Cannot Raise Calcium Levels Above ~350

[CoryZipperle]

We've had water in our aquarium for about a year, and this is our first go, so we're noobs.

For the last several days, our Ca has been hovering right at around 350ppm. We've tested with our Hanna Marine Master and cross-checked with our Red Sea kit, which is not expired. So we're confident that our numbers are accurate as the swing is, at most +10ppm.

Looking around here, I see that Mg can impact water's ability to take Ca. Looks like pH can impact this as well.

Tonight, I found the following:

KH = 8.2
Ca = 350 (Tested TWICE with Red Sea and once with Hanna, 350-360)
Mg = 1380
pH = 8.3 according to Hanna, Apex, which was cleaned and calibrated on Sunday says 8.14.
ORP = ~289-310, this sensor was also cleaned on Sunday.

Tested a sample straight from the bottle, we use B-ionic, so I tested from the part 2 bottle. Got 507 from that when testing for Ca via the Marine Master.

Yesterday, I tested Ca and found 350ppm, so I added 15cc of part 2. In our aquarium 10cc adds roughly 50ppm to our system So I should have raised Ca by around 75ppm. I tested before and two hours after and witnessed zero change.

What are we missing?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You are using B-ionic? Not sure what you mean that it reads 507 ppm. It is tens of thousands of ppm calcium. Probably just off scale.

What do you estimate the total water volume of your system to be?

 

[reefandfish85]

not sure what is your tank size but lets say in 55G tank going from 350 to 450 you would have to add about 343ml of B-Ionic to raise that much. Here is a link for calculator you can use. https://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

 

[CoryZipperle]

You are using B-ionic? Not sure what you mean that it reads 507 ppm. It is tens of thousands of ppm calcium. Probably just off scale.

What do you estimate the total water volume of your system to be?

@Randy Holmes-Farley,

Thank you for getting back to me.

You focused in on something I was hoping you were going to notice. I was a bit shocked to see that the source's ppm was only 507. If off-scale, I'd expect the test to hit its highest value and that's it. Is my assumption here incorrect? I think the test's highest Ca capability is 600ppm. So I was expecting 600ppm or maybe slightly under.

We estimate that our system's total water volume is ~110 gallons.

not sure what is your tank size but lets say in 55G tank going from 350 to 450 you would have to add about 343ml of B-Ionic to raise that much. Here is a link for calculator you can use. https://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

@reefandfish,

It's a long story how we got to the point where we felt the need to test our bottle. But a few tests have shown that a 10cc dose is worth ~50 ppm in our ~110 system.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If the product may be off, you can put 6.6 mL of the calcium part in 1 L of RO/DI water and detect it that way. Should be 400 ppm.

 

[CoryZipperle]

@Randy Holmes-Farley,

Thank you for that input. I'll see if I can run that test this afternoon or evening. I think I have 10cc syringes that are graduated at 0.1 increments. If not, I'll try to get as close as I can to 6.6ml. Also, I don't know that I have a beaker with a 1 liter mark on it, so that converts to 4 cups and about 52ml. I think I have some 60cc syringes laying around here somewhere.

In other news, I took a picture inside of the part 2 bottle. This might be interesting to you.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I cannot see much in the picture, but on the test, you need not be very precise to distinguish 507 ppm from 20,000 ppm in the bottle.

 

[CoryZipperle]

I cannot see much in the picture, but on the test, you need not be very precise to distinguish 507 ppm from 20,000 ppm in the bottle.

@Randy Holmes-Farley,

Thank you for the input.

In hopes that you can have some benefit from the picture and maybe see what I see, I cropped and added an arrow to a thing that I'll call a wisp. They're all over the inside of the bottle.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I generally wouldn't worry about trace solids in these products, but I do not know what that is.

Note that the Hanna calcium checker is freakishly sensitive to calcium in the blank, and you can get false low readings with only a little calcium in it (which is why they say to blank with distilled, not RO/DI).

 

[CoryZipperle]

I generally wouldn't worry about trace solids in these products, but I do not know what that is.

Note that the Hanna calcium checker is freakishly sensitive to calcium in the blank, and you can get false low readings with only a little calcium in it (which is why they say to blank with distilled, not RO/DI).

When you say "blank," you mean when I'm running the zero or calibration cycle of the test (I'm using Marine Master, I suspect it may operate a bit differently or use different nomenclature than the egg-shaped meters).

Keep in mind, I did also check against Red Sea which uses a considerably higher test sample.

I think the Marine Master wants 0.1cc of sample where the Red Sea is around 5 or 6 cc.

When I get a chance to run the test against the sample that you're suggesting, I'll be sure to test against both the Marine Master and the Red Sea kit so that we have a couple of things to look at.

I wonder, though. If it turns out that our part 2 is where it needs to be, what do you think your recommended next steps will be for helping us solve this issue?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Yes, I mean setting the zero. I do not know the details of the Marine Master, just the normal Hannah calcium checker.

If that's not the issue? Add more. much more.

Not sure what you showed in the past (maybe test error only), but in 110 gallons, 15 mL of the calcium part of B-ionic only boosts calcium by 2.2 ppm!

 

[CoryZipperle]

If the product may be off, you can put 6.6 mL of the calcium part in 1 L of RO/DI water and detect it that way. Should be 400 ppm.

@Randy Holmes-Farley

The Red Sea test kit came in right at around 200, Hanna's Marine Master showed 423, so that's probably acceptable. I think I trust Red Sea a bit more here, even if they tend to agree a bit more than this particular test.

So I'm quite baffled. Both you and @reefandfish85 have indicated that a 15ML addition won't raise Ca as much as I was seeing earlier.

Testing our system for round 1 I see that we have about 340ppm in the tank. I added 10cc of part 2 and tested an hour later. The next reading came in at 350. So it seems that 10ml is adding roughly 10ppm?

Man, something is screwy. I can't figure out what, though.