Calcium will not raise!!

harris28

harris28

Member
My calcium will not raise above 320 and I am trying to get to at least 400 and it's not happening. Can a skimmer take away the calcium or is my supplement bad? Now, I am using the rest of my purple up and then I will get a better supplement but I have dosed the tank every day this week and it has stayed at 320. I have no corals yest, just some fish and cleaner shrimp with some snails. I don't understand!! What is a good calcium supplement anyways and what other supplements should I does a reef tank in the making? It's a 75 gal and my ALK is 3.0 mEq/k, PH is 8.3 and trite, trate and ammonia are all 0.
Thanks for your help
 
mushroomss

mushroomss

Member
First you should let your coraline grow naturally not use purple up.Coraline growing is a sign that your calcium lvls are ok.And second your test kit is probably bad.Go buy another one and do the test again.You should never add any chemicals unless you have a good test kit.Water changes once a week should suffice the need for chemicals.
 
harris28

harris28

Member
Yeah I already have coraline growth and I bought this stuff a while back thinking it was something good. Well I know now!! But the test kit could be bad.. HHMMMM. I hate buying things that are bad!! Anyways I do 12% bi weekly water changes. So supplements are bad no matter what!?! HHHMMMM... I thought supplements added things that get lost due to skimming and being used up by inverts and stuff. I am new to the reef venture and I am trying to retain all I read but let me tell you...It's overwhelming!!!!
 
mushroomss

mushroomss

Member
yes of course supplemants are good.I am just saying it is easy to replace them with water changes.And most of the cheap test kits you can buy out there are peices of junk.Lets just say you pay for what you get.And yes skimmers do remove alot of supplemants you need.Thats why i prefer not to use one.
 
grumpygils

grumpygils

Active Member
Originally Posted by Harris28
My calcium will not raise above 320 and I am trying to get to at least 400 and it's not happening. Can a skimmer take away the calcium or is my supplement bad? Now, I am using the rest of my purple up and then I will get a better supplement but I have dosed the tank every day this week and it has stayed at 320. I have no corals yest, just some fish and cleaner shrimp with some snails. I don't understand!! What is a good calcium supplement anyways and what other supplements should I does a reef tank in the making? It's a 75 gal and my ALK is 3.0 mEq/k, PH is 8.3 and trite, trate and ammonia are all 0.
Thanks for your help
I have seen some of the best acropora (Ca hogs) reefs with CA number around 360. It was told to me that if you keep the Alk up, the absrobtion rate of Ca is also high. I do assume that this does require the Mag number to be ok too though. I use Ionic two part system in some tanks and Kal drip in other. My CA stays around 390 and my hard corals grow very quickly.
2 cents!
Mc
 
chilwil84

chilwil84

Active Member
the bottle in your test kit should have an experation date on it. have your lfs test and compare if your date is good. supplements and additives are good and purple up isnt real loaded with hight amounts of anything but you need to remember not to add anything you cant test for. chemicals like iodine and strontium can easily be overdosed and poison your tank
 
ovenmitt

ovenmitt

Member
Are you adding Mag? If your Mag is really low this I think will stop your Calc from going up. I use the Kent Turbo Calc to get the calc up if it is really low and then use the B-Ionic two part supplement to keep Calc and Alk where they need to be. We run our skimmer all the time.
 
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