Two part alk and calcium off balance

[Tnops]

I have been using BRS two part dosed via auto dosing but the calciums always seem to be higher than alkalinity proportionally despite being dosed at the same ratio (they are dosed at various times throughout the day so percipitation is likely not a factor). I would have an alk of 8-9 and a calcium of 700. Recently, i have tried dosing less calcium than alk but the calcium is somehow still higher. Does anyone have any idea what is going on?

 

[Miami Reef]

Unless you dosed a massive amount of calcium, I’d look into your test kit and make sure you check these things:

1) Is the kit expired?

2) Are you preforming or reading the kit wrong or incorrectly, respectively?

3) Is the calcium level testing correctly in new saltwater with the salt specifications with proper salinity?

 

[Tnops]

Unless you dosed a massive amount of calcium, I’d look into your test kit and make sure you check these things:

1) Is the kit expired?

2) Are you preforming or reading the kit wrong or incorrectly, respectively?

3) Is the calcium level testing correctly in new saltwater with the salt specifications with proper salinity?

1. Alk tested with Hanna checker and I’ve gone through many reagents with similar result's. Calcium is with salifert, recently got a new kit and shows same results

2. I’ve been testing for two years now and levels used to be consistent before two part so I doubt it

3. Yup but I don’t really do water changes. Salinity of tank sits around 1.025

 

[Miami Reef]

How many grams of calcium chloride did you add to make a gallon solution?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I have been using BRS two part dosed via auto dosing but the calciums always seem to be higher than alkalinity proportionally despite being dosed at the same ratio (they are dosed at various times throughout the day so percipitation is likely not a factor). I would have an alk of 8-9 and a calcium of 700. Recently, i have tried dosing less calcium than alk but the calcium is somehow still higher. Does anyone have any idea what is going on?

FWIW, precipitation is not ever a factor in off balance demand since it is a balanced demand.

That calcium level is so high that, like others, I suspect a test error. If you dosed the exact correct recipe, then to get to that much excess calcium requires consumption of alk and not calcium to the tune of about 41 dKH of alk, which just cannot be accounted for by any alk consuming processes we encounter, except a sulfur denitrator.

A dosing pump mismatch is also a possibility, as is a possible recipe error.

Water changes with a high calcium low alk mix could also cause it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

3. Yup but I don’t really do water changes. Salinity of tank sits around 1.025

That means the new kit now reads around 420 ppm Ca in new salt water and 700 ppm in the tank?

FWIW, Salifert changed its kit. Be sure you are using it correctly and not reading the syringe backwards, which is common.

 

[Miami Reef]

reading the syringe backwards, which is common.

That was my initial suspicion.

 

[Tnops]

I just tested again today and it is again 700. It cannot be a testing error as one full syringe of reagent was used so the very least it could be would be 500. Is it possible that I received a bad batch of calcium? I am about to move in a couple of months, would it shock coral by dropping them from 700 calcium into 450 calcium in a newly setup tank?