Calcium and Alk test kit questions

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by Invigor

<hijack>

to tag along..I've been doing some hard reading on wwm and I'm finding a lot of recurring things.

I've basically figured out that Mg, Ca, and Alk all play roles on eachother, but I'm hung up on which is most important to be at the peak..

I've been seeing a lot of Ca at say 400-450ppm whilst Alk is down around 8dKH..I've been seeing a lot of "aim for Ca to be 350-450ppm and alk to be around 8-12dKH". since these are quite varying am I to simply find my own equilibrium within those ranges? I'm assuming once reached, the equilibrium would be tank specific? I've noticed the trend to be calcium on the high end of the scale(400+ppm) and Alk to be on the low end of the scale(8dKH)..is that what most people here aim for? higher Ca lower Alk? are their different growth patterns if Alk is higher and Ca is lower? -- I would assume more growth happens with higher Ca..but just trying to get a feel for "the trend" of reef keepers!

</hijack>

Thanks!

I usually aim for a happy medium, somewhere where my tank is happy and I am happy. I am happiest when I don't have to fiddle with the tank to keep the alk and calcium at levels that are easy to maintain and I'm not having to make alot of adjustments to one paramater that are constantly throwing the other parameter out of whack. My tank seems to be happy with this as well (so far anyways ). If you are happy that your tank is at 400ppm of Ca and 8dKH and your tank is happy with that, then I say "good enough". However if you are having problems with algae etc, you may want to boost your alk and then your ca will need some work.

FWIW, my tank sits at about 400ppm Ca and 8dkh, every once in awhile I think I should fix it but it never stays where I try to get it at so I just leave it be.