Water Experts, Need your Help on Cacl Reactor, and Cal/Alk Levels

Hello all,

Some of you have seen my 65gal Red Sea Max tank over the last year it's been running. It's mostly a LPS tank filled with large show pieces of 2 Hammers, Torch, and a huge Devils Finger Coral (12"), Elegance, Polyp's as well ad 85lbs of live Kupang Island rock. The tank has been beautiful with no algae to speak of with the basic water values of

- Temp: 79 deg constant with 1/4HP Oceanic chiller
- Salinity: 1.025 with Bio Catalina Ocean water obtained from my local fish store. Same stuff Long Beach Aquarium and a few other big facilities use.
- Water changes: Performed every week 12-15 gallons (never missed a change). Top offs, RO water.
- Nitrates: Under 5 (Lamonte Test Kit)
- Phophates: 0
- Ammonia: 0
- PH: 8.3 right before lights out

Now below is my dilemmas:
- Calcium: 360-380 (Was 440-460 for the first 8 mos).
- KH: 12 (Was 7-9 for the first 8 mos).
- Magnesium: 1240 (Just started dosing and testing)

Dosing
- Salifert All in One (once a week per instructions)
- Salifert Trace Hard (once a week per instructions)
- Salifert Trace Soft (once a week per instructions)
- Calcium: Kent Liquid Calcium Reactor, 5-10ml per 55 per day per instructions. (Just started dosing 2 months ago).

Here is my recent struggles I hope you water experts can help with. Over the last 9 mos, the tank itself has been beautiful with lush growth and everything doing great. About 2 month ago I started to see my calcium drop to 340-360 and all purple Coraline on the back glass start disappearing. My largest hammer coral with 53 branches got brittle in some areas and 10-15 of them died off.

The first course of action was to get the calcium up and I started dosing with Kent's Liquid Calcium Reactor daily ever night that got the calc up to 360-380 with my KH at 7 for about 2 months, but I still could not get up the calcium any higher than that.

About 3 weeks ago I talked with my LFS, and we hooked up Calcium Reactor and started with 30 drips a minute in the tank and 60 drips of Co2 in the reactor holding a PH of 6.7 in the reactor with a PH controller. After about a week of monitoring my calcium stayed the same with my KH raising to 10. I raised the amount entering the tank to 45 drips a minute and STILL cannot get my calcium raised to above 380, but of course now my KH is 12. PH in the tank is still OK, at 8.2-8.3 right before lights out.

The next step was to add the Kent calcium again as a supplement at night in combination with the reactor and NO change in calcium levels. I finally called the tech from the company who makes the calc reactor (Coralige Ca. Reactor) who seemed to be a great knowledge base. His first recommendation was to have me check my magnesium levels as he thought for sure my levels were low. He was correct, as of 2 weeks ago, I checked my levels for the first time with the Red Sea Mag. test kit, they were at 1160. I purchased Blue Life Precision Magnesium and have been following the dosage of 2 cap fulls a few times a week. Presently my magnesium is at 1240 and have not seen ANY change in my Calc levels which is still at 380 and Kh is still at 12.

Sorry for the long post all, but I am thoroughly stumped on how to get my calc level up and of course get my KH down a bit to the 7-10KH range. I understand magnesium plays a role in this equation along with salinity and have read many articles written on this subject. So what is next?

1. Do I have to increase my magnesium to 1300-1350? (It seems over the last week, I cannot even get that to rise any higher than 1240, but I do not want to overdoes. How fast does Magnesium leave the tank, I am STILL performing 12-15 gal water changes every week.)
2. I cannot increase my bubble rate from the reactor into the tank as all that will do is raise my KH which I cannot do.
3. I am supplemental dosing every night with the Kent Liquid Reactor, but I have seen NO calcium increase. In fact, even after dosing at night and measuring 2 hours later, I am STILL stuck on 380. Do I continue with this dosing?
4. I am open to you expert suggestions. Do I think about Kalcwasser dosing? I was hoping not going through that step with all the mixing and dosing complexities of this...OR do I give the magnesium another couple of weeks to get above 1300 to see if the calcium finally raises.

In closing, it seems SOMETHING if BINDING my calcium from rising, I am not using any buffers of any kind. I have read all the articles on 3reef and also many other articles on Calc and KH relationship but just cannot bust through the balancing act here. I thought the Calcium Reactor would really help, but at the moment, all I am seeing is my KH rising and NOTHING else. (By the way, drips measured coming out of the reactor into the tank is 520-540 Calcium/25KH).




Thank you all.

Vic

 

He was on the right track. A low magnesium level will hold your calcium down.

IIRC 1400 Mag is needed to support 420-440.

I have been having some of the same problems lately and am trying to get my Mg levels up.

Good luck.

 

for starters get your magnesium up to 1400, there is a direct relationship between it and the Alk that will limit the calcium.


edit: lol, I type too slow, jonjon beat me to it!

 

perfect world

3 part mag = 1 part calcium

1350 mag = 450 calcium

dkh 8-12, if at 12 dont use anything to raise it any higher, kalk, etcc... I kinda had the same problem try to get my calcium up but it was because my dKH was to high.. once I lowered it, I was at 440 calcium yestreday.. my mag usally is always around 1250-1350 ppm.. I only dose mag maybe 1 a month..

 

Roger that, so the consensus so far is to FIRST get my magnesium up, KH down. Seems my magnesium levels ALSO stuck in the low 1200 range! How fast do magnesium levels dissipate in most tanks?? Any brands of magnesium better than others? Liquid vs. powder mix? Also, how is the best was to get my KH down? Lower bubble count into tank from calc reactor and more water changes? Already doing 12-15 gal a week. Thanks guys!

Vic

 

I use epsom salt for my mag^. there's a reef calculator on this site for mag dosing. max 100pm mag dose per day.. you can get your mag up to 1400 in a couple days safely.. dosing only calcium only booster will lower you dkh also make sure your using RO/DI water. my tap has a very high dKH, since switching over to RO its lowered my DKH in tank. Dkh will lower by itself over time, as long as your not adding chemicals into tank to raise it.

http://www.3reef.com/aquarium_calculators/

 

Mg levels finally at 1350-1400, now let's see what the calc starts doing.

Vic

Btw, yes, using RO water for all top offs as well.