Low Calcium

[Tuan’s Reef]

Just did a barrage of parameter testing this morning.

Phos: .02 Hannah
Alk: 7.3 Hannah
Nitrate: 2.5 ppm API
Calcium: 380 Red Sea foundation pro
Mag: 1440 Red Sea Foundation pro
PH 8.1 API

So my alk and calcium is slight low . I'm guessing my water changes is not keeping up with the demands of the corals?

I don't have much corals in my Nuvo 20g.

1 large Acan with 3 heads
1 small acan with 2 heads
another acan with mulitple heads but small
RBTA
medium size hammer with 3 heads
few zoas
just got a forest fire digi and Porcilpora last week


i don't have any dosers. Been using the Red Sea blue bucket for salt. Should i move up to the RS Coral Pro salt? should i dose 2 part like b ionic ?

 

[road_runner]

Just did a barrage of parameter testing this morning.

Phos: .02 Hannah
Alk: 7.3 Hannah
Nitrate: 2.5 ppm API
Calcium: 380 Red Sea foundation pro
Mag: 1440 Red Sea Foundation pro
PH 8.1 API

So my alk and calcium is slight low . I'm guessing my water changes is not keeping up with the demands of the corals?

I don't have much corals in my Nuvo 20g.

1 large Acan with 3 heads
1 small acan with 2 heads
another acan with mulitple heads but small
RBTA
medium size hammer with 3 heads
few zoas
just got a forest fire digi and Porcilpora last week


i don't have any dosers. Been using the Red Sea blue bucket for salt. Should i move up to the RS Coral Pro salt? should i dose 2 part like b ionic ?

If the testing is correct and test kits are good then you should supplement with some dosing. Salt batches vary and it's hard to depend on the salt mix along if you want solid parameters. I would not change the salt rather supplement with dosing.

 

[mtraylor]

Welcome to the start of good coral growth. Congrats!
YOu can run at low alk. Not an issue as long as its consistent. Now you need to supplement a little calcium to get around 400-420. As your needs go up then you may want to look into automation.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

All my corals are growing and doing well. Good PE on every single one of them.

What calcium supplement should I use that is safe to dose manually?

 

[road_runner]

All my corals are growing and doing well. Good PE on every single one of them.

What calcium supplement should I use that is safe to dose manually?

If you want ready liquid I like B-ionics
If you want to prepare your own solution I like the brs

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Also is there a Hannah like test kit for mag? Going to pick up Hannah calcium checker today for accuracy spread.

May of botched the mag test. 5 drops of A and shake 15 sec before adding the next drop ? Then just straight 5 drops of B and shake for 1 min? Then the syringe of 1ml until color turns blue right?

 

[mtraylor]

I have a calcium reactor, but I use brightwell products as supplement.

 

[road_runner]

I would suggest you dose both parts though. Its bit risky to dose only one part and you end up creating an imbalanc

 

[SPR1968]

You could try changing to the Red Sea Coral Pro as the parameters are higher, and if you combine this with the ABC+ skeletal elements you may not need to dose anything else as it’s designed to make things easy for smaller systems

I used the Coral Pro for some time in my system during the early stages before I went to the blue bucket with full auto dosing.

 

[road_runner]

You could try changing to the Red Sea Coral Pro as the parameters are higher, and if you combine this with the ABC+ skeletal elements you may not need to dose anything else as it’s designed to make things easy for smaller systems

I used the Coral Pro for some time in my system during the early stages before I went to the blue bucket with full auto dosing.

I was on red see for 3 years. I have concluded that its really bad compared to b-ionoc.
I have published a thread and results while about about my experimce with red sea will try to find it and share it here.
B ionic gave me growth, red sea slowed down the growth for some reason.
At least in my case.
I even talked to randy about this and he also recommended b ionic.

 

[Sod Buster]

You did the mg test correctly if you followed those steps exactly.

 

[SPR1968]

I was on red see for 3 years. I have concluded that its really bad compared to b-ionoc.
I have published a thread and results while about about my experimce with red sea will try to find it and share it here.
B ionic gave me growth, red sea slowed down the growth for some reason.
At least in my case.
I even talked to randy about this and he also recommended b ionic.

I’ve never experienced a problem with any of the Red Sea foundation elements, and as far as coral growth.....

I was going to post a picture of my tank but it’s not my thread but the link is below if anyone wonders what it can do.

There are many products and many ways to do things, and that makes it all the more interesting, or hard! Lol

 

[road_runner]

...

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Went to WWC and picked up the hannah calcium checker. Got a reading of 428 just now. They didn't have B Ionic but did have BrightWell which i bought. But now with the reading of 428 , I don't need to dose. or do I ? I could do half recommended dosage to see how it goes? Tank is happy and want to make sure it stays that way.

 

[fish farmer]

Went to WWC and picked up the hannah calcium checker. Got a reading of 428 just now. They didn't have B Ionic but did have BrightWell which i bought. But now with the reading of 428 , I don't need to dose. or do I ? I could do half recommended dosage to see how it goes? Tank is happy and want to make sure it stays that way.

If your tank is happy, don't do anything drastic. Since you just got a different result with a new kit and it is a good Ca level, just do what you normally do for a couple of weeks, monitor your levels and see if they change.

 

[Sod Buster]

I would mix up a few gallons of fresh saltwater that you know the calcium value of and do both tests on that. The range should be on the bucket. I don't own a hanna for calcium, but have read several threads on how touchy they can be. That would be a good check for your check before I dosed anything.