Simple Ca increase

[Andrew Wulff]

I have a 24G 3 mos old reef with a built in fuge. I'm currently focusing on just keeping a couple fish, softies, and a few LPS. So far things have been great. I'm trying to keep it simple. I don't have separate sump, reactors, or ato. I change about 2-4 gal weekly and all levels have been steady.

Only thing I would like to increase would be Ca. It has been hovering around 380. What would you suggest dose to bring it up? Would you put it in the water change water each week? TIA

 

[ciscomania]

with that small of a size tank with little livestock, you should be able to get your Ca up by doing few large water changes.

 

[Andrew Wulff]

It's hovered around 380 even with weekly 2-4G water changes. I'd like to boost it just a bit through a simple method.

 

[Justintegra99]

What salt are you using and what salinity are you mixing to? If under 35ppt, you could increase the salinity to that and it will inject more CA from the salt mix into the tank. Alternatively if you aren't using a higher mineral content salt like red sea purple bucket, you could switch to that. Both would increase the CA through the water changes without additives.

 

[Andrew Wulff]

I'm currently buying all my water at LFS. (It's simple and fairly cheap for the volume) Not sure which mix they are using. But it's consistently at 35ppt.

 

[Justintegra99]

Some do use the higher mineral salts, but in my personal experience, most that I have been to use the cheapest salt they can find and supplement if and as needed. No knock on them since they have to manage thousands of gallons typically.

I would advise testing the next batch of water you get from them to see, then you can make a better choice. While your at it, if you never have tested their water for nitrates and phosphates, you should do that too. I had a fish store that I trusted implicitly, great store. That is until I bought 30 gallons of water from them to start my bio cube up with. I filled it all up then when doing a test a week later realized the water they sold me was LOADED with phosphates and over 50ppm nitrates.

 

[randyBRS]

Since you're sourcing your saltwater from the LFS and don't really have a say in what salt mix they use (nor the levels that it mixes up to), I'd say that the easiest and quickest fix would be to mix up a gallon of Calcium Chloride and test/dose as needed. It really won't take much to raise that small water volume to where you want it to be.

We make it pretty easy to get this done with our 1gal calcium mix pouches and the BRS calculator.

-Just find a gallon jug and fill it 3/4 with RODI water (from LFS)
-Add the entire pouch
-Mix together and fill the rest of the jug
-Head to the BRS calculator, add your volume and current parameters and your done.

The calculator will tell you how much to add to your tank to raise the calcium and you can verify after dosing with your test kit.

BRS Calculator
BRS 2-Part Calcium Pouch

 

[jaydogg76]

i thought you had to dose equal parts

 

[jaydogg76]

Since you're sourcing your saltwater from the LFS and don't really have a say in what salt mix they use (nor the levels that it mixes up to), I'd say that the easiest and quickest fix would be to mix up a gallon of Calcium Chloride and test/dose as needed. It really won't take much to raise that small water volume to where you want it to be.

We make it pretty easy to get this done with our 1gal calcium mix pouches and the BRS calculator.

-Just find a gallon jug and fill it 3/4 with RODI water (from LFS)
-Add the entire pouch
-Mix together and fill the rest of the jug
-Head to the BRS calculator, add your volume and current parameters and your done.

The calculator will tell you how much to add to your tank to raise the calcium and you can verify after dosing with your test kit.

BRS Calculator
BRS 2-Part Calcium Pouch

I thought you had to dose alk and cal in equal parts

 

[Nick30G]

I thought you had to dose alk and cal in equal parts

No not at all if you dont need too. For example if your calcium is 500 ppm (which is slightly high) you would not dose calcium but let it come down on its own. But if you wanted to maintain your DKH at 7.5 and it dropping .5 per day you would just dose soda ash (alkanity). However if your calcium and alk are at normal levels but need to be maintained everyday yes you would dose equally.

 

[randyBRS]

I thought you had to dose alk and cal in equal parts

Agree with @Nick30G on this one. Each tank is different and at smaller volumes, it's not uncommon to have slight differences in Alk/Ca consumption. When the demand for both is heavier then balancing (or close to balanced) the dose may be more prevalent to avoid precipitation.