No Calcium Drop

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roilciuc

Member
Hey guys there is a slight problem in my reef tank. The Calcium lvls have not dropped in the past 3 weeks. The only thing I changed is that I switched the 2 actinics with 12k bulbs because I felt that coral growth has stopped. I lost a few sps ever since i added 2 additional 1300gph power heads. My questions are,
1) does this mean that my corals are no longer growing?
2) should i still be supplementing magnesium if calcium levels don't need to be supplemented?

I use a calcium test kit from aquarium pharmaceuticals to test. I supplement kent marine tech m magnesium 20 ml per week divided into 3 days. I supplement kent marine turbo-calcium in granulate form as needed. here were my levels

(1/4)tsp of Calcium raises lvl 26 points
8/30- 420ppm added (1/4) tsp
9/6 380ppm added (1/2) tsp
9/13 400ppm (1/4) tsp
9/20 380 (1/2) tsp
9/27 380 (1/2)tsp
10/4 400 (1/4) tsp
10/11 420 ppm 0 tsp added
10/18 420 ppm 0 tsp added
10/25 420 ppm 0 tsp added

Thanks for your help
 
FishBeard

FishBeard

New member
Looks like you do a good job logging your test results, can you please post your last 2 months of Alk, Mg, and Po4?
 
R

roilciuc

Member
i dont have any Alk, mg, or po4 tests. I dont have a high lvl of P04 though because I take care to rinse my frozen food and have macro algae growing without any algae break outs. I have a fuge in the sump. now mg I have been supplementing but dont have a test, ill get one soon. Ive been told i need to check my Kh lvl. what Kh lvl should i aim for. What else should i test for. I need to get myself a pH test, Kh, and mag. Let me know if im missing anything at all. thank you
 
FishBeard

FishBeard

New member
Honestly, if your other parameters are in check, ph is not quite as important to check as it will swing a bit anyways on a day to day basis.

dKh should be between 7(low) and 11(high) in a reef tank, most people aim for 8-9.

You have a common misconception that because you have macro and rinse your food that you do not have a po4 issue, the macro is just absorbing it, masking the underlying issue if there is one.

Without a mg and dkh test result, it is hard to help figure out what is going on, if anything. If you are using reef salt for water changes, it could be that the cal is not mixed well in the salt, and the past few weeks you were using a higher than average calcium content in the mix, which could be why you havent needed to dose.
 
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roilciuc

Member
Thank you very much, ill buy a dKh and mag test, and get dKh supplement because i am almost certain the problem is low dKh. ill let you know once i test it
 
FishBeard

FishBeard

New member
roilciuc said:
Thank you very much, ill buy a dKh and mag test, and get dKh supplement because i am almost certain the problem is low dKh. ill let you know once i test it
Click to expand...
For now just focus on your tests, no point spending money on supplements you may not need. Let's help figure out what needs to be done before jumping to conclusions. In the meantime, have you considered a larger water change, like 20-30% just to see if that helps?
 
ColaAddict

ColaAddict

New member
Agreed fish Fishbeard. Your corals consume alkalinity just as much as they consume calcium, and to a slower rate, they also consume magnesium. calc/alk/mag are the three most important supplements when it comes to SPS and the 3 also controls your pH level. must keep the 3 as stable as possible.
 
R

roilciuc

Member
thanks guys, I have considered a water change but I am not sure if its necessary. I cant do it now because I am out of my water primer. But I am going to buy the tests today and post the results tonight
 
G

Greg

Member
I dose alk twice a day. It is by far the most important for sps color, growth, and health.

I keep mine at 9.5 dkh (9-10 daily range).
If i somehow missed a dosing, my dkh would drop by 1.0-1.5 per day.

Definitely get a good tester and supplements asap.
I recommend the hanna checker for testing and seachem reef builder alk powder.
 
R

roilciuc

Member
Well I tested my dkh and its at 9dkh so that can't be it. I used baking soda to increase it. Maybe I just don't have enough sps corals to consume the calcium fast enough. I don't use ro water cuz I don't have a unit yet.
 
poidog

poidog

Active member
Well there is your problem. You should not be using unfiltered tap water with a reef tank. Invest in the proper tools first (ie a ro/di) before diving into the hobby. - or buy your water at a LFS.
 
EricTheRed

EricTheRed

No, I'm not a communist..
Everyone else is correct. Start using RODI and start testing. You obviously want to do the right thing because you mentioned that you rinse your frozen food. That's great, it will clean out phosphates from die-off that occurred during processing. However, rinsing your food won't help you when you're dumping tap water into a tank because the tap water has phosphates. You probably already know that phosphates will drastically inhibit coral growth probably more than any other param being slightly off.

As far as Mg goes, my guess is that you have a sufficient level in your tank. Many people think that Mg is needed because the corals absorb it, which is partly true. However, they absorb very little Mg (compared to calcium carbonate) and there are typically suffient quantities found in reef salts to accomodate this in most cases. If you are using an appropriate salt mix, it may never become a problem for you.
The most important function is that it it serves to prevent the excessive precipitation of calcium carbonate from your water. In other words, if your Mg is low then you will not be able to keep sufficient (or high) levels of calcium or alkalinity. Since you have no problem keeping your Ca levels, my guess is that your Mg is fine.

The last thing I want to add is that the "rule of thumb" in this hobby is that you should NEVER dose anything unless you are testing for it.

My recommendation for testing PO4 is to get a digital meter, like a Hanna. Even the best PO4 test kits (like a Salifert) do not measure very accurately in the very low ranges. (Keep in mind that even very low PO4 is bad.)

Also, I prefer the Elos Mg test kit. It records units in 50ppm increments where many other tests only record in 100ppm increments.
 
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roilciuc

Member
I tested my dkh and I got 9 so it can't b it. Maybe I just don't have enough sps corals. I use a complete water dechlorinator because I don't have ro water yet
 
FishBeard

FishBeard

New member
roilciuc said:
I tested my dkh and I got 9 so it can't b it. Maybe I just don't have enough sps corals. I use a complete water dechlorinator because I don't have ro water yet
Click to expand...
"De-Chlorinated" Water is still no better, there are FAR MORE pollutants in tap water that cripple a reef tank than just chlorine. A quality RO/DI filtration system will remove everything from the water. DI water is SO PURE that it is advised against drinking it due to the lack of any trace elements whatsoever.

The cost of the filtration system now will pay itself off later, and you will thank yourself that you bought it. Heck, I would bet that the filtration costs are less than what you are paying now to de-chlorinate your tap water.
 
poidog

poidog

Active member
Tap water + sps = failure.

Not to be mean. But you will not have any real success with hard to keep corals not practicing safe reefing ;)

I would do a 50% water change with ro/di weekly for 4 weeks to remove most of the tap water. You tank will probably take a shock, so find someone else's tank to babysit your sensitive corals.
 
R

roilciuc

Member
ok guys ive tested my dKh and it was at 9 so tahts not the problem. I did a full test and found that i do have phosphates. My phosphates are at almost .01 ppm so i started using RO water. Hopefully that helps. My new t5 lights are coming in this week and i think it might help a lot.
 
FishBeard

FishBeard

New member
Have you tested mg yet? If that is far enough out of range it wouldn't really matter how perfect your other parameters are.
 
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