Can Calcium be too high "new Tank"

[JMLufkins]

param.

Temp 78.8
sg .023
ammonia 0
pH 7.8
trites >.25
trates >20
calcium 520

[Konadog]

Are you adding calcium? You didn't list your alkalinity or what type of coral/fish you keep. What type of salt do you use when doing water changes?

[Warnberg]

Looking at your parms I would say you should work on a couple of them, and what salt did you use?

Temp 78.8 ok
SG .023 I hope this is 1.023 you may want to bring this up just a touch say 1.024 or 1.025
Ammonia 0.0 great
pH 7.8 not bad but like to see it around 8.2 to 8.3
Trites >.25 need to be zero
Trates > 20 fine until cycle is complete try to get it below 10 ppm

Ideal Alkalinity Recommended: 7-10 dKH
Ideal pH Recommended for Calcification: 8.4-8.45

Natural sea water has about 380 mg. of calcium per liter in it (380 mg/L). The ideal calcium concentration level to strive for is about 400 mg/L.

[Fizz71]

The real question here is how did you CA get to 520 and why don't you have a snow storm.

Could it be that the test ket is bad/old?

From the sounds of your parms you're just cycling so I wouldn't be too concerned, but I'd wonder where all that CA came from..Your CA should be coming from your salt at this time..unless you're adding something else. And the CA in your salt will not take your tank to 520.

And "ditto" on finding out what your Alkalinity is.

--Fizz

[Ti]

I've had Ca passed 550ppm with no storm, course the ph was low.
But yeh aim for 400-450 ppm Ca.

[AnemicOak]

I had a Ca of 800 for a while in my 15 when it was up (Salifert test). All other measurements were within "norms". I asked about it in Randy's chemistry forum. Forgot exactly what he said, but he wasn't super concerned. It's obviously not "right", but it was never below 620 while that tank was running. For my 75 I'm switching salt, because whether it's "ok" or not it makes me uncomfortable being that high. I would have loved 520 back then.
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=482532

[JMLufkins]

Sorry for the late response

I'm using Oceanic salt and I didn't add calcium. I currently have 1 yellow tail damsel and a coral catfish <-- catfish is free to anybody that wants him . I currently have no corals unless there is somthing on my LR that I don't know about yet.

I don't have a test for Alkalinity yet. LFS was out of them.

also this is a new tank and the LR has been in there for 9 days. Everything spiked for about 2 days and has been coming down slowly except for ammonia that was gone in 2 days.

I have done 3 small water changes the first 4 days I had the rock and have not done any since.

I do have a lot of white dots but not sure if it could be calcium or pods since my tank has a lot of pods. The damsel and catfish keep picking them off the glass and water.

edit: I can add baking soda to bring my pH up, correct?

[shel3702]

I am in a very similar situation, but I'm not too concerned with the high calcium. I, too, use the Oceanic salt. My levels are all in line but my calcium is at 520. However, my dKH is down to 8.0 from 10.0 last time I checked. I think this must be it; my pH has gone from 8.0 to 7.8 today, and I think it's because I haven't vacuumed out the poo yet from the last few days of the cleanup crew's feast (they're going crazy on the LR detritus). HTH

Tim