VERY high Ca level, low alk

[simbill]

Hey all, had my reef set up for about 6 months now, taking my time along the way. At first i was blindly dosing liquid calcium daily and recently picked up a test kit. Instant Ocean titration calcium test gave me 820! 4 Days later after stopping dosing calcium, 720! Will this depletion continue with regular water changes and ceasing to dose? And also is that high of a ca level unsafe? Is it keeping my alk from rising, although I am dosing with superbuffer dkh?
specs:
20 gallon
10lbs live rock (mostly fiji)
25lbs live sand
fluval 305 canister
2 90gph powerheads
prizm protein skimmer
1 sea hare
5 turbo/astrea snails
1 blue damsel
1 perc clown
1 torch coral
1 elegance coral
20 zoo polyps (too lazy to ID)
1 large feather duster
1 unidentified LPS coral
2 polyps ricordea yuma (pink with green mouth)
lots of purple/green/pink coraline
sg: 1.024
alk: 2.4
ph: 8.2
mag: unsure, waiting for test kit (im supplimenting as per bottle instructions)
iodine: same thing as mag
ammonia:0

 

[spiderwoman]

Under no circumstances dose for anything that you do NOT test. Why are you supplementing right now? In a 20 gallon tank with very little coral, you should be getting all necessary trace elements etc from water changes.

 

[rotarymagic]

use something to bump up alk because it'll raise alk and more than likely lower Ca depending on the product.

 

[simbill]

Originally Posted by Rotarymagic
http:///forum/post/2779451
use something to bump up alk because it'll raise alk and more than likely lower Ca depending on the product.
quote from my post: "And also is that high of a ca level unsafe? Is it keeping my alk from rising, although I am dosing with superbuffer dkh?" and I have been to get the alk to rise but nothing happens..Im using distilled water and instant ocean sea salt mix

 

[jerryatrick]

Your alk is low but I would stop dosing all together and do what you said. Water changes to slowly lower your calcium and raise your alk. The worst thing that you can do is to try to fix all water parameters quickly.
Chances are your Magnesium levels are high. The effect on the tank would be lathargic fish.

 

[simbill]

well to be honest, it seems like everything in my tank is thriving! zoos are growing new polyps, random lps growing new polyps, fish are as spunky as day 1, torch has grown 1/3 its size, elegance is.. well.. elegant. I did stop dosing, and have been keeping up with water changes. thanks guys

 

[jerryatrick]

My calcium levels were over 600 and mag was over 1600. Everything was fine in the tank because the levels were stable.

 

[gatorwpb]

Ive had high calc before as well (well not 820) but it is the low alk that is the real problem. Im surprised that you havent lost any of the corals yet, maybe the ones you have arent that sensitive. But if you dose alk too quickly, youll just precipitate out the calcium which could clog pumps in the system.
just stick with water changes and keep testing.