calcium level problems ?

[blueboy]

it appears i'm not alone!

[fishcrazy]

When started my 135g I dosed with ca. 2 days on and then one day off, and it took 6 months to finally get my ca. to 420ppm. Every water change you do is dropping your ca. because the water your adding is only 100ppm ca. Which is actually better then most. I use I.O. and I don't think it's even 100ppm in ca.

[GaryP]

IO is "supposed" to have 375 calcium. It was not intended for reef tanks, but rather goes back to the days when most people were doing FO tanks. I started off using IO 12 years ago. That's not to say that you can't use IO for reef tanks, it just means you have to bump up the calcium if you are planning on keeping your calcium in the 425 range. Of course the larger the tank, the more you are going to have to supplement.

I recently changed back from Oceanic to IO. Unless I dose every day I am having a hard time keeping my levels where I want them. I think I need to re-evaluate my use of IO and come up with a new plan. I'm basically having to start over every with dosing every time I do a water change rather then have the water change help out with dosing. Frustrating!

[JeremyGlen]

I know a lot of people don't like the Oceanic salt, but you could switch to that if you really want a high calcium level. I never had to add calcium at all to my tanks when I used it. Just doing water changes kept the tank at 450-470 or a bit higher.

I need to get a new calcium test kit so I can test what is going on with the new salt I'm trying. I'm now using the Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt. I did notice everything "liven up" when I started the switch 2 weeks ago. I'm still in the process of switching salt and have almost completely phased out the Oceanic.

As for the alk, I used to use the Kent Marine superbuffer-dkh when my tanks got low on the alk. It is a very good product to "quickly" raise the alk. I'm just not too sure on its ability to maintain.

If you ever need any help with your tank let me know cause I'm here in San Marcos as well.