Clumping Aragonite

[R.Allard]

I have had my tank up for about 6-7 months now and everything seems fine. my levels are at 0.0 on amonia,etc i have been adding a supplement
of calcium (Kent liquid) to raise the calcium level as well as dripping Kalkwasser. my calcium level seems to be going down,over the last two weeks my calcium has gone from 400 down to arround 360 or that is what my hagen test says anyway the aragonite in the main tank is fine but the refugium i just hooked up on last saturday has clumps of arragonite on the top layer of sand.
any suggestions???
thanks R.

[TexasState]

If your sand bed clump up, it could be from you dosing the Kalkwasser. Kalkwasser can harden the aragonite into a cement like surface.

[matt]

I never heard of KW doing that, but I guess you learn something new everyday. If you're using the "reef aragonite" which has a larger grain size than "sugar fine" aragamax or Southdown-type sand, I bet that's part of the problem. I had some of that stuff clump up on me, and it's not good, because that part of the sand bed is not functioning. (no sand bed critters burrowing) I would suggest taking all the clumps out, replacing the sand with the smaller sized particles, and seeding from as many sources as possible. In fact, I propose we have a "live sand swap" sometime rather than, or in addition to, a frag swap. That we we'd all get better diversity in our sand beds.

As far as the hagen test kit reading, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Probably the test kit has a 40ppm margin of error anyway. If it keeps going down you'll have to figure out some more efficient way of replacing calcium.

HTH
Matt

[OldSalty]

Bowfront is Correct :-D
Kalkwasser is a good product IF dosed correctly I.E. Use of a kalk reactor. Unfortunatly most folks just use the dump and pray method. Also keep in mind u must also have correct alkinity and magnesium levels to maintain propper calcium levels. Don't think for a min just because u dose a bunch of calcium additives that clacium levels will go up. and as in your case u saw they seemed to go down. U need to first achive the proper ballance in the system and it will take care of it self in most cases.

Just my 2 cents worth

Kelly

[Richard]

Here's a link to a good article on relationship of calcium and KH.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

[Lisaod12]

Richard,
Thank you for the link. I'm having problems with PH, dkh and calcium problems. Just what I needed!