Question about dosing calcium with all for reef

[peterat33rpm]

Question about dosing calcium and AFR - I recently started dosing AFR in my 32 gallon that currently has a Duncan, a sad small zoa frag, a Xenia, a brain, GSP, and a hammer, all of which are doing fine although not growing a ton if at all. I did a water change the day I started dosing and my parameters were calcium 360, alk 7.9, mag 1320. Alk and ca are pretty stable two days in, with all initially bumped to 8.7 then down to 8.4 today. I know calcium is way low, so I just ordered a bottle of Red Sea calcium. My question is can I just dose the Red Sea calcium when I get it to get the calcium up towards maybe 400 the first day and 450 the second day, while dosing the same volume of AFR? Or should I pause the AFR. I think it will be the former but want to double check.



Any help much appreciated!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Question about dosing calcium and AFR - I recently started dosing AFR in my 32 gallon that currently has a Duncan, a sad small zoa frag, a Xenia, a brain, GSP, and a hammer, all of which are doing fine although not growing a ton if at all. I did a water change the day I started dosing and my parameters were calcium 360, alk 7.9, mag 1320. Alk and ca are pretty stable two days in, with all initially bumped to 8.7 then down to 8.4 today. I know calcium is way low, so I just ordered a bottle of Red Sea calcium. My question is can I just dose the Red Sea calcium when I get it to get the calcium up towards maybe 400 the first day and 450 the second day, while dosing the same volume of AFR? Or should I pause the AFR. I think it will be the former but want to double check.



Any help much appreciated!

I would not boost to 450 ppm calcium. AFR is a little heavy on calcium and there is no benefit to being over 420 ppm.

 

[peterat33rpm]

420 it is! So I can just dose up to that level with redsea while holding steady with my AFR dose?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yes

420 it is! So I can just dose up to that level with redsea while holding steady with my AFR dose?

 

[peterat33rpm]

Thank you!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

You’re welcome. Let us know how things work out!

 

[peterat33rpm]

You’re welcome. Let us know how things work out!

So I dosed up to 420 over the course of 4-5 days and it’s been 410-420 the last couple times I’ve tested so I think I’m good? Today after a water change it was 410 so I just did another 5cc of calcium to bump it back up, hopefully holds steady in that range. Thanks again for the help!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So I dosed up to 420 over the course of 4-5 days and it’s been 410-420 the last couple times I’ve tested so I think I’m good? Today after a water change it was 410 so I just did another 5cc of calcium to bump it back up, hopefully holds steady in that range. Thanks again for the help!

Sounds good.