800

[Louie3]

800 calcium could this have any ill affects rather than afecting ph? I switched to a lower calcium salt , instant ocean.
Quick and easy question
Any home made product to raise ALK, with out the use of a test kit?

[akm]

800 is ridiculous, what kind of test kit are you using? Well if your calcium is that high then that means your alk is super low and that will affect your pH. Also any corals you have are probably having a hard time growing.

Randy Holmes Farley has a good cal/alk home made supplement. You're probably going to want the first recipe
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

You could also just try dissolving a little(maybe a teaspoon) baking soda in a cup of tnak water and pouring it in everyday or so.

You really should get a alk test kit, they're like the cheapest tests there are, only $14.

[Louie3]

wanna see my lfs fish store pirce $22 for alk and i got my first cal for $23
im using a Hagen TestKit i probabaly did something wrong because im seeing crazy growth on certian zoos :w00t

[akm]

I was going to say order it online, lfs are always more expensive. You deffinently could have tested wrong, how many times did you get that reading?

[Louie3]

2x, i've heard about using espom salt but for what?

[akm]

Epsom salt is for raising magnesium levels.

[Louie3]

whats the dosage?

[akm]

I don't know, it tells you in that article I posted.

[Instar]

800 what? That might be low if we are not all speaking on the same uints of measure. In a marine tank its impossible to have an 800 mg/L calcium. It would precipitate out before reaching that level.

[Louie3]

its says multiply by the number of drops every drop by 20 ( 1 x 20=calcium concetration ) thats what I did. Then another thins says To determin the ratio of calcium and magnisium Cal mg/l x 2.5= calcium Hardness

[Instar]

The manufacturer of that kit may be giving it to you in mEq/L (that's milli equivalent per liter for anyone that is not a chemist) but all the literature referring to Calcium concentration is referring to mg/L (milligrams per liter). The two numbers are not similar as the scales are markedly different. When I test my calcium with my method it measures in mg/dL (milligrams per deciliter). To make it relative to the literature and standard measure that we all refer to I have to multiply that by 10. My water tests at 47.5 to 48.0 and that means 475 to 480 calcium in mg/L. In order to do the conversion, you have to know for sure the scale of measure and what that manufacturer says is normal. If they say 380 to 400 with your test kit, something is wrong with the method or reagents in your particular kit and you'll need either a new kit or someone to test your water for you. And your test kit must be made for salt water. Fresh water kits and salt water kits are not interchangeable normally. It sounds like your calculation for calcium hardness is a relative Mg concentration providing that the Mg is at least 2.5 times the calcium in mg/L. Recognizing that all the concentrations of ions and carbonates are relative to each other, that is the approximate minimum Mg needed to achieve a decent stability with the buffer system in your tank. First though, you need a good calcium test and conversion to the common scale of mg/L if that is the one you should choose to work with. The scale makes no difference as long as you know the acceptable range in that scale. Then, in the calculations, all the scales must be converted to match or it really gets excessively complicated. I do not believe it's the brand of salt you are using that needs to be the focal point as much as the test and units of measure for calcium itself.

[GaryP]

It is possible to get to 800 ppm calcium if your alkalinity is very low. Something has to give. If one is high the other is going to be low. The key is to maintain a balance.

A low alkalinity level is going to cause a bunch of different problems. Calcium and alkalinity is like a bowl of jelly beans. You can have a lot of calcium jelly beans, or a lot of alkalinity jelly beans, but you can't have a lot of both. Keeping your magnesium level high will help create a larger jar to fit more jelly beans in. Anyway, that's the high-tech explanation.