High calcium without dosing?

[gwhunter]

I've got a 72 gallon reef with about 100 lbs of lr and about 10 corals. Mostly mushrooms and polyps. And I'm doing bi weekly WC. I'm running an ro/di system also. I've seen a few post on this topic lately and one reply dealt with high sg as the cause. I don't own a refractometer but use both the cheap arm type hydrometer and a floater. So far the two are usually really close. I'm dosing nothing and can't figure out why I've got high Calcuim. My alk is also high (12) my ph is 8.2, 0 ammonia,nitrate,nitrite. my phos is at around 3. My corals seem to be doing ok but still I'd like to get a handle on this. I have notice a decline in my coraline and just ordered a mag test kit. My current test kit is the API reef master and it's about a month old.
Matt

 

[geoj]

The numbers that you gave us look good to me. Give the tank a year and you will be like the rest of us trying to keep those numbers up.
Coralline algae eating micro stars?
I have had calcium of 600ppm, alk of 20dkh, and pH of 8.5
I let this go a week till it came back down, was not happy with the numbers not because there looked to be any stress in the corals, but because I was uncomfortable with the high numbers.

 

[gwhunter]

I do have tons of tiny star fish. They're green and look like brittle stars. So these numbers are not an issue then?
Matt

 

[reefnewbee]

I've also been perplexed by my high calcium and high alkaline levels. Saw the note on the swing arm hydrometers. Got a refractometer on order thru saltwaterfish.com. I measured my calcium and alkalines prior to water change the other day. The levels are same as in the tank. Nothing in there looks stressed. Just stresses me.

 

[geoj]

Asterina starfish, or more commonly known as Fiji starfish are generally dime sized or smaller with a large body, irregular arm length, and an irregular number of arms.
Attachment 238336Attachment 238337

 

[geoj]

Originally Posted by GWhunter
http:///forum/post/3224479
I do have tons of tiny star fish. They're green and look like brittle stars. So these numbers are not an issue then?
Matt
Ya, the numbers are not really that far off. Just remember the people that right books don’t want to get a bad review (They want to sell books) so they tend to be conservative when giving numbers just know your numbers are high and keep a watch on them. If they get much higher like I had, I would then be uncomfortable with it.

 

[gwhunter]

What can be done if the numbers get any higher? Those star's aren't what I have.
Matt

 

[bang guy]

You never listed what the Calcium level was so it's not easy to tell you. You will need to find out where the Calcium is coming from. Are you using tap water? What's the calcium level of that?

 

[gwhunter]

The calcium level is just over 500. I did mention that I'm using an ro/di 75gpd system. I've not tested the tap water that feeds the ro/di. I'm going to test the mag as soon as the kit arrives.
Matt

 

[beaslbob]

Just a thought here
During tank setup I normally stir up a bunch of stuff. Pouring in water, mixing salt and so on. All of which stirs up the calcium carbonate in sand and rocks.
Which can result in high but temporary calcium (and alk?) measurements.
But those will go down as the system settles down.
So one of the first things to do IMHO is nothing.
To me you need to know where the long term end point is, not where some temporary transient point the tank is currently running at.
my .02

 

[gwhunter]

Good point, the tank is bare bottom. It's contents are going into a 110 x tall in the next month or so. I'm going to be adding a sand bed of about 4" of dried sand. I'll also be adding about 70lbs of dry base rocks from macro rocks. Then I was planning on placing the lr I already have on top of the base rock. I then planned to add the corals slowly over the course of a few hrs. Since the LR will only be out of the water for less than 2 mins I'm thinking I should be good to add my fish to the 110 in a week. I'll be making the new tanks water from ro/di and will add the salt in my mixing tub. I was also going add some of the cycled water from the 72 into the 110. I just recently started testing the reef specific parameters and was banking on being low on the Calc,Alk and Mag.
Matt