Raising calcium

[asylumdown]

I've let my calcium levels fall way too low because I'm lazy and don't test and also didn't realize my dosing reservoir was empty. It's around 280 ppm, with a dKH of 8.1

I know this has been hashed out on forums ad nauseum, but is there a consensus on how quickly I can raise my levels?

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

I've let my calcium levels fall way too low because I'm lazy and don't test and also didn't realize my dosing reservoir was empty. It's around 280 ppm, with a dKH of 8.1

I know this has been hashed out on forums ad nauseum, but is there a consensus on how quickly I can raise my levels?

I did upto 40ppm without any ill effect. 20ppm is where people probably sets the barrier.

[lastlight]

BRS recommends 50ppm max per day. This is the rule I have blindly followed although I have never done more than 40 at once.

[asylumdown]

Alright, well I just did a water change and we'll see where that puts it. I also seem to have released a serious bubble of gas in the process, I'm thinking my GFO reactor had clumped and gone stagnant. My house smells terrible!

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

I've let my calcium levels fall way too low because I'm lazy and don't test and also didn't realize my dosing reservoir was empty. It's around 280 ppm, with a dKH of 8.1

I know this has been hashed out on forums ad nauseum, but is there a consensus on how quickly I can raise my levels?

sure your test isnt bunk? before going crazy with dosing maybe just check on another test or even two , i just lost alot of sps from this exact thing i know its a rookie move but we get comfortable with the tools we have and tend to think they work.

for me it was alk and while my elos was saying 6dkh my hanna had me at 9.8 so quite the diff ,double checked on a diff hanna and got 9.8. brought a water sample to the store and the elos had me at over 9dkh then as well...... of course i started upping my alk before i had a brain fart and realized i just pulled the most common mistake with odd numbers ever lol

both the high riuse in alk over a couple of weeks and the sudden drop while it fell naturally cause alot of stn and alk burn in the tips.

i had removed my sps to anopther system while it gets fixed.



good luck buddy

[kien]

I especially like the part where your neglected tank looks so nice. What manner of sorcery is this?! I need to know!

[asylumdown]

well I'm starting to believe that it's my test kit. I did a 50 gallon water change yesterday and added half a cup of my two part calcium solution (1 cup/gallon anhydrous calcium chloride) and my test kit is showing a decrease in calcium by about 20ppm. I'm not going to mess with it any further until I can get my hands on a second test to verify.

I'm using the red sea reef foundation pro kit, which has so far been rock solid for me, but now that I think about it this one is about 8 months old.

After the water change it show my dKH going up to about 8.9 which is way higher than I normally like to run it (I prefer to keep it around 7-7.5), so either my salt, which was from a new bucket, was really high in alk, or my test kit for that is wonk, or my calcium really is that low and corals aren't growing as fast so my alk dosing rate is now too high.

Serves me right for not testing anything other than alk in the past 4 months, and even then I think I only did that twice.

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by kien

I especially like the part where your neglected tank looks so nice. What manner of sorcery is this?! I need to know!

Didn't you hear? Ignore it until it's beautiful is the hottest new reefing trend. My tank grew more in the 4 months where I barely had time to do a water change, let alone test parameters or change GFO than it has in the previous year combined.

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

well I'm starting to believe that it's my test kit. I did a 50 gallon water change yesterday and added half a cup of my two part calcium solution (1 cup/gallon anhydrous calcium chloride) and my test kit is showing a decrease in calcium by about 20ppm. I'm not going to mess with it any further until I can get my hands on a second test to verify.

I'm using the red sea reef foundation pro kit, which has so far been rock solid for me, but now that I think about it this one is about 8 months old.

After the water change it show my dKH going up to about 8.9 which is way higher than I normally like to run it (I prefer to keep it around 7-7.5), so either my salt, which was from a new bucket, was really high in alk, or my test kit for that is wonk, or my calcium really is that low and corals aren't growing as fast so my alk dosing rate is now too high.

Serves me right for not testing anything other than alk in the past 4 months, and even then I think I only did that twice.

Hey Adam. If you need, I can stop over by your house tonight to have those things checked. My Ca/Alk/Mg/Po4 kits are working right.

[asylumdown]

really? I want to say yes but I also happen to have a nasty case of either the cold or flu, so I'm not sure you actually want to come here lol. The past two days have been really, really awful.