Why is my calcium so high and how do I lower it?

[bprewit]

Well I have been waiting for the last 5 days for my calcium to drop and it is still at 620ppm though i have no idea how it could be that high. I have tested with two different test kits and get the same reading with both. Mag is around 1250 and alk is at 2 which is terribly low. I havent added anything to the tank as just set it up using L/R and inhabitants from my other tank. The only thing I did different is use Oceanic salt. Not at all blaming the salt or trying to start another thread about salt problems. I always used IO before, first time to use oceanic and mixed to a sg of 1.025 which is where is try and keep it. I used new sand when setting up this tank and filtered the water to clean up the fine particles but still the tank is somewhat cloudy, not bad but definatly not as clear as it should be. I tried to mix another batch of water to do a water change but I only have oceanic salt and with RO/DI water the new batch had calcium reading of 600 with a sg. of 1.025 so kinda useless to do a water change to try and fix things. What am I missing here? I am nervous that raising the alk to lower the calcium is going to clog up my pumps with calcium carbonate and I leave tomorrow probably for work trip and dont want any problems with pumps or the likes while I am gone. I could sure use some advice on how to get this fixed.

[CD]

Hmmm...you know, I recall someone mentioning that they wouldn't recommend setting up a new tank with Oceanic salt, but rather to use it during water changes once the new tank had cycled...kind of "gradually" working your way up to a complete change over. I think (not sure) it had something to do with the combination of the new sand bed and Oceanic salt? Hopefully somebody else will chime in here. :unsure

Wendy

[matt]

Good question. What's in the tank? Fish, corals, etc...also how much light do you have? What I'm trying to get at is, how quickly will calcium get used up in yur tank?

Assuming your inhabitants can survive such low alk (if you're talking about 2 meq, not 2 dkh, it's not super low) and assuming that your tank will consume calcium through photosynthesis (good light, photosynthetic animals, coralline algae) then I think the best approach would be to simply add buffer; I'd use plain old baking soda unless your ph starts dropping. I'd gradually bring up the alk with the buffer over a few weeks' time while the calcium is dropping, and you shouldn't get a snow storm, and you'll balance out in a while.

I'd consider marine environment salt in the future, at least I think that's what it's called. I've never used oceanic, but a good thing about the marine environment is that it's pretty well balanced out of the bag.

[Dozer]

I agree with Matt. I use Oceanic and I like it, but I ALWAYS add buffer to it when I do water changes.

[NaCl_H2O]

I use Oceanic, and I setup my entire new system with Oceanic and a 95% new DSB, and 75% new LR. Yes, I had high Ca and low dKH, but it is all still balancing out. Trying to hit great parameters in a new tank (IMO) is ridiculous .... the tank needs to mature & balance. My tank is still relatively young at 6 months, IMO.

[alton]

Do your water changes using Instant Ocean less calcium than the other two salts. The big issue is not getting in a hurry and try to drop it over night, I took three months to get mine around 500 and I did not lose anything. Also most test are not accurate over 500, so what I did was half seawater and half DI water and multiply by two.

[matt]

Do your water changes using Instant Ocean less calcium than the other two salts. The big issue is not getting in a hurry and try to drop it over night, I took three months to get mine around 500 and I did not lose anything. Also most test are not accurate over 500, so what I did was half seawater and half DI water and multiply by two.

Ummm, I have to disagree on the use of IO, if you're keeping corals. But, not to let this veer off into a salt debate...neat trick with the testing, but I wonder if it really works. Lots of test kits have a low resolution test; just add 1/2 the reagents and double the results. This is kid of a variation on that. Does D.I. water have zero calcium? I guess it's not enough to worry about. If I ever get an aquarium again, I'll try it!

[TexasTodd]

I agree. Bring it down slowly. High CA isn't going to kill anything but your pumps.

TT

[z28pwr]

I just ran into that same problem and was trying to raise the PH and kept dumping Super Buffer DKH, eventually the buffer knocked down the calcium but the ALK is over 16DKH therefore slowly raise your alkalinity.