Calcium & alkalinity- the struggle is real!!!

[RookieReef]

Hey guys and gals this is my second post on R2R! If you read my first post you'll know that I let my parameters get all out of wack. I've been dosing alkalinity occasionally and my calcium levels are dropping slightly. I do plan on doing a big water change ( well, maybe 20 gallons ). I normally do 10 gallons a week. I haven't had time to do it yet so I'm planning on this weekend. Here's my results of dosing very small amounts of Alk over the past three days. Keep in mind I only dose about twice a week.

10-30-16
C=600ppm
A=6.6dkh
M=1080ppm
S=1.026
••••••••
10-31-16
C=596
A=6.9dkh
M=1200
S=1.026
••••••••
11-2-16
C=588
A=6.8
M=1180
S=1.026

Just wanted to keep you guys posted and I will let everyone know how the water change works out [emoji120]

 

[Reeferdood]

Ok,
so you Calcium is high but not really of concern, it will keep coming down on its own. Your a alkalinity is low, I try to go to the high side @ 10.5 dKH, and your magnesium is also low. It is harder to maintain Ca and Alk with low levels of magnesium, try to get it to about 1300ppm. Alkalinity is very important to keep stable and on the higher end of the spectrum & it will make the others easier to manage as well. I am explaining this in simple terms but Randy has written several articles that go into detail how important Ca & Alk are in your aquaria. What kind of salt are you using? Some salts seem to make chasing parameters a lot harder than others. I use Red Sea but I have had good luck with Reef Crystals and IO as well..
Good luck & enjoy the h20 change....

 

[Diesel]

As @Reeferdood already said.
Let me fire some more questions at you that can play a important roll.
How big is your tank?
What's your PH?
Sometimes swings in No3 and Po4 will have a effect on you ALK.
What kind of corals do you house?
What kind of ALK and CAL you using as you dose?

 

[ahiggins]

One thing Ive found with trying to balance my ca and alk-dont do a water change (unless nitrates dictate). I did one 5% per week and when I noticed high alk low calcium, I upped the gallons per week. This didnt do jack...
I waited nearly a month before doing a water change-added a nitrate reactor-and found that the coral basically absorbed what they needed and brought all my levels back to normal. I went from 11 alk to 9 in that month and calcium went from 450 to 500.