Why is my ca not falling? Its only climbing

[ddc0715]

I have turned off all ca dosing now for almost 2 weeks and preformed two 60 water changes why is my ca still rising. It's at 670 from 640 now. The high 640 Is why I stopped all dosing. I'm so confused rightnow.

 

[Miami Reef]

What salt mix do you use?

What water do you use?

 

[ddc0715]

Reef crystals. Test at 560 before I did the wc, rodi water.

 

[sfin52]

Reef crystals. Test at 560 before I did the wc, rodi

Did you try a different test

 

[Miami Reef]

Did you try a different test

Yes. Definitely do a different calcium test.

Also test your salinity. How do you normally test your new saltwater?

Bad batches of salt is pretty rare. Reef crystals salt is about 490 calcium.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Either youre getting false readings, or coral is not absorbing CA
Also, if you are testing shortly after addition of CA, allow it 12-24 hours to precipitate before running a test as it will be at its highest.

 

[ddc0715]

As for my ca testing. It was manual prior to adding the each batch of new water. An I mis typed. it was around 500 not 560. I use a red sea retest kit. But my trident does the ca testing after it's added. So could there be a problem with my triddent? Why would my corals stop using ca.

 

[sfin52]

As for my ca testing. It was manual prior to adding the each batch of new water. An I mis typed. it was around 500 not 560. I use a red sea retest kit. But my trident does the ca testing after it's added. So could there be a problem with my triddent? Why would my corals stop using ca.

I would say your trident test is off. Test manually

 

[Waters]

Yeah, definitely double check the Trident. Mine routinely reads CA high.

 

[fachatga]

For some reason I always got really high reads on calcium with redsea kits. I’ve tested multiple times with it and other kits against known standards and I just can’t use the redsea kit for some reason. I would get a standard to test your testing and use multiple kits to confirm results. In the end just use whatever kit works best foe you. But I would guess this is testing error as well

 

[Hydrored]

Also I’d your reagents are low the test read high every time for me

 

[ddc0715]

well today I'm going to recalibrate the trident today. this is just something that I can find very little info about?. i mean when you stop dosing it shoukd fall. i should be in the 300 with no ca dosing for a few weeks right?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

well today I'm going to recalibrate the trident today. this is just something that I can find very little info about?. i mean when you stop dosing it shoukd fall. i should be in the 300 with no ca dosing for a few weeks right?

No, one cannot assume calcium will always fall.

How much alk are you dosing each day? What is the alkalinity?

If none is being dosed, then calcium is not expected to fall detectably.

 

[ddc0715]

yes im consuming alk and dosing 25 mls daily. ive gotten the alk some what dialed in at 8.5-9

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

yes im consuming alk and dosing 25 mls daily. ive gotten the alk some what dialed in at 8.5-9

Do you know how much that alk is in dKH per day?

Or 25 ml of what product to what size water volume?

 

[ddc0715]

Do you know how much that alk is in dKH per day?

Or 25 ml of what product to what size water volume?

it is about .6 dkh daily drop. I started adding 5 mls every few days back in oct. until i saw an increase. never saw one, that smooth drop on 10-31 thru 11-2 was no testing or dosing, i turned it all off, seems that on 10-31 it was 8.6 and dropped to 7.1 over a 3-day span. so on 11-2 ( when i resumed dosing of alk ) i manually dosed alk to raise my dkh back to 8.5-9 so far seems 25 mls of (soda ash) daily seems to be where my tank is happy at.

here is the alk graph prior to 11-2.

I believe it was a trident issue. I have finished my recalibration and retested and here is where I'm at now. SO ODD. Time to start watching it again to nail down needed levels I'm just glad that ca is back to normal

.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

What product are you dosing?

Assuming zero addition of calcium and exactly 0.6 dKH of alkalinity going into calcification, that would consume about 4 ppm of calcium a day. In 3 weeks without water changes, the calcium might decline from 650 ppm to 566 ppm, so it is not as large of an expected decline as you thought.

 

[ddc0715]

What product are you dosing?

Assuming zero addition of calcium and exactly 0.6 dKH of alkalinity going into calcification, that would consume about 4 ppm of calcium a day. In 3 weeks without water changes, the calcium might decline from 650 ppm to 566 ppm, so it is not as large of an expected decline as you thought.

I am dosing soda ash for alk. well good. I'm going to re-set my dosing now to 10 MLS daily of each (alk, ca) and 5 ml of mg so that I can dial it all back into the stable. this has been a crazy ride.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I am dosing soda ash for alk. well good. I'm going to re-set my dosing now to 10 MLS daily of each (alk, ca) and 5 ml of mg so that I can dial it all back into the stable. this has been a crazy ride.

I suspect the high values are most likely test error, but try the trident and kit on the new salt water.