Lowering Calcium?

Michael A Kurolvech · May 12, 2018

How do I lower my Calcium without negatively affecting my alkalinity?

I use Two Little Fishes, C-Balance 2 part additive for calcium and alkalinity. After months of tinkering with my dosing pump I believe I've achieved stability at least temporarily.

Randy Holmes-Farley · May 12, 2018

What is the value now?

Michael A Kurolvech · May 12, 2018

525.

Everything I've read tells me that I HAVE TO dose the two part in equal amounts. My first inclination is to simply skip a few doses on the calcium but this is in conflict with rule #1. My second thought on the situation is simply leave it alone, high CA shouldn't be a big issue and eventually the tank will go through a growth spurt and the CA will drop on its own.

Randy Holmes-Farley · May 12, 2018

Michael A Kurolvech said:
525.

Everything I've read tells me that I HAVE TO dose the two part in equal amounts. My first inclination is to simply skip a few doses on the calcium but this is in conflict with rule #1. My second thought on the situation is simply leave it alone, high CA shouldn't be a big issue and eventually the tank will go through a growth spurt and the CA will drop on its own.

You can allow the calcium to fall by just dosing the alk part. That's fine if you are confident in the calcium reading.

Or you can keep it were it is by dosing both parts equally. Calcium at 525 ppm in fine. You'll likely not notice any difference in the tank at 420 ppm.

Randy Holmes-Farley · May 12, 2018

FWIW, equal parts dosing suggestions do not relate to fixing a problem. It relates to normal dosing to maintain alkalinity when calcium is OK. If you have a problem (like low or high calcium), that takes different measures to fix.

Michael A Kurolvech · May 12, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
You can allow the calcium to fall by just dosing the alk part. That's fine if you are confident in the calcium reading.

Or you can keep it were it is by dosing both parts equally. Calcium at 525 ppm in fine. You'll likely not notice any difference in the tank at 420 ppm.

Thank you.

Most of what I think I understand about Reef Chemistry has come from reading your work. I think I'll leave it alone and watch for the next growth spurt. Thanks again

Mike

Randy Holmes-Farley · May 12, 2018

You're welcome and thanks.

If you do regular water changes, that might either bring it down or keep it up, depending in the salt mix and salinity.

Tiatank · Jan 17, 2020

Hi Randy
I seem to be having the same issue, calcium at 500 and alk at 7.97. Dosing esv in equal parts at the moment. 25% water changes weekly on 220 gallons is getting costly and not correcting the imbalance. My question is if I turn off my calcium dosing as suggested will my Alk shoot up? I like my Alk around 8 dkh

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 17, 2020

Alk will not rise as calcium declines from 500 to 420 ppm, unless you add extra alkalinity.

Tiatank · Jan 17, 2020

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Alk will not rise as calcium declines from 500 to 420 ppm, unless you add extra alkalinity.

Excellent, thanks so much for your reply. I’ll keep the calcium off until the desired target and start dosing in equal parts once I reach 420ppm

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 17, 2020

Tiatank said:
Excellent, thanks so much for your reply. I’ll keep the calcium off until the desired target and start dosing in equal parts once I reach 420ppm

sounds good. Happy Reefing

Rst · Jan 17, 2020

I use ESV bionic 2 part. My Alk is kept at 8.75 to 9.0 via the Alkatronic controller. I replace 30% of my water every 2 weeks using Red Sea Pro salt. My calcium has always been over 500.

I also wanted to drop my calcium down to 420ppm. So I have been trying just dosing Alk part A alone for the past 3 weeks expecting Ca would drop. But no joy. My Calcium has remained over 500ppm daily using just the part A Alk. So it seems that dropping calcium will take a very long time, if ever. I think the Red Sea Pro salt mixes to around 500 at 1.026 thereby keeping my Ca up. So unless I change my salt, or stop water changes, I will always have Ca over 500. Might as well give up and live with high Ca.

Tiatank · Jan 17, 2020

Interesting possibly the salt is the reason for your high Calcium. I use tropic Marin pro reef but I was confused because I read an article from joe jaworski about dosing esv and the article reads if the calcium is 500 and the alk is 8 dose more esv and never dose unequal parts. Tried that and didn’t work for me that’s why I asked Randy because I’ll follow his recommendations to the letter. So now Calcium off and see how it goes. If I run into your situation then I’m switching to IO purple box where all the elements are low and just dose to my needs

bam123 · Jan 20, 2020

60 cube Mixed reef tank with only a couple of cheap sticks and LPS and a lot of softies. Phosphates around 0.05, nitrates zero, alk between 7.3 and 7.6. 3 percent auto water change daily with DOS. I dose 2 part ESV 5-10ml each per day. Everything looks pretty good. I feed 2-3 cubes per day frozen food. What's the fascination between trying to get higher alk or much lower Ca (if above 500)... If the polyps on the corals are open, isn't everything happy?? I got a Trident for Christmas and will be hooking it up. Should I go for higher ALK? Should I dose ESV to my makeup fresh saltwater rather then the main tank (Tropic Marin Pro is mixing low 7.0 dkh) ? I don't know what my Ca is (but have decent coralline growth). The old school part of me says don't bother.