High calcium and magnesium

chris_pull · Jan 25, 2021

Hi there!

I recently switched to Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt and have found my calcium and magnesium are now rather high, at about 500 calcium and 1480 magnesium.

I think this is because I have been mixing my salt up to 1.026 sg, resulting in an alk of 7.7-8 dKH, calcium of 470 and mag 1440. I will try mixing at 1.025 to bring this down a bit (my aim was 440 calcium and 1350 mag).

Additionally, I am dosing TM All-For-Reef to maintain Alk levels, but I think this is resulting in an overdosing of calcium and mag as a consequence of the already high salt values that I am adding. Given my system is under a year old I can probably get away with just dosing alk at this point and doing my weekly 10% water change. When I was using pre-mixed water made with Red Sea the all for reef dosing was okay.

Does mixing the salt to a lower salinity and switching to alk-only dosing sound like a reasonable idea?

Many thanks,

Chris

redeyejedi · Jan 25, 2021

The high cal and mag shouldnt be a issue. Mine has been high for years without issues.

Bnutz · Jan 25, 2021

About the same levels as me. I use TM pro and all for reef as well. I haven't noticed anything bad going on with the corals.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 25, 2021

If it keeps going up, I'd stop the ALL For Reef for a while and just use baking soda.

chris_pull · Jan 25, 2021

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
If it keeps going up, I'd stop the ALL For Reef for a while and just use baking soda.

Cool, thanks. It has gone up since I last measured a few weeks ago. If calcium continues to go up I actually won't be able to measure it with salifert! I had thought about using Baking Soda for a while until things settle out, so I will look into that.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 25, 2021

chris_pull said:
Cool, thanks. It has gone up since I last measured a few weeks ago. If calcium continues to go up I actually won't be able to measure it with salifert! I had thought about using Baking Soda for a while until things settle out, so I will look into that.

You can measure higher levels with the kit by using a second syringe of titrant and add the two values together.

chris_pull · Feb 1, 2021

I am going to try using soda ash as, again, my Cal and Mag were higher this week than last. My doser is the Kamoer 1 head and it has a minimum dose of ~ 1 ml (below this the accuracy decreases). Can I make a more dilute soda ash solution so that I can dose larger, more accurate amounts, possibly multiple times a day (e.g. morning and evening)? I don't see why this shouldn't be possible but wanted to check.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 1, 2021

chris_pull said:
I am going to try using soda ash as, again, my Cal and Mag were higher this week than last. My doser is the Kamoer 1 head and it has a minimum dose of ~ 1 ml (below this the accuracy decreases). Can I make a more dilute soda ash solution so that I can dose larger, more accurate amounts, possibly multiple times a day (e.g. morning and evening)? I don't see why this shouldn't be possible but wanted to check.

Certainly, you can dilute as much as you want.

chris_pull · Feb 1, 2021

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Certainly, you can dilute as much as you want.

Great! Thanks.

jphilip813 · Feb 1, 2021

Wow...this topic came RIGHT in time...I am also experiencing HIGH Calcium...and MAG at times...but lower ALK (natural levels) with the Tropic Marin Pro Reef as well...still trying to balance it by just turning off ALL Dosing, for 4 days now...I dose with the Aquaforest Component 1,2,3+ around 90ml daily each (ALK, Ca & MG) with steady levels (8.30 ALK, 440 Ca, and 1320 Mag) but once I do a water change...the Calcium typically SPIKE up in the high 400's to 500s...currently hovering at 522. I use the Trident to measure my testing with high and low Alert values inputted by myself.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 1, 2021

jphilip813 said:
Wow...this topic came RIGHT in time...I am also experiencing HIGH Calcium...and MAG at times...but lower ALK (natural levels) with the Tropic Marin Pro Reef as well...still trying to balance it by just turning off ALL Dosing, for 4 days now...I dose with the Aquaforest Component 1,2,3+ around 90ml daily each (ALK, Ca & MG) with steady levels (8.30 ALK, 440 Ca, and 1320 Mag) but once I do a water change...the Calcium typically SPIKE up in the high 400's to 500s...currently hovering at 522. I use the Trident to measure my testing with high and low Alert values inputted by myself.

Calcium should not "spike" with a water change.

Tropic Marin claims these levels:

questions

Pro-REEF: Ca: 430-450 ppm, Mg: 1300-1350 ppm, Alk: 7-8 dKH

jphilip813 · Feb 1, 2021

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Calcium should not "spike" with a water change.

Tropic Marin claims these levels:

questions

Pro-REEF: Ca: 430-450 ppm, Mg: 1300-1350 ppm, Alk: 7-8 dKH

I was looking online to see what their levels are but I couldn't find it atleast online (I could just go downstairs and look at the bucket)...but am lazy right about now...its snowing and am just being lazy....If i go downstairs I have to go and remove the snow from the driveway

done ranting now...

chris_pull · Feb 2, 2021

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Calcium should not "spike" with a water change.

Tropic Marin claims these levels:

questions

Pro-REEF: Ca: 430-450 ppm, Mg: 1300-1350 ppm, Alk: 7-8 dKH

I am getting much higher amounts in my salt batch when mixed at 1.026. My last batch mixed up at 8.1 dKH, Calcium = 470, Mag = 1440. I know there is some error allowed with testing but since I switched to this salt my tank parameters have increased as well, hence my desire now to try alk only dosing for a while.

Most people seem to find it mixes at dKH at the lower level, so I wonder if I've gotten a slightly higher batch. I thought perhaps my salinity probe was off (i.e. I was mixing up a more concentrated solution) but it seems to be measuring correctly according to the calibration solution and matches my LFS's reading.