Do I need to dose?

[Auqaman]

I knew the day would eventually come when I’d need to start dosing. I don’t have any coral so I figured I’d be fine for a while. I noticed one of my Trochus snails had a really rough looking shell so I figured the calcium was low.
For live stock I have;
4 hermit crabs
7ish snails
1 BTA
1 sea urchin
4 fish
My parameters are as follows:
Temp = 78.1 to 76.9
PH = 8.09
Salinity = 1.025
Alkalinity = 9.5
Calcium = 370
Phosphate = 0 (I have a bunch of green hair algae I suspect is consuming it)
Ammonia = 0.1
Nitrate = 0

I’m concerned about the low calcium and high alkalinity. Any relation? I heard about people using baking soda. Would that be an option for me? I’m trying to solve this problem on a budget. I’ve started to only feed the tank every other day to get the algae down.
Thanks for the help.

 

[Mrod]

Without corals you should be fine. Not sure what you mean by rough looking shell as they are not always perfect unless you noticed a major change since put in?

lots of people run alk between 8-10 and some higher but not sure if magnesium in line of your worries if your Alk and cal is not in a better ratio if that is your concern? Are you worried your ca is too low for the snail?

would suggest checking your magnesium before dosing anything. Also more water changes can help get them back in line also in the interim.

 

[Biglew11]

Alkalinity is a little high but not bad, baking soda, or soda ash don't do anything for calcium.

For calcium chloride.

Brs has both for two part dosing for reasonable prices.

Arm and hammer baking soda works great, as does baking the baking soda at 350 for an hour to make soda ash.

Baking soda and calcium chloride can both be found in bulk supplies.

 

[Brett S]

How frequently are you doing water changes? With no corals water changes should be more than enough to keep your calcium up.

 

[Auqaman]

Without corals you should be fine. Not sure what you mean by rough looking shell as they are not always perfect unless you noticed a major change since put in?

lots of people run alk between 8-10 and some higher but not sure if magnesium in line of your worries if your Alk and cal is not in a better ratio if that is your concern? Are you worried your ca is too low for the snail?

would suggest checking your magnesium before dosing anything. Also more water changes can help get them back in line also in the interim.

Without corals you should be fine. Not sure what you mean by rough looking shell as they are not always perfect unless you noticed a major change since put in?

lots of people run alk between 8-10 and some higher but not sure if magnesium in line of your worries if your Alk and cal is not in a better ratio if that is your concern? Are you worried your ca is too low for the snail?

would suggest checking your magnesium before dosing anything. Also more water changes can help get them back in line also in the

Without corals you should be fine. Not sure what you mean by rough looking shell as they are not always perfect unless you noticed a major change since put in?

lots of people run alk between 8-10 and some higher but not sure if magnesium in line of your worries if your Alk and cal is not in a better ratio if that is your concern? Are you worried your ca is too low for the snail?

would suggest checking your magnesium before dosing anything. Also more water changes can help get them back in line also in the interim.

Should have mentioned I took these reading a few hours after I did the weekly water change. So the parameters will never be any better then this.
The Trochus snail had a lot of really high ridges on the shell. It wasn’t a smooth shell like when I first got them. That’s really my biggest concern.
Is the calcium to low to support shell growth?