Frusterated With My Calcium!!!

[SaltwaterTeen]

The reason why im frusterated, is because its hight and wont go down!!! I keep alk and ph stable, to see if ca will go down naturally... I also have that big clam, and it doesnt seem to be taking much down from the level

Alk:3.0meq/l
PH:8.3
Ca:520

Will waterchanges help? Maybe not since I use oceanic??

 

[jamal-188]

Your levels look fine to me, I wouldn't worry too much, you can bring your alk up a bit which will drive the calcium down.

 

[SaltwaterTeen]

Is my caclium levels bad? How much do I bring up alk? Wont ca go down when I dont add any additives for ca, and keep alk at stable level?

 

[SaltwaterTeen]

I found out how come! I use oceanic sea salt, and it has a pretty high ca level, so I havent had any ca suckers in my tank til about a few days ago and that would be the clam. Ill be adding a hammer soon hopefully

 

[Brad]

The issue is not so much that your Ca is extremely high...it is that your Alk is low relative to the Ca. Your Ca/Alk is out of balance and since there is no easy way to remove Ca, you'll have to add Alk to get balanced.

You're not WAY out...just a little bit. I don't think it is too serious.

Your clam, coraline etc etc will draw down BOTH Ca/Alk in a balanced fashion. Another way to look at this is that these guys need BOTH Ca and Alk and they can only be as successful as the lowest of these two allows. Right now, the Alk level would be limiting the amount of Ca/Alk that the clam can use. All that Ca can't be used since there's not enough Alk to use it all.

Yes, it sounds like the salt is probably the cause and more water changes aren't going to