I can't get my calcium up for nothin....

skinz78 · Nov 18, 2012

The past couple of weeks I've been battling low calcium numbers, I've been testing and dosing daily and I can't get it to rise for nothing... It's been hovering right at about 260 to 280ppm. I've been very slowly dosing about 30ml of cal daily and it just won't go up at all. I also top off with Kalk, about 2g daily.

My other params are pretty good, Alk 11.5 and Mag 1440. I know my test kit is good because I have two other tanks that I test and the numbers are good on them.

Are my corals taking it in as fast as I can add it because it is so low? What am I doing wrong?

Squishie89 · Nov 18, 2012

Could it be what is being dosed? Not sure if you dose the other tanks with the same solution.

SPSjunky · Nov 18, 2012

I had this exact problem about 2 years ago.No matter how much dosing I did I couldnt get it over 330-350.Turned out my mag test kit was crap.My buddy tested my mag for me and it was waaayyy low.I got a new test kit and started dosing mag and I got my calcium back in the 450 area in no time.I know you said your test kits are good but have someones else test your mag or pickup a new kit.

If you do have a heavy stocked sps dominated reef the sps can chew up a lot of calcium in a day but IMO your calcium still wouldnt drop that low on a daily basis.Another idea is to test your fresh saltwater before you do a waterchange to see what the parameters are.I hope this helps you.

rajkovich207 · Nov 18, 2012

Ime you all is a Tad high, your Cal additions are chipping away at that, you have all those calcium hogs, I mean clams ;-) and usually when a perameter is that low, it takes a few large doses to strategy to show an increase. I would dose a bit more. What kind of Cal are you using?

skinz78 · Nov 18, 2012

I don't think so, I was dosing DIY Cal and wondered the same thing so I went to the LFS and got some Kent liquid calcium and have been dosing it for a few days with similar results.

rajkovich207 · Nov 18, 2012

Ime you all is a Tad high, your Cal additions are chipping away at that, you have all those calcium hogs, I mean clams ;-) and usually when a perameter is that low, it takes a few large doses to strategy to show an increase. I would dose a bit more. What kind of Cal are you using?

skinz78 · Nov 18, 2012

My mag test is good, I'm in the Aqua Craft salt study with everyone else and my numbers are similar to all the others. I do have a second one though and I'll check with both tomorrow night.

always reefin · Nov 18, 2012

Alk and mag numbers kind of high

skinz78 · Nov 18, 2012

The clams haven't been growing at all. I've actually lost a few.

rajkovich207 · Nov 18, 2012

Sorry double post. Here's a good calculator for dosing. I checked real fast and with aprox 150 us gallons, dissing Kali only it takes almost 30 gallons to bring it to 450 I believe I entered. Just enter in what you are using and your goal as well as total water volume. GL!

Reef Chemistry Calculator

rajkovich207 · Nov 18, 2012

Sorry auto correct is killing me lol

IBEW41 · Nov 19, 2012

I was dosing 2 part in my 120 but with almost all sps and 2 big clams I was up to over 65ml a day in cal so went back to reactor and coral and clams love it just keep the doser for back up

beaslbob · Nov 19, 2012

I recommend you read (again LOL) and apply the holmes-farley diy improved two part method.

here: https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/reef-chemistry-forum/39332-do-yourself-two-part-links.html

take two asprin and report back in the morning. LOL

my .02

Asonitez · Nov 19, 2012

I have had excellent results with Kent TurboCalcium to quickly raise my calcium. Maybe Thats worth a try?

jeffskaggs · Dec 10, 2012

I would try a different test

KoleTang · Dec 10, 2012

What's your phosphate level? Calcium will bond to phosphate on an ionic level rendering it useless to corals.

skinz78 · Dec 10, 2012

Hmm, I haven't checked phosphates in a while, I'll have to do that tonight. Thanks for the tip!

KoleTang · Dec 11, 2012

So how'd it go?

mcarroll · Dec 12, 2012

skinz78 said:
The past couple of weeks I've been battling low calcium numbers, I've been testing and dosing daily and I can't get it to rise for nothing... It's been hovering right at about 260 to 280ppm. I've been very slowly dosing about 30ml of cal daily and it just won't go up at all. I also top off with Kalk, about 2g daily.

What am I doing wrong?

It's going to take around 2 liters of Recipe 1 to get where you want to be - when were you planning on getting there at 30mL per day?

Also you kinda let out that you have no idea what your tank's consumption rate is (which is prolly how the number got so far off?) and this is also pretty important - but a seperate issue. No reason to conflate them.

First, if you don't have a good dripper, buy or make one. Slowly drip 1L of Ca overnight and retest. Zero in on you target with two or three "half doses" like this that are dripped in. Half-doses help you to account for vagueries in testing - results aren't too accurate the further away from 400 you get for a few reasons. The dripping prevents any bad chemistry side-effects (which are pretty unlikely with any normal size Ca dose) from adding too fast.

Once you get back to your target numbers (expect your Alk to fall as Ca comes back up too) then you should run tests without dosing at least a few days in a row, at the same time of day each time (for a week if you can) and measure the daily consumption of Ca and Alk. From then on, you should really be dosing the tank daily according to its consumption rate and see no (or very little) variation in your test results.

Good luck!

-Matt

skinz78 · Dec 12, 2012

KoleTang said:
So how'd it go?

I haven't had time yet to do it, this is a crazy week with school concerts, family and friends coming over etc. I may have time tomorrow night to do all the testing.

mcarroll said:
It's going to take around 2 liters of Recipe 1 to get where you want to be - when were you planning on getting there at 30mL per day?

Also you kinda let out that you have no idea what your tank's consumption rate is (which is prolly how the number got so far off?) and this is also pretty important - but a seperate issue. No reason to conflate them.

First, if you don't have a good dripper, buy or make one. Slowly drip 1L of Ca overnight and retest. Zero in on you target with two or three "half doses" like this that are dripped in. Half-doses help you to account for vagueries in testing - results aren't too accurate the further away from 400 you get for a few reasons. The dripping prevents any bad chemistry side-effects (which are pretty unlikely with any normal size Ca dose) from adding too fast.

Once you get back to your target numbers (expect your Alk to fall as Ca comes back up too) then you should run tests without dosing at least a few days in a row, at the same time of day each time (for a week if you can) and measure the daily consumption of Ca and Alk. From then on, you should really be dosing the tank daily according to its consumption rate and see no (or very little) variation in your test results.

Good luck!

-Matt

Good points, I need to see where I'm at for daily consumption and get on the ball with proper dosing. I'll be the first to admit that I am horrible at keeping up on testing.