Dosing more Ca than Alk? Is this okay?

[LeanneP]

I have been using your C-balance for a few years for my 90 gallon mixed reef that is about 5 years old. In the last 6 months or so I have been fighting to keep my calcium above 370. My alk is around 8.7. I am using kalk to keep my ph up and have also started dosing mg again. I decided to start dosing more calcium and it is now at 400 and my alk is still about 8.7. I am dosing almost double calcium to alkalinity. I know that I am supposed to dose equal parts so I am just wondering if this is going to throw my tank off? I don't have any precipitation on my pumps so I think that my tank is just using a lot more calcium. Is this possible?

[Wheelman76]

As you know you need to dose equal parts of A and B when using C balance because the bottles contain more than just ALK and CAL and you can really throw off the balance. If you need to just raise the calcium to get back to a balanced level then you should use a product that is strictly calcium chloride. Once you get the calcium levels where you want then continue using the C balance in equal amounts. Have you tried letting your ALK drop and keep it slightly lower ? An alkalinity level of 8.0 dkh is balanced at 420 Calcium. I've always found I need to dose more ALK than Cal which I think is pretty common in most tanks. Another thing to check oat make sure your Calcium test kit is good. Btw what is your mag at ?

[LeanneP]

Originally Posted by Wheelman76

As you know you need to dose equal parts of A and B when using C balance because the bottles contain more than just ALK and CAL and you can really throw off the balance. If you need to just raise the calcium to get back to a balanced level then you should use a product that is strictly calcium chloride. Once you get the calcium levels where you want then continue using the C balance in equal amounts. Have you tried letting your ALK drop and keep it slightly lower ? An alkalinity level of 8.0 dkh is balanced at 420 Calcium. I've always found I need to dose more ALK than Cal which I think is pretty common in most tanks. Another thing to check oat make sure your Calcium test kit is good. Btw what is your mag at ?

I used two kits that were new to make sure it was accurate. Mag is over 1400 now that I started dosing again. It was dropping to 1300. I have tried getting my ca up by stopping dosing alk and the ca comes up but then drops again when I start dosing equal parts. The fact that alk is staying the same when I am dosing more ca makes me think that I am using more ca. Or is it maybe that I need to use calcium chloride and not the c-balance to get it back to normal? I too used to have to dose a little more alk but over the last year it seems my tank has changed. I have more SPS now so I thought that was why. I will try the calcium chloride to see if it works. Thanks Jess.

[Wheelman76]

There is magnesium in part A or whichever part is the calcium one ,so that would explain your mag being higher from dosing more of the Calcium solution. I wouldn't be overly concerned if you are having to dose more calcium but get back to using equal parts of the C balance and use plain calcium chloride to adjust and to help keep up with the extra cal demand if needed. Maybe once you get back to equal parts things will start to balance out a little on their own. You can also do a few larger (25%to 30%)water changes over the course of a couple weeks if you're worried about the water chemistry being a little imbalanced due to not dosing equal parts , however if the tank looks fine that's probably not necessary.

[LeanneP]

Originally Posted by Wheelman76

There is magnesium in part A or whichever part is the calcium one ,so that would explain your mag being higher from dosing more of the Calcium solution. I wouldn't be overly concerned if you are having to dose more calcium but get back to using equal parts of the C balance and use plain calcium chloride to adjust and to help keep up with the extra cal demand if needed. Maybe once you get back to equal parts things will start to balance out a little on their own. You can also do a few larger (25%to 30%)water changes over the course of a couple weeks if you're worried about the water chemistry being a little imbalanced due to not dosing equal parts , however if the tank looks fine that's probably not necessary.

Water changes are not really a help because I have to manually add mag and ca to IO salt to get it to where I want it to be. I thought that maybe should try reef salt but some else had a good point that it is probably cheaper to top up the ca and mag. I just got some calcium so I have stopped dosing everything and will see if I can get my ca up with it. Hopefully this will balance it out and I can get back to equal parts.

[Wheelman76]

The point of the water changes was to re balance all the trace minerals that are added to the calcium side of the C balance that you've been adding to your tank in higher doses by adding too much of one product.

[Wheelman76]

But if the tank looks fine then I wouldn't worry about it.

[LeanneP]

Yes, tank looks fine. There hasn't been any ill effects. I have growth in my SPS. Just thought that I may have more if my ca is a little higher. I am doing another water change on Wed so that should help.