my calcium spiked

[BonelessEvil]

I'm not sure exactly how this happened. When I tested my calcium on Sunday, also checking alkalinity – everything was fine. alkalinity: 9.6 dKH, calcium 430. Since I wanted to bring my alkalinity down to something more matching seawater (8.4), I started lowering it very slowly I went from 2.8 mL to 2.5 mL 6/day. Essentially, I dose 6 times a day at off-hours from my calcium dosing, so there's anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes buffer time between the 2 different supplements. I gently lowered the dosing on my calcium (down: 6.6 mL to 6.0 mL x6/day), so as to bring it to 420, a much better balance with an alkalinity of 8.4. I had been gently nudging it up since the 24th from 400 to 430.

The problem is that today, I tested, expecting both to be down, but my calcium spiked to 500! I tested it twice, by the way. As for my alkalinity, bringing it down had no effect. It is still 9.6 dKH.

Any clue why this happened?

both days, same numbers for the following –
Red Sea reefer 425 XL deluxe (roughly 100 gallons of water)
Salt: 35 PPM
pH: 8.2
Temp: 78°

alkalinity: tested with Hanna checker, chemicals up-to-date
calcium: Red Sea calcium Pro test kit, chemicals up-to-date

 

[HotRocks]

I'm not sure exactly how this happened. When I tested my calcium on Sunday, also checking alkalinity – everything was fine. alkalinity: 9.6 dKH, calcium 430. Since I wanted to bring my alkalinity down to something more matching seawater (8.4), I started lowering it very slowly I went from 2.8 mL to 2.5 mL 6/day. Essentially, I dose 6 times a day at off-hours from my calcium dosing, so there's anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes buffer time between the 2 different supplements. I gently lowered the dosing on my calcium (down: 6.6 mL to 6.0 mL x6/day), so as to bring it to 420, a much better balance with an alkalinity of 8.4. I had been gently nudging it up since the 24th from 400 to 430.

The problem is that today, I tested, expecting both to be down, but my calcium spiked to 500! I tested it twice, by the way. As for my alkalinity, bringing it down had no effect. It is still 9.6 dKH.

Any clue why this happened?

both days, same numbers for the following –
Red Sea reefer 425 XL deluxe (roughly 100 gallons of water)
Salt: 35 PPM
pH: 8.2
Temp: 78°

alkalinity: tested with Hanna checker, chemicals up-to-date
calcium: Red Sea calcium Pro test kit, chemicals up-to-date

I don't think calcium at 500 is a huge deal. I'm just a disease nerd though...

Let's see if someone more versed in this can help.

#reefsquad

 

[Crabs McJones]

I don't think calcium at 500 is a huge deal. I'm just a disease nerd though...

Let's see if someone more versed in this can help.

#reefsquad

Agreed. Let it fall back to the level you want it at on it's own

 

[bryan3536]

Hijacking thread - I was pegged at 10 alk/460 calc which is what I’ve wanted. Was stable for weeks using auto doser of two part. Last weekend I did a water change and seriously cleaned coraline off glass. Now my Alk is at 9.2, and my Calcium is at 500.

I also think there is so much calcium in system that it’s blocking my alk buffer - I’m noticing the snowflakes when I tried to dose my alk manually back to 10.

Theory: all that coraline I scraped was (a) part of the daily calc uptake, and (b) is now slowly dissolving back into my water.

Think that’s it? I’ve read that part “a” of my theory might be right, but that coraline particles won’t dissolve to component parts in an alkaline environment.

As to correction, i took my calc buffer offline a few days and will just dose alk until calc levels drop down.