Why am I running high CA?

cjrudy · Mar 4, 2014

For some reason over the past three years I have kept the calcium in my 90 gallon mixed reef at 470-490. To do this I run Kalk in my ATO and and dose CA.
Funny thing is, I don't really know why I keep it so high.
After doing some research on successful tanks I found a large percentage keep their calcium around 400. This includes many SPS dominant reef tanks.
So over the past week or so I have slowly reduced dosing and brought the calcium to 420 as of last night. Once it gets down to 400 I will hold there and see how my tank reacts over the next month.

beaslbob · Mar 4, 2014

sounds like you got it all in control.

cjrudy · Mar 21, 2014

So as I have lowered my calcium over the past few weeks my alkalinity has increased. I believe this is normal and have now started to back off my alkalinity dosing as well to keep it in the 8-9 dkh range

ryecoon · Mar 27, 2014

You know whats crazy. So i had a reading of 420 which was perfect. I got a doser and a kalk reactor for more control and stability. Lastnight i was fixing the tubes to my doser and one of the tubes for the Calcium popped out the socket and dumped about 10 ml into the return sump. I checked my par this morning and the calcium is at 520. Im trying to figure out how to lower it quickly yet not so much where it shocks my corals even more. I re-programed the doser to every 2 hours instead if 1. Smh lol