Low Calcium..

ZaboAA · #1 09/01/2003, 09:49 PM

I'm having a very hard time getting my calcium up. It is staying around 300-350. I did a 20% water chage and have been adding Kent liquid calcium for about week now. I'm afraid to add it to quickly or to much in fear my test kit is bad (Nutrafin). Can you over dose a tank on Ca? Everything seems to be alright? Opinions?

Thanx

Miller357 · #2 09/01/2003, 10:01 PM

I used Kent liquid calcium in the past and never saw any ill affects from it and I dosed pretty heavily. I think the only bad things that can happen with a Ca over dose is a alk problem or precipitating Ca which looks like a snow storm. What are you params?

Most folks seem to like Salifert test kits.

I'm sure some will pipe up if I am wrong.

hwynboy · #3 09/01/2003, 10:37 PM

Kent Liquid Calcium has worked for me too...if you have a CA reactor or drip kalk this is a good booster to get it up there and the kalk or the reactor will stabilize it IME. Good Luck it was good information passed on to me by Randy.

ZaboAA · #4 09/02/2003, 07:09 AM

I always run my skimmer, will that decrease the effect of the Kent?

mhurley · #5 09/02/2003, 08:49 AM

Well, if you're unsure of your test kit, that's problem #1. Buy a good kit (Salifert) to see where your levels are at. You may find out you don't have a problem at all.

If the new kit confirms the levels then go ahead and double dose the stuff. I added 16oz (yes, that's 1 pound) of Turbo Calcium into my 330 gallon system all at once. It bounced my Ca straight up where it needed to be and it has no adverse side affects. Of course, it's always recommended to go slow, but in my case, I had no livestock in there to be concerned about.

Read this if you haven't already. Sounds like your a Zone 3 person. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

Mike

mhurley · #6 09/02/2003, 08:50 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by ZaboAA
I always run my skimmer, will that decrease the effect of the Kent?

I can't imagine a reason why.

Teo · #7 09/02/2003, 09:50 AM

after you confirm your test kit and it is still low...Magnisium is a main factor in keeping good calcium levels. so if you mail order you may want to get a mag test kit also. salifert is the best inexpensive kit IMO.

We had the same problem....and when we got a mag test kit, the mag was pretty low, around 1100....1290-1350 is an ideal level. After we supplimented the mag and checked our dkh for a good level (dkh never was low, just checked to make sure it was high enough to take some calcium dosing) our calcium was easy to raise using the recomended dosage plus a little.

hope you get it straightend out.