Calcium dropping

[Seepu]

How fast should my calcium drop?

End of my cycle after water change:
12/29/05
pH 8.0
Ammo 0
Nitrates 30-40
Phos .1
CA 450

Before tomorrow's water change
1/10/06
pH 7.8
Ammo 0
Nitrates 20
Phos .1
CA 250

90g
100lb LR
60lb BR
3-4" Seeded Aragonite sand bed 80lbs

I had very little in the way of cycling, MOST of the LR was well cured, but not under good lighting, so minimal growth. I have 2 Turbo snails to help with the diatoms, and a hitchiker urchin. Could the depleted CA be due to the LR and coraline taking off? Stuff seems to be popping up all over recently, and I have noticed some of the white coral skeles getting some pink on them, so I know my coraline is growing.

This water was tap water, I needed to get a new DI filter for my RO/DI unit that had been in storage. The water that is in my 50g mixing tank is RO/DI and the stats are:

pH 8.0
Ammo 0
Nitrate 0
Phos 0
CA 300

Any ideas?

 

[Brenden]

There is nothing in your tank now to use up CA. Are you sure you tested correctly? The only way you could get that much drop is if you did a WC with water that had no CA in it.

pH 8.0
Ammo 0
Nitrate 0
Phos 0
CA 300

Are these parameter from the 50 gal mixing container with salt added?

 

[Seepu]

pH 8.0
Ammo 0
Nitrate 0
Phos 0
CA 300

Are these parameter from the 50 gal mixing container with salt added?[/quote]

This is for my mixing tank, that I use RO/DI. I expected this to be low, and will need to supplement that before changing water. (back to the lfs, yippee!)

When I did the test on 12/29/05, I tested the tank, and tap water for calcium. My Tap water was CA 100, and tank was 450. I read that my local water supply is normally in the range I read, CA 100, so I assumed I tested right. However.. Im no chemist =)

Ill try again, and see if I come up with Ca 250 again.

 

[Seepu]

Ok.. I redid my Ca test, and again, its 250.

 

[Brenden]

What kind of salt are you using? What salinity are you bringing your water up to?

 

[Seepu]

Im using Instant Ocean, by Marinelabs. My mixing tank (Ca300) is 1.023, my tank (Ca 250 before water change) is 1.021.

 

[Brenden]

IO is known to be low in CA. I use IO and bring the CA up using turbo CA. Your Ca still seems low even for IO. Are you by chance using a red sea CA test kit? We can work on your CA problem later but for now you should not even worry about your CA levels. If you start to get corals and inverts you need to check it but for now do not waste your time. I would get some turbo CA to bring up your CA when you get to that point.

 

[Seepu]

Yes... Red Sea test. Im not really worried about the Ca level really, just the wild swing. I was hoping that nothing is going on behind the scene that I don't know to look for yet.

Thanks for the info about the Instant Ocean mix. I will do some research on the different salts.

 

[tecwzrd]

The reason Brenden asked if you were using Red Sea test is because they can be quite a bit off compared to a more accurate Salifert ca test. I have both test kits and I notice it off by 100+ ppm ca readings with Red Sea. Ca is affected by sg, alk, and other minerals so it could be that you do have the right amount of ca but not enough of the other elements.

As far as the wild swing I find that two color chart and mixing with Red Sea to swing radically also when I first used it. One day 8 drops of part A gave me the pink to orange change and the next only 4 or about what you are experiencing.

I’ve read that Turbo Calcium is an excellent product for increasing ca but requires additional supplements which I don’t have test kits for so I was hesitant to use it.

For now I use C-Balance because it handles the guess work of all the elements for me and so far has worked just fine. I use very little since I’m doing a 10% pwc each week and my ca levels are just about right anyways. (getting ready to be bit by the coral bug)

 

[Seepu]

Thanks for that info. When Brenden asked if I used the Red Sea tests, I figured as much. I mean... changing from an orange-ish pink to a pink-ish orange is kind of subjective. I also thought that maybe it would test better, or more accurately if you were using their Red Sea Salt too...

 

[tecwzrd]

changing from an orange-ish pink to a pink-ish orange is kind of subjective.

If you wait a little longer than the recommended 20 seconds (about 1 minute) then it usually is very pink and very orange. I only noticed the orange-ish pink to a pink-ish orange before I started using C-balance so I just thought it might have been a strontium or magnesium deficiency. Either way I think you would be happier with another test. The Salifert Calcium Test Kit has a much easier to read color chart and measures in steps of 5 mg/L and has an accuracy of 10 mg/L.

 

[Brenden]

Sorry for delayed response but tecwzrd jumped in and responded perfectly. I also suggest you invest in a Salifert CA test. Only thing I am going to add to tecwzrd's response is in regard to turbo CA. Turbo CA is just really concentrated CA and does not have other essential elements but we are taking about freshly mixed SW and the mix should contain all the proper elements. In short turbo CA is fine for bringing up your CA levels in fresh SW. If you are planning to keep corals later on you need to bring your salinity up to 1.025-26. This will also help your CA levels.

 

[Seepu]

Thanks guys... First, I will try going with another salt mix. I will bring my salinity up, I knew it was low, but wasnt going to add to the tank directly, I have 2 turbos, and snails are people too =) I made my salt mix up in a tank, and the salinity was about (gotta get a refractometer) 1.025. I did a 35%-ish water change, and it brought my tank up to about 1.022. I will get it right on next water change. My cycle is over, so it wont hurt for next weeks water change to be another good sized one.

I wont worry TOO much about CA lvls untill I get corals. It might be a while till I can convince my hubby I NEED new lights.

Does Salifert have a Master test kit? And what salt mix do you recommend?

 

[tecwzrd]

IO isn’t a bad salt really, most salt mixes come up short on ca levels. I use Oceanic Salt but I think it’s more important to stick with one brand and dose ca as needed than trying to find the “perfect brand”.

Unfortunately there isn’t a master test kit for Salifert which could save you money. I wouldn’t waste money buying the test for ph, nh3, or no2. I’d just us AP test kits for that. I’d use Salifert for reef testing and only get the tests when you are getting close to setting up for reef due to the high cost. I just used froogle to find what I needed.

Test I currently have from Salifert are the no3, po4, ca & kh/alk. They sell tests for just about everything but those are the main I focused on and are mostly around $15 each. I wouldn’t mind having some other test for iodine, magnesium, & strontium but I figure since I’m doing 10% pwc each week my levels are pretty decent.

Also I wouldn’t go too long with out any fish or feeding in that 90 gal or you might have a mini-cycle again due to the bacteria dieing out from lack of nh3. Adding a pitch of flake daily should keep it going. Inverts alone wouldn’t produce much.

 

[Seepu]

I'm adding 2 A. ocellaris tonight. I found a very healthy batch at my LFS last week, and wanted to do a good water change before adding them. I really looked at their batch, and it seemed that some had thick black lines outlining the white bands, and some only had a very fine black line edging the white. How else to identifiy true perculas and the more common ocellaris? I read here somewhere, number of spines on their dorsal fin?