Please Help With Calcium Levels

[thamobster]

ok..to make a long story short ive had a huge ongoing problem with hairy algae out of nowhere..ive tested all my levels and everything seems to be perfect..only thing thats off is the calcium..its off the scale..its at 820 mg?l (ppm) . could this be the cause of the extreme amount of hairy algae accumulating on my live rock and glass and crushed coral..cuz it just reappears the next day even after cleaning..please tell me what to do and how i can fix this problem..thanks nick

 

[yosemite sam]

What are your PH and Alkalinity? Your calcium is impossibly high to have good PH and alk. What brand of test kit are you using? Do you dose anything such as kalk?

 

[thamobster]

im using a saltwater master liquid test kit my aquarium pharmaceuticals..heres my results..
Phosphates = 0
Nitrates = 10
Nitrites = 0
Ammonia = 0
pH = 8.4
salinity = 1.023
Kh 13.5 dkh

 

[yosemite sam]

I would suspect that your calcium test kit is giving you a bad result. Have you repeated the test several times? I would invest in Salifert test kits, they are much better.
As for your algae problem, do you use tap water or RO/DI water? The CC bottom is probably part of the problem. CC traps waste that feeds algae blooms. How old is the tank, and what fish/livestock do you have in it?

 

[thamobster]

yeah ive repeated the teste quite a few times..i use tap water but have tested it for phosphates and there is none..plus ive been using it for 7 months now on my tank and its never been an issue..the cc seemed to be fine too until the past month when it started blooming on the rock badly then the cc and glass..even after removing the lr and scrubbing it it still came back the next day..as for livestock i have 3 anemones..1 emerald crab..3 clowns ..and a purple damsel..and a big cleanup crew of about 35 snails and 5 crabs..

 

[xnikki118x]

You should definitely take a sample of your water to your LFS to have it tested for calcium. Another test can't hurt!
IMO, I'd definitely do a 20% or so water change and see if anything gets better. Maybe add more crabs?

 

[himandher]

i dont know if your high calcium levels can be blamed for the algae outbreak. I also had very high calcium, in fact so high that it doesnt even register on the Salifert calcium test. But I didnt have any algae probs as a result. My ph dropped a little, but nothing more than that. I used a buffer, and quit adding calcium supplements. Most salt mixes have calcium already, so unless you have a huge load you shouldnt have to supplement, at least that is my opinion. I did and went way over the scale and I have a decent amount of corals.