Calcium Supplement Question....

[Kalied20]

I have been keeping my 90 gallon at about 400-420 Calcium reading. It has got my SPS corals growing pretty good. I have been checking my PH (8.2-8.3) and the ALK (in the good range on the Red SEA chart of 1.7-2.5).

I have given thought to using my top off system to add supplements like the calcium. Is this a good or bad idea. Can you add too much calcium? Is there a way to calculate the usage of top off water daily and calcium needed and balance it?

Anyone tried this before?

[crumbletop]

Yes, you can have too much calcium. What happens when you add too much is it precipitates out as calcium carbonate, which will lower your alk. Too much calcium depends on your alk level. For an alk of 3.0, I believe the balanced calcium is around 410 or 420. It sounds like you are keeping things in a good range, but I would recommend using a titratable alk kit, instead of the red sea kit. With a titratable kit (like the Salifert) you will know what your alk really is.

To dose calcium, people do several things. You can dose calcium chloride, which just raises the Ca (and chloride) but doesn't raise alk. You can dose calcium chloride + sodium carbonate ("2 part") to raise alk + ca. People also use Ca reactors to keep a steady level of alk + ca. Dosing equal amounts of 2-part, or using a Ca reactor basically dose balanced Ca + alk.

In topoff water people typically use kalkwasser, which is calcium hydroxide. This too is balanced ca and alk. It isn't as potent as 2-part so people typically do not use it to raise ca or alk -- it is more to maintain a stable level. It is high in pH and can cause ca to precipitate out if too much is dosed at once. In my tank, I dose 2-part and also run all of my topoff water as kalkwasser. You could dose calcium chloride via topoff if you wanted, but IMO that would require separate dosing of alk, and you wouldn't really know how much ca you were adding relative to the alk. That is why kalkwasser is used because it is balanced ca + alk.

Hope that helps.

[Kalied20]

Thanks for the reply. I think a once every two day test is good for me right now. A reactor seems to be the way to go, but after I buy a skimmer. The water changes are getting more frequent and backbreaking.

[gsusfreak]

i dont test for calc or alk...in my 20gal...is that ok?

[SRT80]

you need to test you calcium and alk gsus. Do you even dose calcium? I seen you just got a acro frag and you have a frogspawn. Both need calcium... And Kalied, and don't know if this is any help...

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html

Steve

[crumbletop]

It pretty much depends on what you are keeping. Corline algae, and stony corals need decent levels of Ca and Alk to do well. Depending on the demand you can keep up with water changes and a bit of buffer. I keep mostly stony corals and need to dose daily to keep up. If you dose buffer, then I'd at least get a kit to measure alkalinity. In general you don't want to dose stuff that you don't measure to protect against overdosing. With a 20 gallon that is mostly softies, you could probably keep up with things via regular water changes.

[edit] Ahh, I see that you have some stonies -- yeah, I'd recommend measuring ca along with alk.

[Kalied20]

My stonies just consist of a green slimer, couple of Monti caps, frag of pink and green birdnest, small colony of blastos, and frogspawn.

Not too much of a SPS load, but I want to see them grow, grow, grow.....


:D :D :D

[gsusfreak]

thanks for the heads up guys...i'll be pickup a test kit and water else i need to dose.......weird, i thought i read somewhere that says i didnt really need to dose....just as long as i keep up with water changes....like something saying that the saltmixes has those elements in them already

[DMBillies]

Salt does have "those" elements in them (at different levels depending on the salt mix). The problem comes when your tank can eat up more than you can change out (easily) with water changes. Smaller tanks are easier because you can usually just do a larger water change and often fix water quality issues (particularly if you don't have a high load of SPS, which are generally the most demanding). Gsusfreak...It's always good to test and keep track of your levels, but with only a couple of SPS in such a small tank, you shouldn't have a real problem with calcium as long as you stay on top of water changes. IMO of course...

[pitbullpooch]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9363179#post9363179 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gsusfreak
weird, i thought i read somewhere that says i didnt really need to dose....just as long as i keep up with water changes....like something saying that the saltmixes has those elements in them already


thats true, with what you have i wouldnt worry about your calcium and alk yet. Ive had many nano's with alot more sps then you have and never had to dose calcium or alk since i kept up with my water changes. Now when your tank matures some more and you want more sps then you can get into the dosing but being a beginner it can make it confusing by trying to dose especially since you really dont have to with the little that you have in your tank.