Calcium question

[William78]

ok here is my question, my tank is 120 gallons i have about 30 frags corals some hard some soft about 80 pounds of live rock en about 20 small kenya trees ok whit that say I check parameters every week all are good to make story short, but calcium is allways 450 , and never down or up so idk if this is ok i have a calcium reactor but i never used it because calcium is at 450 so im confused because someone told me for my frags to trive biger i need calcium so pls help me im confused thx everyone for any coments

 

[JonasRoman]

What do you have in dKH? and how do you replenish that?

 

[William78]

I use Brightwell 8.3 so wen alkalinity sometimes goes down a little i add in ml what ever need it

 

[JonasRoman]

I use Brightwell 8.3 so wen alkalinity sometimes goes down a little i add in ml what ever need it

So if I understand you correct you only add som HCO3(carbonates) but never calcium?
How often do you change water and how much and with sort of brand? Do you have a lot SPS, ro mostly softcorals and LPS? How is you pH?

 

[JonasRoman]

first of all: remember that Ca consumption is harder to detect than carbonate consumption as the Ca-test have lower resolution..If your dKH is consumed bu 1dKH due to calcification, then Ca will decrease by 7 ppm. That decrease you will hardly notice with a calcium-test. This is one of the reason that you should use dKH as an indicator , not ca, when adjusting your Balling and/or Ca-reactor. Sp long as you use a balanced method which replenish Ca and dKH in proportion 1/1, you will not have to measure Ca so often, but dKH of course you have two measure very often.

 

[William78]

So if I understand you correct you only add som HCO3(carbonates) but never calcium?
How often do you change water and how much and with sort of brand? Do you have a lot SPS, ro mostly softcorals and LPS? How is you pH?

So if I understand you correct you only add som HCO3(carbonates) but never calcium?
How often do you change water and how much and with sort of brand? Do you have a lot SPS, ro mostly softcorals and LPS? How is you pH?

I add abcd coral colors suplement , I add Vibrant by underwater creations, wen ever is need it i follow instructions, ph is 8.3 water changes is one thing im bad at it i could say 1 every 2 months , but every day i had to top off 1 gallon of rodi water, my corals frags only are few of each

 

[JonasRoman]

I think the most logic reason is that you have such a low calciumcarbonat-consumption so you cannot not detect the small decrease in Calcium. Some day, if you continues adding only carbonates, you will see a decrease in Ca.If it is very low, this could partly be compensated with water changes also. Frag do not draw much Ca/KH...when you have bigger colonies with growing tips...then you will see.

 

[William78]

Ok soo all is good ? Omg i thought i was doing something wrong plus im only in this for about 10 months only thx so much

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Seawater has way more calcium than alkalinity, so when they deplete equally, you first notice the effect in alkalinity decline, before hobby kits really see much drop in calcium.