Calcium at 800!!!

Andrew Sizemore · Aug 14, 2018

I don't dose anything to this system its a 75 gallon no sump just hob filter and hob skimmer mixed reef tank with only 6 corals so far but calcium should never reach this high how do I bring it down??

AcroNem · Aug 14, 2018

Question is how did it get that high? What water and salt mix are you using?

Bkimberlin14 · Aug 14, 2018

What water and salt are you using?

My friend had a similar problem using reef crystals

He switched to a plain low calcium salt (regular instant ocean) did his water changes with that and it started to come down.

Hope this helps!

Porpoise Hork · Aug 14, 2018

Agreed, Something had to have gone off kilter with your R/O, salt mix. If you're getting your water from a LFS test a new batch and have them test it with you there as well.

Test your source water to make sure it's in line. If everything is good there, then do a 50% water change. Wait a day then test and then do 10-20% water changes daily until the levels are back in line.

count krunk · Aug 14, 2018

what test kit did you use? Perhaps you should test it a few more times to be sure. Is the test kit expired maybe?

beardown · Aug 14, 2018

I agree with others here, which test kit did you use?

Andrew Sizemore · Aug 15, 2018

I'm using an api test kit its not out of date. And I use tap water as of now with conditioner and regular instant ocean salt mix idk the only thing I could think of would be the aragonite crushed coral sandbed releasing calcium or something into the water

WillB · Aug 15, 2018

Test the tap water for calcium?

Crabs McJones · Aug 15, 2018

I'm guessing false reading from your test kit, if you're not dosing and your salinity isn't extremely out of wack. There isn't a salt mix in the world that will give you over 800 ppm calcium without all your other levels being extremely high. Even red sea coral pro wont go over 550-600

BestMomEver · Aug 15, 2018

Got to be the test kit. At least, that’s my guess. I use IO and have aragonite. I’ve never had my calcium that high. Actually, I have trouble keeping it up. See if you can find a Salifert test kit. I found my API kits to be terribly unreliable. Good luck!

Elizabeth

Porpoise Hork · Aug 15, 2018

It's the tap water. Most municipal and well water supplies have fairly high calcium levels along with a myriad of other dissolved solids as well as metals like iron, copper etc. When using tap water your starting calcium levels can range from 40-100+. Then you add your salt mix and now your calcium can be anywhere from 450-550+. What happens is over time when topping off or water changes, the calcium levels creep up. Before you know it your calcium is off the charts.

You really should get a RO/DI unit. You can pick up a really good one from Amazon for about 150. The one I have is the LiquiGen 6 stage 150GPD unit. It is an absolute beast. My source water comes in at 180-200 ppm and after the DI stage it reads 0 TDS with a PH of 7.0 and ALK 2.0, then it goes through the Alk filter that raises the PH roughly 8.4 and 9.6 with a TDS of 11. It is a dual output unit so you can have one line after the RO or DI stage for filtered drinking water and then the second is after the ALK/Carbon filter for aquariums. When mixing in Red Sea Pro Salt my Cal comes out to 420 ppm per 5 gallons.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MS9NM9N/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You also will want to get an inline TDS meter, pressure gauge, some extra tubing, and Teflon tape. The supplied tubing is fairly short and they don't include any Teflon. Luckily this stuff is rather cheap. The pressure gauge is a must as you need at least 45 psi for the RO to filter properly. Most municipal water supplies range from 50-60 psi.

One thing to note if you get this model, they don't plumb it correctly after the RO stage. You want the output from the RO to go into the inlet of the DI stage, then to the inlet of the ALK/Carbon. There is a supplied T-fitting that you can install with a ball valve on it either before or after the DI stage for drinking water. From there you would have your PH/Alk adjusted fresh water.

BestMomEver · Aug 15, 2018

Porpoise Hork said:
It's the tap water. Most municipal and well water supplies have fairly high calcium levels along with a myriad of other dissolved solids as well as metals like iron, copper etc. When using tap water your starting calcium levels can range from 40-100+. Then you add your salt mix and now your calcium can be anywhere from 450-550+. What happens is over time when topping off or water changes, the calcium levels creep up. Before you know it your calcium is off the charts.

You really should get a RO/DI unit. You can pick up a really good one from Amazon for about 150. The one I have is the LiquiGen 6 stage 150GPD unit. It is an absolute beast. My source water comes in at 180-200 ppm and after the DI stage it reads 0 TDS with a PH of 7.0 and ALK 2.0, then it goes through the Alk filter that raises the PH roughly 8.4 and 9.6 with a TDS of 11. It is a dual output unit so you can have one line after the RO or DI stage for filtered drinking water and then the second is after the ALK/Carbon filter for aquariums. When mixing in Red Sea Pro Salt my Cal comes out to 420 ppm per 5 gallons.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MS9NM9N/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You also will want to get an inline TDS meter, pressure gauge, some extra tubing, and Teflon tape. The supplied tubing is fairly short and they don't include any Teflon. Luckily this stuff is rather cheap. The pressure gauge is a must as you need at least 45 psi for the RO to filter properly. Most municipal water supplies range from 50-60 psi.

One thing to note if you get this model, they don't plumb it correctly after the RO stage. You want the output from the RO to go into the inlet of the DI stage, then to the inlet of the ALK/Carbon. There is a supplied T-fitting that you can install with a ball valve on it either before or after the DI stage for drinking water. From there you would have your PH/Alk adjusted fresh water.

Not necessarily true. We have a well and it’s almost as good as RO water. I know this because my hubby is a chemist and has 30 years experience as quality manager at a chemical plant. He took a sample of our water and ran it through a mass spectrometer (and other equipment I can’t recall). Our water is as good as natural water can get. We have been using well water for 14 years or more with no ill effects. Are my parameters perfect? Nope... but neither are anyone else’s. There are so many factors like salt mix, evaporation, filtration, too much feeding, too many fish, etc. Point is, there are lots of folks out there that have very good water that comes straight out of the ground.

Porpoise Hork · Aug 15, 2018

esimison said:
Not necessarily true. We have a well and it’s almost as good as RO water. I know this because my hubby is a chemist and has 30 years experience as quality manager at a chemical plant. He took a sample of our water and ran it through a mass spectrometer (and other equipment I can’t recall). Our water is as good as natural water can get. We have been using well water for 14 years or more with no ill effects. Are my parameters perfect? Nope... but neither are anyone else’s. There are so many factors like salt mix, evaporation, filtration, too much feeding, too many fish, etc. Point is, there are lots of folks out there that have very good water that comes straight out of the ground.

I agree, well water will almost always be far cleaner with far less impurities in it compared to municipal water, and in cases like yours buying RO would be a waste as you would have to run tens of thousands of gallons through it to see a return in your investment. Well water is on a different level than your average municipal water supply and if I could I would have a well drilled on my property. For those of us on Municipal or city water, adding an RO unit just makes sense as we all know how bad city water can be.

For example here is the 2017 test results for Houston municipal water
https://www.publicworks.houstontx.gov/sites/default/files/images/utilities/wq2016.pdf

Looking at that, there's so much in there I don't want to drink, nor would I want to combat it in my reef tanks.

laverda · Aug 15, 2018

Your well water may be pure, but I can guarantee you it has calcium in it. Calcium is not considered an impurity in drinking water unless it were to get extremely high.
You combine that with the calcium in your salt mix and now you have too much calcium. Test it and you will know for sure.

Andrew Sizemore · Aug 15, 2018

Well the reason I know it's 800 is because the api test kit gives a chart and its 20 ppm per drop so multiplying it by as many drops I used gave me that number the chart only goes to 540 or so but I know its as high as it is cause of the number of drops I used. Also its not hurting anything in my tank it doesn't seem although I know its not supposed to be that high