Calcium Questions

I did a water test today and my calcium reading showed as 560.. I washed the test tube out and used a different dropper and got the same reading. any reason why this would be so high? I havent really changed anything except a ground probe and added 30lbs of rock last night. I added purple up last night which I do like maybe once a week.. anything I can do to lower it? I am not even sure if it is dangerous to have it that high.. help.?

temp:77
ph:barely low (8.2 maybe?).. I may add buffer later tonight
everything else is in check.. I did a 5 gal water change last night FYI

ps I am a Hagen kit that is maybe 1-2 months old.

 

WOw Nice CA

HI,
You are pretty close to starting a chain reaction of precip watch your KH if it starts to drift up you may have a little snow in the tank.
MAybe you should check your ca before adding that way you can be sure to not reach a high number it will go down rather quickly if you have coraline, be sure your mag is up or this can cause a precip event too.
If you don't have a mag test kit have you LPS check it.
I read on that other forum that most ca kit are off quite a bit depending on the kit. The had some that actually were off by 30 %.
Doug

this helped me a bit.

A Simplified Guide to the Relationship Between Calcium, Alkalinity, Magnesium and pH by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

 

How is your ALK?
there is nothing you can do to lower it. Just make sure your ALK stays up and let it come down on it's own. You may want to test again tomorrow after the Purple up has dissipated a bit

J

 

I'll test again tonight for ALK.. not sure if I have that test or not, but if i dont I'll run to theLFS. Thanks guys. Just didntknow if I should be worrying.. everything int he tank seems fine so we will see.

 

purple up has fine dust sized particles of calcium carbonate in it that stay up in the water column. these particles can not dissolve in our tanks unless the PH is in the low 7's or lower. when you took your water sample and did the test, the reagents you added for the test dissolved the calcium carbonate giving you a false high reading. i would look into using a 2 part additive instead of purple up

 

did not know that.
I DO have some of this Aquarium Reef Care: Kent Tech•CB Calcium Supplement that I won in at a frag meet about 2 months ago.. I have never used it because I never knew when or if I would hurt anything by putting it in.. I just used the purple up because the guy at the LFS said it would accelerate coraline growth and not raise PH.. I am barely getting spots of coraline on my glass (maybe like 6 random spots)

So you think my reading might be lower today than yesterday if I were to test for calcium? and are those kent supplements of any use to me?

 

i would wait untill the purple up has settled out and test Ca and Alk then post your results. the kent supplements are much better. they have to be dripped in very slowly and can not be mixed. i would add part a one day and part b the next. when you first start using them you may need to add more of one then the other to get your levels where you want them. after they are where you want them you add the same amount of each(dripped slowly on different days). also dont use the dosing instructions on the bottle because every tank is going to use Ca and Alk at different rates. use this calculator after testing to find out how much to add. 'Reef Chemistry Calculator FV'

 

my reef tank has calcium of 900 mg/l on the last test a week ago, alk is @ 300 mg/l, ph is 8.3, mg is 7500 mg/l. Any thoughs?

 

now your just encouraging people to go off on you. Plus it is not helping this persons CA concerns.

 

what can go wrong with too much calcium? i just transfered to a smaller tank, and i gave a quick squirt and a good dose of cal/mag. and few days later tried to get a reading and my drops x 100 and watch color change sequence and taking WAY TO LONG!! so i figured the cal was to high! off the charts so i did a quick water change and now im gonna give it another shot tomorrow for a more accurate reading. but anyways what can go wrong with to much cal/ mag? corals cant die can they? i think the reason why i boosted to high was becuase my "quick sqruirt and good dose" were judged by how much i used in a 55 gal, and now for a 15 my judgement was a little off.,,