Calcium

[andrew catling]

Hi guys,

Did a calcium test today with a new Red Sea calcium test kit and got a reading of 370ppm
I want to bring this up to around 400ppm so I bought some Tropic Marin bio calcium but i'm a bit worried about over dosing.
The label says that 1 level spoonful will bring 4 uk gallons of water up by 28ppm.
As my tank is 55 gallons including sump, minus say 5 gallons for rock, to raise my calcium level to 400ppm I make this a total of 12.5 spoonfulls.
If I wanted to bring it up to 430ppm that would be 25 spoonfulls
Is this right as it seems a lot to me or am I getting my maths wrong.
And surely this cant be each day

Cheers

 

[Navarre]

I would not dose everything in 1 go. I would does this over the course of a week ro so. what do you have in the tank that using up the calium>? and also what salt are you using?

 

[Great Lakes]

IT would also be great to know the rest of your readings. PH, hardness, and calcium are a close knit family.

GL

 

[ostrow]

I can't figure out whether this is anhydrous calcium chloride or not. If you can figure out what is in it or what product it is similar to, you can try here:
http/www.kademani.com/reefchem.htm

Seems like you are in the 1.5-2tsp range.

But that might not be the best product, and certainly not the most economical, to use. Try getting some anhydrous calcium chloride (dowflake, peladow, etc) for quick boosts and a buffered two-part additive for the regular levels. Or make your own:

http/www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/april2004/chem.htm

 

[andrew catling]

Nav, I'm using instant ocean salt.

I only have a couple of mushroom corals and a small leather coral at the moment.

Temp 78
KH 8
PH 8.1
SG 1.021

 

[ostrow]

I am guessing first that this is not anhydrous calcium chloride. Second, I would not worry about a test of 370 especially using the Red Sea Kit. If you can get your hands on Salifert, see what that shows. But the margin of error you'll find on Red Sea may well mean you are over 400, as IIRC many report low results with that test kit.

 

[RamJet]

I dont think that you really need to do much with it unless you plan on putting hard corals in the tank. The others really dont use much calcium and at your levels you should be fine I would think. I may be wrong (Just my gut feelings on the subject.) Navarre or GL might have more imput on this.

 

[Navarre]

GL is far more knowledgable on the chemistry side of things than i am to be honest. I would say that your levels are not that low really. granted if you keep lots of hard corals thenperhaps this could cause them slow growth but the softies will not be effected by this a great deal.

Regular water changes would keep calcium levels stable anyway. GL might be able to shed some light as to what you need to do to increase calcium levels safely and quickly though.

 

[andrew catling]

Thanks guys,

I only intend to keep soft corals fo the time being so I wont tinker with it too much.
Once the tank is more mature say 3/6 months I will buy some hard corals and then bring the calcium up.

 

[Great Lakes]

Your hardness and calcium are both on the low side. Not bad, just low. When you start to add stony corals, you are going to have to dose either with a Kalkwasser setup, or use a two part additive such as B-ionic to make sure both levels are brought up as equal as possible.

Watch your hardness. A reading of 8KH is ok, but it gets anywhere below that, your ph will start to drop like mad.

GL