Calcium too high

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robertfah

Aquarium Advice Freak
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Jan 5, 2006
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I've got a 155g tank with about 90lbs of live rock, no corals, 2 paired clowns, 1 6 line wrasse, 1 yellow gobey, and 3 yellow tangs. My calcium is high and I can't seem to get it down. About a 9 months ago I started dosing calcium to prepare for corals but after 2 months of the required dosing, I found my calcium to be 550+. So I stopped dosing and did my normal 20% water changes every 2 months (tanks been established for 4+ years, those are my normal change cycles)....come December, after 3 months of no dosing and wc's, my calcium is still 500+. Now I do a 50% water change and no dosing. Still high.....4 months and 3 water changes later, still 500+ calcium level....I'm frustrated. I use an R/O system for my water (allbeit I haven't changed the cansiters in a long time), I use Oceanic Salt Mix for my salt and use the required buffer/am-quell (sp?) to get the levels correct. Saltwater Aquarium Salts: Oceanic Natural Sea Salt Mix

I haven't tested my tap water or water from the R/O unit for calcium, but what could be causing my calcium to stay so high? I figured after 3 or 4 water changes it would have come down quite a bit, but nothing yet.

Any ideas?
 
Calcium of 500 isn't a terrible thing though it is high especially for a system that doesn't have a demand for it.

You may want to get a new CA test kit and compare your results. You could have a kit that isn't giving you accurate readings.
 
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Well I thought of the old kit thing and had my water tested the past 3 wc's with 2 lfs and came up with the same readings.

I know 500 isn't all that terrible but I've tried to put some basic hardy corals in and they all seem to die off fairly quickly. Alkalinity is right where it should be as well.....it may get slightly low (off by 1) but never a dramatic drop in any of my levels in my tank.
 
Well I thought of the old kit thing and had my water tested the past 3 wc's with 2 lfs and came up with the same readings.

I know 500 isn't all that terrible but I've tried to put some basic hardy corals in and they all seem to die off fairly quickly. Alkalinity is right where it should be as well.....it may get slightly low (off by 1) but never a dramatic drop in any of my levels in my tank.

A couple things...

With Oceanic salt, you're going to have Ca levels in the high 400s from what I hear. So 500 isn't too far off from what you're doing your PWCs with. Have you tested your PWC water just before you add it to the tank?

"Alkalinity is right where it should be"... and that number is...?

Regarding the hardy corals dieing off quickly... what corals were they? And what are your nitrate levels? If you are only doing a 20% PWC every 2 months, I'm guessing your water parameters are not really where they should be for corals. Probably just fine for FOWLR, as you mentioned... but maybe not for corals. What are your other numbers? (pH, salinity, temp, nitrates)
 
Ok here are my results as of now:
ca2 (Calcium) - 500
KH (Alkilinity) - 7.4
pH - 8.0
NH3/NH4 (Ammonia) - 0.25
NO2 (Nitrite) - 0ppm
PO4 (Phosphate) - 0
NO3 (Nitrate) - Between 5-10

My RO water tested 0 for Calcium
 
I use Oceanic Salt Mix for my salt and use the required buffer/am-quell (sp?) to get the levels correct.
Did you test a freshly mixed batch of sw for ca? Oceanic is very high in ca. I wouldn't be suprised if a new batch tested to 470 or better.
Exactly what required buffer are you using? Does Oceanic actually recommend you add a buffer to their salt?
 
Did you test a freshly mixed batch of sw for ca? Oceanic is very high in ca. I wouldn't be suprised if a new batch tested to 470 or better.
Exactly what required buffer are you using? Does Oceanic actually recommend you add a buffer to their salt?

I use a buffer called Alkaline Buffer...been using it since day one (about 8+ years ago)...it raises the ph and Alkalinity to the correct levels based on dosage and what not. Not too sure if I should even be using it anymore, but as I said, I started using it 8+ years ago so I didn't want to stop (but I will if it's not necessary).

I didn't see anything on Oceanics site about using buffer or not.....:confused:
 
You probably do need to buffer Alk with the Oceanic. I stopped using it for that reason. pH was always low (8.0 ish).
What is your lighting system composed of? What type of lights were the corals that died under before you got them?
How did you acclimate the corals?
 
You probably do need to buffer Alk with the Oceanic. I stopped using it for that reason. pH was always low (8.0 ish).
What is your lighting system composed of? What type of lights were the corals that died under before you got them?
How did you acclimate the corals?

I have a Orbitz Power Compact 72" light with the following bulbs:
2 - Compact Fluorescent Square Pin Bulbs
SunPaq Daylight
10000ºK 96W

2 - Compact Fluorescent Square Pin Bulbs
SunPaq Dual Actinic
420/460nm 96W

and 6 Lunar lights built in.

This is the lighting I had when the corals had died. I drip acclimated the corals for about 1 hour or so when I got them.
 
Any reason that you know of that you're seeing 0.25ppm ammonia? Is that a normal thing?

That's fairly normal for my tank. It's probably reading slightly higher due to the fact that I just had a Sand sifting Goby die the other day due to stress. My Tangs wouldn't leave him alone and when I woke up the next day, he had 5+ crabs chewing on his back. :(
 
Sounds like you've been in the hobby for a while, but you do know that any ammonia is a bad thing... right? Something isn't right if the norm for your tank is 0.25ppm ammonia. That could be the source of your coral issues, but my gut feel says its something else.
 
I agree with Kurt, something is amiss. You may want to take your water to your LFS and double check your readings. How old and what is your test kit?
 
What kind of corals did you put in the tank specifically? From your water parameters the only things that really concern me are your ammonia reading and your PH being 8.0. The PH not so much but the ammonia is a biggie.

The lighting you have on your tank (a 155g) is going to be more for a FOWLR tank and not a reef. I'm not sure if low light corals would do well with that little light. You might be ok with some mushrooms or a low light leather.

I'm really interested in what corals you put in the tank and how quickly they died.
 
The coral I put in is called a Pulsing xenia. got it from a friend who has it in his tank and it's growing out of control, so he gave me a few good size frags to see if it will take in my tank. The first time it died over night, but I think that's b/c I was in the middle of a water change when he added it to my tank. This time, it's been close to 2 weeks since it's been in there. I've got 3 seperate frags; 2 are really small, but doing well, the other is a bit larger (about 15+ heads) but it seems the tips are white and some look shriveled (sp?) up as if they are dying.

I know my lighting isn't setup to to hard corals or clams and such, but I was told when I bought the light that I could do a wide varitey of soft corals. Was I misinformed?
 
Xenia is a funny coral...it will thrive in one tank and crash in the other. If Xenia is the only coral that you have added and didn't make it I wouldn't worry too much. One stalk of xenia not making it does not mean you have something majorly wrong with your tank.

The test kits you are talking about are from Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. I would suggest getting your hands on some Salifert test kits. At least pick up a different ammonia test kit and compare.
 
Xenia is a funny coral...it will thrive in one tank and crash in the other. If Xenia is the only coral that you have added and didn't make it I wouldn't worry too much. One stalk of xenia not making it does not mean you have something majorly wrong with your tank.

This is good to hear.....;)

The test kits you are talking about are from Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. I would suggest getting your hands on some Salifert test kits. At least pick up a different ammonia test kit and compare.

I picked up the Alkalinity test from them and found it to be a great kit. My Masters kit is almost done so I will use those from now on. :D
 
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