dosing calcium

hello looking for some advise on dosing calcium. first off let me tell u my setup, its a 40b tank with a fulval 305 canister yes no sump.

im going to be getting a calcium tester soon. and was looking to use kalk as a two part dosing mehod with my top-off water to adjust my cal as needed. my main question was if i have my cacium test kit and can see what my calcium is at. by dosing kalk or kalk+ will i need other test kits?( i have main test kit)

 

You need to be able to test for Calcium Magnesium and Alkalinity. Do you have the others mentioned?

 

You need to test as Dowtish mentioned.

 

I dont have the others mentioned. So not a good idea to dose cal to get to a good cal number without the other test kits. What are the downfalls to this?

 

Calcium, magnesium and carbonate alkalinity all play off of eachother in sea water. If you raise you raise one of these levels, like calcium only, the balance in your tank can be thrown off. Dosing for any of these without testing to properly calculate your dosage can take down your aquarium if you are not careful. Its not worth risking. Also, kalk is a great way of keeping ph up and buffering alkalinity and calcium but keep in mind it has to be added very slowly or its effects can be too drastic and cause damage to your aquarium's inhabitants.

 

Do you have anything in your tank consuming alk and calc right now (I.E corals)? If not, you don't need to dose.

I have 2 zoa colonies, a brain frag, 2 GSP frags, a two headed trumpet coral frag and 3 mushrooms and my alk and calc never drop. If they did, a water change would probably suffice. Topping off with alk and calc really only needs to be done on established tanks with coral colonies that consume noticeable amounts of each. You need to have a idea of how much your tank consumes daily (which is why you need to test) in order to dose properly. Otherwise, Your calc and alk will gradually rise each time you dose.

 

Do you have a lot of corals? Especially SPS? Do you do regular Water changes?

Why the calcium dosing? Check it first, along with Mag, Alkalinity, as has been said.

 

Right now i have a hammer xenia bta some recordia and zoa's..not a whole lot. Just checked the calcium and its reading 400ppm..not bad so maybe just simple water changes and ill be fine. Just wanted to stay at a good level and have stuff grow well.

 

Water changes should keep it in that 380-450 range. Keep an eye on it as your colonies grow.