Raising my Calcium Levels

[tangman99]

I started using Ocean's Blend two part additives about 3 weeks ago (Alk/Buffer and Calcium) I started adding 25 ml of each everymorning for the first week and tested. As my Calcium was not high enough, I have been increaing the dosage every week to try and get the calcium over 400. I am now adding 35 ml a day and my Calcium is between 350 and 400 and my Alk is a little over 10.
My tank is a 90 gallon and I evaporate about 1 gallon a day. What should I do to get my Calcium up between 400 and 450 (I assume this is a target goal as this is what most people seem to have)? I don't have the budget for a calcium reactor.
I don't have any corals or clams in the tank yet. Just 100 lbs or fiji live rock with a lot of coralean (sp.) algae which I understand will use a lot of calcium.
I know a lot of people drip kalkwaisser (sp.). What are the advantages of this over what I'm doing and can you do both?
Thanks,
Tangman

 

[bang guy]

hmmm.. You have no coral and yet your CA level won't rise with heavy dosing of tw part additive.
What test kit are you using?

 

[tangman99]

I'm using the Red Sea Mini Lab Test. I don't have any corals to speak of, just the Xenia and a small Blumossa (sp.) coral.

 

[killyah]

dont coraline algea take up calcium? but even tho it should'nt take that much off ur system. or it could be ur adding to much of 1 thing ,like Alk/Buffer or Calcium. to much of one will drop the other. they have to be = to each other to keep everything in balance.

 

[tangman99]

I add equal amount of each. Right now I am adding 35 ml of each every morning.

 

[killyah]

what i mean by = is, your Alk is at an ok level right now so i would cut down on the dose not every day. and i would dose the Calcium to what ur doseing now till u get in the right range. to much Alk will lower ur Calcium, and to much calcium will lower ALK. that's why i said =....not = doseing. and as always test the water to see what there at. also water changes does wonders, brings back everything in track...

 

[bang guy]

It might not be the problem but it wouldn't hurt to invest in a Salifert Ca test kit.
Another possibility is low Magnesium. I thought most two part additives (Ca & ALK) also add Magnesium but I'm not that familiar with Oceans Blend. If it doesn't have magnesium then a few good water changes will usually fix Mg.

 

[blondenaso1]

I took a little more agressive aproach to raising my Ca. It was stuck at 375 and the Alk and pH were perfect and the Mg was also right on. So I went and got a bottle of the Kent Ca addative. I would dose 2 teasp of seachem reef builder in the morning and then I dumped in about a 1/4 of the bottle into the tank. I did this for 3 days and used almost an entire bottle of the Kent stuff. I monitored the pH the whole time to make sure it didn't drop. 2 days later I tested everything and they were perfect. Ca was 475, Alk was 3.5 meg/L, and pH was 8.3. Don't know if it had any drastic effects on anything in the tank, but the coraline exploded and everything is doing great.

 

[gregzbobo]

It might even be your test kit, long shot I know, but I have read that the REd Sea test kits aren't very good. If you can spring for it, get a different test kit, or see if your lfs can test your water for you. I use salifert to test my calc and alk. Very repeatable so far, good color change during titration. Drop drop drop drop-bang color change. swf.com has them for very reasonable prices.

 

[bang guy]

I was going to suggest Calcium chloride. But I advise you to get a second opinion on the Ca level before using just a Ca additive.

 

[blondenaso1]

When I did it I did not just use a Ca addative. I raised the CO3 levels in conjuction with the Ca additions by using the reef builder. I would highly caution about adding just Ca to your tank. If Ca and CO3 levels are not raised together then you will throw everything out of whack.

 

[tangman99]

I'm not quite sure what to do. I will probably pick up another test kit and try that. Can I just increase the dosage on the two part up further? Will it make a difference? I think I can dose up to 1 ml for each gallon of water a day so I could go from 35 up to as high as 90 ml over time if necessary.
Tangman

 

[bang guy]

You can go as high a dose as is necessary. The dosage listed on the jug is just a guideline. Once you will need to experiment and get a feel for your tanks Ca and CO3 requirements. Every tank is unique.

 

[blondenaso1]

I have found that dosing 2 part addatives is not the best way to raise Ca and Alk levels. I use B-ionic which is very similar to the product you are using. I tried to use it to raise my Ca and Alk but found that it did so inneffectively. I feel that products like this are better for maintaining Ca and Alk. Plus, I don't know the price of what you are using, but I have gallon jugs of B-ionic and they are a little to pricey to dose 90ml plus a day. Like I said I think the best way is to use a powder CO3 addative like Seachem Reef Builder or Kent superbuffer-DKH to raise Alk levels and then dose very heavily with a plain Ca addative like the Kent's. I was apprehensive at first to try this approach, but both of the people at my LFS have done this with no ill effects. Kent product are very dillute and are not easily overdosed. I am not saying don't monitor your parameters while dosing, but watch them carefully and you should be alright. Just my .04 cents LOL

 

[tangman99]

Bang Guy,
You mentioned low magnesium. This product has high Magnesium and about 70 other trace elements. So as not to violate the link to other products rule, here is what Oceans Blend's website says about the product I am using:
Ocean's Blend is the closest trace element additive to the natural ocean's elements that you can buy. Ocean's Blend is designed to give you over 70 total trace elements. We feel that the additives you add to your reef aquarium should be as close to Mother Nature as possible. Why? The closer you make your reef tank to the ocean the better growth and diverse your aquarium will be.
Ocean's Blend helps combat algae by containing no nitrates or phosphates, precipitating phosphates, having a low iron content, and using Reverse Osmosis / Double Deionized water.
Full additive: No other additives are needed, maintains alkalinity between 3.0 meg/L and 4.0 meg/L, maintains calcium levels between 400 ppm and 450ppm, and has a high magnesium level.
Ingredients: Calcium, Chloride, Bicarbonates, Carbonate, Magnesium, Strontium, Iodine, Ag, Al, As, Au, B, Ba, Be, Bi, Br, Cd, Ce, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Dy, Er, Eu, F, Fe, Ga Gd, Ge, Hf, Hg, Ho, In, K, La, Li, Lu, Mn, Mo, Na, Nb, Nd, Ni, Pa, Pb, Pd, Pr, Pt, Ra, Rb, Re, Ru, Sb, Sc, Se, Si, Sm, Sn, Ta, Tb, Th, Ti, Tl, Tm, V, W, Y, Yb, Zn, Zr.

Tangman

 

[bang guy]

Tangman, Sounds like the typical 2-parter
My suggestion is to still get asecond opinion on the Ca level. Your best bet is a quality test kit like Hach or Salifert.
If your Ca level is below 400 then feel free to double your doseabe until it's up where you want it to be. Don't get greedy there is no benefit to extremely high Ca levels. I recommend 400 - 450. Don't try to fix it overnight either. You are not in a critical situation. Even at 350 your Ca is supersaturated and your coralline & corals can grow. You just want to bump it up over 400. Your ALK is fine.