Help Calcium Overdose

[FlemFlam86]

Hi everyone, I put 50 ml of Calcium instead of alkalinity. It was already reading 437. It's a 72 gallon with a 20 gallon sump. I'm using Red Reef B (liquid). I seriously need help. I'm freaking out. I have 8 fish, 2 shrimp, and corals of all kinds.

 

[Saltfishlover]

Well, i don't have an answer but i had a doser stick on and dumped almost a gallon of calcium mix in my 50 gallon tank. Calcium was off the chart using salifert test kit. I had to use almost 2 full syringes of reagent to get it to turn blue. It's been 3 weeks and no ill effects. I can't do a large water change due to nutrients being pretty low. So for now I am just monitoring. I didn't get any precipitation, so I was not too worried. This is just for what it's worth, but i hope you get the answers you need.

 

[SliceGolfer]

According to a few calculators, dosing 50ml of Red Sea A to 72 gallons of seawater raises calcium by about 40ppm. Many here have said they start to be concerned when calcium approaches 600ppm. I myself had overlooked a dosing error once and found my calcium to be 560ppm. I dosed alkalinity until it came down naturally. Don’t worry too much and think about lesson learned!

 

[bakbay]

Yup - don’t worry about it. My Ca is always high - 550+ without any issues. If you overdosed Alk, SPS would rtn, softies would be fine though.

 

[FlemFlam86]

Well, i don't have an answer but i had a doser stick on and dumped almost a gallon of calcium mix in my 50 gallon tank. Calcium was off the chart using salifert test kit. I had to use almost 2 full syringes of reagent to get it to turn blue. It's been 3 weeks and no ill effects. I can't do a large water change due to nutrients being pretty low. So for now I am just monitoring. I didn't get any precipitation, so I was not too worried. This is just for what it's worth, but i hope you get the answers you need.

Thank you! I was so worried. You've made me feel much better.

 

[FlemFlam86]

According to a few calculators, dosing 50ml of Red Sea A to 72 gallons of seawater raises calcium by about 40ppm. Many here have said they start to be concerned when calcium approaches 600ppm. I myself had overlooked a dosing error once and found my calcium to be 560ppm. I dosed alkalinity until it came down naturally. Don’t worry too much and think about lesson learned!

That's definitely a lesson learned. Thank you! I needed that reassurance.

 

[FlemFlam86]

Yup - don’t worry about it. My Ca is always high - 550+ without any issues. If you overdosed Alk, SPS would rtn, softies would be fine though.

Thank you. What do you mean by 'SPS would rtn'?

 

[bakbay]

Thank you. What do you mean by 'SPS would rtn'?

If you have SPS corals, they will almost instantly turn white (die) if you have a wide swing in dKH. Mine can tolerate a 1 to 1.5 dKH swing.

 

[johnnyspzl1]

Hello, this is my first answer on the forum, I'm Brazilian and I learn a lot here with you, the Brazilian forum is very quiet and has a lot of misinformation.
You can rest in peace, I got the dosage of Red Sea Reef Foundation Skeletal wrong here and my parameters went crazy, where I had calcium at 900, magnesium at 2400 and Kh at 12, I only lost 2 gonioporas, the rest were fine, I left the corals themselves consume and today everything is back to normal.

Sorry for any writing errors, I'm using a translator, this is my reef!

 

[PotatoPig]

If you have SPS corals, they will almost instantly turn white (die) if you have a wide swing in dKH. Mine can tolerate a 1 to 1.5 dKH swing.

Question on this:

I have mostly hardier SPS, but am coming up to a daily ALK consumption of 0.5ish, but it’s growing. I currently manually dose every evening through a drip feed that brings it back up 0.5 over the course of an hour or so.

Once you get to a daily Alk consumption of 1 or more… how do you dose for that? Does that cause issues bringing the day’s consumption back to the starting point? Or is it more “the corals are acclimated to 8-9, so dosing back up to 9 is OK, but dosing from 9-10 would risk issues”?

 

[bakbay]

Question on this:

I have mostly hardier SPS, but am coming up to a daily ALK consumption of 0.5ish, but it’s growing. I currently manually dose every evening through a drip feed that brings it back up 0.5 over the course of an hour or so.

Once you get to a daily Alk consumption of 1 or more… how do you dose for that? Does that cause issues bringing the day’s consumption back to the starting point? Or is it more “the corals are acclimated to 8-9, so dosing back up to 9 is OK, but dosing from 9-10 would risk issues”?

All my SPS-dominant tanks are driven by calcium reactors so don't see much fluctuations. Others found success with AFR, kalk, and/or 2-part dosing. I don't think going from 9-10 would be a problem. However, it's the 9 to 11 and 11 to 9 in a short window would hurt! Again, every tank is different. Just sharing what I've observed, nothing scientific about it though. I've gone from 9 to 12 before and lost a few finicky frags; but everything else was fine.

I think that the best course of action is inaction - don't overreact and immediately attempt to "correct the issue" - nothing good comes fast in reefing!

 

[FlemFlam86]

If you have SPS corals, they will almost instantly turn white (die) if you have a wide swing in dKH. Mine can tolerate a 1 to 1.5 dKH swing.

Ok, thank you!

 

[bakbay]

Checking in - assume tank is still good?

 

[Spare time]

Question on this:

I have mostly hardier SPS, but am coming up to a daily ALK consumption of 0.5ish, but it’s growing. I currently manually dose every evening through a drip feed that brings it back up 0.5 over the course of an hour or so.

Once you get to a daily Alk consumption of 1 or more… how do you dose for that? Does that cause issues bringing the day’s consumption back to the starting point? Or is it more “the corals are acclimated to 8-9, so dosing back up to 9 is OK, but dosing from 9-10 would risk issues”?

You have to get a doser or dose bicarbonate instead.

 

[FlemFlam86]

Checking in - assume tank is still good?

Thanks, bakbay. All is well.

 

[PotatoPig]

You have to get a doser or dose bicarbonate instead.

So my alk is a DIY bicarbonate mix?

Or does dosing bicarbonate mean some different technique?

 

[Spare time]

So my alk is a DIY bicarbonate mix?

Or does dosing bicarbonate mean some different technique?

Bicarbonate doesn't have the precipitation issues when dosing by hand as does carbonate. Just referring to what you are dosing.

 

[PotatoPig]

Bicarbonate doesn't have the precipitation issues when dosing by hand as does carbonate. Just referring to what you are dosing.

So I can just put doses of baking soda in a fish food dispenser?

 

[Spare time]

So I can just put doses of baking soda in a fish food dispenser?

Randy Holmes Farley has formulas to make it I am pretty sure. I've only ever used the BRS bicarbonate powder to add to a gallon jug.

 

[Saltfishlover]

Everything i dose is DIY from Randy's recipe list. Sometimes i seem to mix it a bit strong, sometimes weak. I use a doser with 5 gallon glass jars. I test biweekly once it's going. With each new batch I test 2 times a week to dial it in. I don't think dosing powder with fish feeder will be good idea. Hard to be sure the dose is right. You can weigh the powder and manually dose as needed though