential if you want to keep SPS. The thing to balance it out is probably an alk supplement. I don't think any SPS keepers would touch that sort of thing with a bargepole. Randys 2 part is cheap and highly effective. But still IMO testing is the absolute first thing, even if you just do water changes to maintain calcium and alk. A great start is a (good) calcium and alk test kit, calcium chloride (in the UK you can find this in disposable dehumidifier packs), and sodium bicarbonate (even from the supermarket).

reefguy40gal · Jan 2, 2015

UK_Pete said:
Testing calcium and alk is probably essential if you want to keep SPS. The thing to balance it out is probably an alk supplement. I don't think any SPS keepers would touch that sort of thing with a bargepole. Randys 2 part is cheap and highly effective. But still IMO testing is the absolute first thing, even if you just do water changes to maintain calcium and alk. A great start is a (good) calcium and alk test kit, calcium chloride (in the UK you can find this in disposable dehumidifier packs), and sodium bicarbonate (even from the supermarket).

The guy who cleans my fish tank is telling me to buy: Kent Marine SuperBuffer-dKH and put in a capful every week (this is for alk). He wants my alk to be around 8-9. It was closer to 6 when he tested it earlier this week.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 2, 2015

saltynovice378 said:
Hi, I have a red sea max 130d and I am ready to start adding calcium and Iodine. What is the best product out there to do so. Thanks.

I personally do not think that iodine is a useful additive, but it is fine to experiment with it and determine for yourself if it is.

This has more on the many good methods of calcium and alkalinity supplementation (just published this article today

):

The Many Methods for Supplementing Calcium and Alkalinity - REEFEDITION

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 2, 2015

reefguy40gal said:
The guy who cleans my fish tank is telling me to buy: Kent Marine SuperBuffer-dKH and put in a capful every week (this is for alk). He wants my alk to be around 8-9. It was closer to 6 when he tested it earlier this week.

Don't add alkalinity supplements with testing the need. Superbuffer is no better than baking soda, IMO.

reefguy40gal · Jan 2, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Don't add alkalinity supplements with testing the need. Superbuffer is no better than baking soda, IMO.

Whoops, yeah I forgot to mention that he told me to test the water first prior to adding it. I have a kit I can use.

saltynovice378 · Jan 2, 2015

Thanks Randy and UK Pete!

UK_Pete · Jan 2, 2015

Really recommend reading at least one of Randys articles on calcium and carbonate like the one he linked to above (have only skimmed that one so far but it looks like its got all the important stuff in it from the older articles and probably more). Getting the calcium and carbonate right is essential to have any success with anything other than a fish only system, and getting even a basic understanding of those two demystifies a lot of what people talk about and what matters. They act in a pair and interact with each other and rather than believe the rubbish you read on aquarium additive bottles trying to sell themselves to you, read up on the topic from an independent source, even if first time you read it its a bit confusing, each time you read the article you understand a bit more.

saltynovice378 · Jan 7, 2015

So far so good

Thanks for all the info everyone. I purchased the Kent 2 part and have added Part A 2x and Part B 1x so far. Calcium went from 350PPM to 400PPM but DKH also went up from 10.6 to 12.9. Is my DKH getting too high? I am using the Red Sea Reef Foundation Pro Test Kit (titration). Also been to a few LFS and they all say no need to mess around with Iodine. I do not have any stony corals at this point just three small frags, Zoa, Star Polyp and Open Brain. Frags acclimating nicely!
Thanks

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 7, 2015

Yes, now dose equal parts and much less than you were adding of the alkalinity part. Try 1/2 as much.

Triggreef · Jan 7, 2015

I still think iodine overdose cost me about half my tank work of corals. And I was testing for it, at least sometimes. I'd suggest against it.

Just a good 2 part for everything else. careful adding things, alk should stay stable, a 2 dkh swing is no good.

saltynovice378 · Jan 7, 2015

Thanks triggreef. Why would my DKH jump by two? Do I just refrain from adding Part B? all my other numbers look good and my salinity has been stable at 1.02 35 since day one.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 7, 2015

You are adding more than is being consumed (assumign the reding is accurate).

That is why I suggested dropping the dose by half, but don't dose again until alk drops back a bit.

When you dose, stick to dosing the same amount for calcium and alkalinity. It is a lot simpler that way, and you need not monitor calcium so frequently.

saltynovice378 · Jan 7, 2015

Thank you Randy. It's nice to know that there are people out here that can educate. I know that hard corals consume calcium but does alkalinity get used up in the tank as well? Can a higher dkh do harm?

UK_Pete · Jan 7, 2015

Alk gets used up faster than calcium, they are both required to create calcium carbonate, the skeletons of hard corals and coralline algae. You are putting calcium chloride and sodium carbonate in, and together they form calcium carbonate and sodium chloride (common salt). The salt builds up and is removed when you do water changes, the calcium carbonate forms the coral skeletons. Only thing is, sea water has less of the carbonate part than the calcium part, so your alk drops to below its proper concentration quite a bit faster than the calcium part.

saltynovice378 · Jan 7, 2015

Thanks Pete so you're saying I'll always have a hard time maintaining my alkalinity levels then I would my calcium

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 7, 2015

saltynovice378 said:
Thank you Randy. It's nice to know that there are people out here that can educate. I know that hard corals consume calcium but does alkalinity get used up in the tank as well? Can a higher dkh do harm?

The ratio of consumption is relatively fixed at about 18-20 ppm of calcium for each 2.8 dKH of alkalinity. Dosing equal parts of a two part matches this ratio.

High alk is not desirable for several reasons (such as precipitation of calcium carbonate on heaters and pumps).