Ca level always high. Possible?

robobit1 · #1 10/10/2004, 07:36 AM

My aqua is about 5 months old. 55 gallons using undergravel. The corals I have are frogspawn, leather corals, green star polyps, mushrooms, goniopora and zoanthids. My ph is constant 8.0-8.1. Kh is around 6-7dkh.
The first 3 months was ok but in these 2 months I have stopped dosing calcium because it went from a normal 450 to 580. It stay at 580 and didnt drop a bit.
I have tried to change the water 30% every week. It dropped to 480 but it went back to 580 in 2 days although I didn't add anything in the water except strontium/trace elements.
The corals were ok except my goniopora was dying since last week.

What makes my calcium level so high and won't drop? The first 3 months was ok. I always dosed in calcium every 3 days and it stayed at 440-450. As to now, I only put in strontium every 4 days.

How to drop the calcium level without 100% change of the water?

Thanks.

Randy Holmes-Farley · #2 10/10/2004, 08:39 PM

Are you using Oceanic salt? It has excessively high calcium and could cuase what you are seeing.

What test kit are you using?

Have you measured calcium in the starting salt mix?
Calcium shouldn't (doesn't) rise if you are not adding any calcium in some fashion.

robobit1 · #3 10/10/2004, 09:29 PM

I'm using Sera ca test kit which is the only test kit available in my area.
I'm not using a sysntetic salt but I'm using a natural sea saltwater.

Do you think that my corals have stopped consuming calcium as it was always stays at 580 for 2 months.

Randy Holmes-Farley · #4 10/11/2004, 10:49 AM

Only your frogspawn will consume significant calcium and alkalinity. So depending on how fast it is growing, your biggest user of calcium may be coralline algae. It is certainly possible that the demand is quite low.

Alan Olson · #5 10/11/2004, 08:50 PM

Whats the danger of calcium being too high? As for as I know there is no "toxic" level. If the water becomes too saturated, the calcium would just percipitate "snow storm" until lower levels would allow it to re-desolve. No harm done. I would be more concerned with alkalinity and stable PH. I am new to the hobby so if I'am wrong please let me know.

robobit1 · #6 10/12/2004, 05:54 AM

What I knew, when you have a high level of Ca such as higher than 500, some corals specially soft coral will stop consuming Ca. Is it true?

Randy Holmes-Farley · #7 10/12/2004, 07:12 AM

The greatest concern with elevated calcium is that alkalinity is often depleted, and depletion of alkalinity can reduce the rate of calcification of many organisms.

bigdaddyadam · #8 10/12/2004, 10:48 PM

I have a related question to the one in this post. I had an issue with pH about a month and a half ago and as part of the effort to stabilize pH I started a Kalk regiment and also occasional buffering of carbonate when testing deemed neccissary. I haven't had to buffer since I stabilized the pH at 8.3-8.4 and Alk to 9dkh. Alk and pH seem to deviate very little from this now. The thing is I have stopped dosing Kalk because the level of calcium was elevated near 500. The calcium level has stayed around 400 since I've stopped and now I'm wondering if I should restart my Kalk regiment or wait until levels seem to drop. I've done several 10% weekly water changes since stopping the kalk. The only thing I can think of is that the natural level of calcium in my water is high; our local water is very hard and while I am using RO/DI water from the grocery store I know it is local tap before the filtering and I am not sure if this proccess takes out calcium. So I am asking is this enough from the water changes or should I still resume the Kalk? I am assuming for now that water change and top off water is rich in calcium but maybe someone can enlighten me for sure.

Randy Holmes-Farley · #9 10/13/2004, 06:12 AM

RO/DI won't contain any significant calcium, if they are doing it properly.

I'd restart the limewater now. Calcium is just very slow to respond to over or under dosing. Water changes, unless you are using Oceanic salt that has excessive calcium, is unlikely to maintain appropriate calcium and alkalinity levels.

bigdaddyadam · #10 10/13/2004, 04:09 PM

should I be concerned if the calcium levels start to reach to or near 500 again? or is this not a problem? it's a 20 gallon with 4 medium size LPS and most rock is covered with corraline but I really don't know if they demand that much calcium or not. thanks for the quick reply by the way.

bigdaddyadam · #11 10/13/2004, 04:13 PM

addressing an earlier comment, when would I be risking calcium precipitation and is this actually harmful? I have heard yes and no in various places.

Randy Holmes-Farley · #12 10/14/2004, 07:15 AM

Precipitation of calcoium carbonate happens in all aquaria all of the time. It is only a problem if it is really prevalent (with white precipitate all over) or it limits the available alkalinity. Many folks have calcium in the low 500's without a problem.