calcium dosing

bryce.martin23

bryce.martin23

Member
I have been dosing my tank with kent liquid calcium for the past 3-4 days now with the suggested amount of 1-5ml per 50 gal of water, i have been dosing around 3 ml per 50 gal. nothing seemd to happen so i steped it up to 5ml per 50 gal. After the fourth day my calcium has only rised 20 ppm and my ph level has droped a little, my question is, am i not dosing enough or does this type of thing take a while to get in gear.
 
geoj

geoj

Active Member
Originally Posted by bryce.martin23
http:///forum/post/3050128
I have been dosing my tank with kent liquid calcium for the past 3-4 days now with the suggested amount of 1-5ml per 50 gal of water, i have been dosing around 3 ml per 50 gal. nothing seemd to happen so i steped it up to 5ml per 50 gal. After the fourth day my calcium has only rised 20 ppm and my ph level has droped a little, my question is, am i not dosing enough or does this type of thing take a while to get in gear.
Check the instructions if it says maintains calcium then the suggested amount will not move calcium very much if at all. It would be normal for some of your Alk (Carbonate Hardness) to drop some as you add calcium. This may be one of many reasons for lower pH. Don’t add more than the instructions say in a two-hour time period this will increase the Alk (Carbonate Hardness) loss.
So I would say you need to add more to get the calcium to move, just in small enough doses that Alk (Carbonate Hardness) does not fall much.
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
what are you using? if its calcium chloride (most calcium supplements except seachem reef calcium) just add more. instructions are useless. calcium has to be added based on demand or need not any ml per gallon. If its seachem reef calcium use reef complete or another calcium chloride based supplement.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Originally Posted by Stanlalee
http:///forum/post/3051228
my guess would be its low

he is testing otherwise he wouldn't know if only went up 20ppm.
lol...but I was under the impression that regular w/c's would keep that in check
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
depends on coral demand/stocking. right now I can with my current tank but my last tank ran thru calcium like water (25ml of reef complete every other day and reef complete is the most concentrated of them all. kent superbuffer dKH on opposite days). same salt (seachem reef salt). any reef tank that stocked and growing will eventually require dosing or a calcium reactor. right now I only require 5ml of buffer per day. when it grows out or I stock more heavily I expect calcium dosing to come aboard.
 
bryce.martin23

bryce.martin23

Member
Originally Posted by nycbob
http:///forum/post/3050392
any reason why u r dosing calcium?
the main reason i am dosing my tank with calcium is because of some montiporas i was given not too long ago. I have read that they love calcium and require it to flurish. i am using Kent liqiud calcium and yes it is calcium chloride. im going to do a water change here in a bit, was planning on using natural sea water from the lfs and use the reef crystals from time to time, i dont know yet, still have to do some homework on them.
 
pbnj

pbnj

Member
Use Seachem Reef Complete. It's all I ever dose in my tank.
A few capfuls with my weekly water changes (using Reef Crystals salt) and my calcium stays between 420-460 and alk is always stable.
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
Originally Posted by pbnj
http:///forum/post/3053051
Use Seachem Reef Complete. It's all I ever dose in my tank.
A few capfuls with my weekly water changes (using Reef Crystals salt) and my calcium stays between 420-460 and alk is always stable.
thats what I use mainly because its more concentrated than kent, brightwell and all the other calcium chloride supplements plus it has mg and sr at the same uptake ratio it should be utilized corresponding with the calium dosing requirements so mg and sr dosing isn't neccessary as long as the salt used has adequate mg. Otherwise calcium chloride is calcium chloride. dosing more kent will yeild the same results with calcium levels as reef complete.
 
kniquy

kniquy

Member
I also had a problem with low calcium levels for the longest time. No matter what i added it never seemed to bump it up. I had been pretty lax on my water changes. I have started a new plan of changing about 25% of my water every two weeks and my calcium levels are much better (400's). I am also adding a calcium supplement 1-2times per week but i feel as though the water changes have made the biggest difference
 
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