calcium

[Susan Bates]

My tank is heavily stocked with corals yet my calcium is 480 +, I never dose any, why do they not use it

 

[LAFANBLUE]

Going to watch this I have the same issue... My Cal is always around 500 or above and never dose for Cal.

 

[Salty1962]

How often do you make WCs? If your not adding it to your tank then it's coming from the salt in your WCs. From your pics, there aren't many Ca hungry corals. Nice Tank!

 

[Susan Bates]

How often do you make WCs? If your not adding it to your tank then it's coming from the salt in your WCs. From your pics, there aren't many Ca hungry corals. Nice Tank!

Thanks, I do a water change at least once a week 100lts of a 400lt tank .....I always struggle with nitrates, I think i over feed??

 

[gashunk]

same issue here i use red sea pro n i do the norm 10% ever week

 

[RCs reef]

What are your dkh,ph,mag levels? What do you feed pellets,flakes or frozen

 

[Joeganja]

Maybe the calcium in your salt you use is high and your corals don't deplete or use as much as you would think and then the next water change you'll replenish whatever you've lost. After doing a water change. Check your calcium and then right before you do a water change check your calcium again and see how much your tank uses. And if you can try to use different test kits to get a better reading. Always helps. You have tangs. Bio loads gonna be high. How's your filtration?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Are you needing to dose alkalinity? If not, you definitely will not need to dose calcium because your demand is quite low.

Some salt mixes start with excessive calcium, and it may take quite a bit of time for it to decline because calcium drops a lot more slowly (on a percentage basis) than does alkalinity because seawater contains a lot more calcium to begin with.

 

[Susan Bates]

same issue here i use red sea pro n i do the norm 10% ever week

I was using pro but changed to the red sea blue one a couple of months ago

 

[Susan Bates]

Are you needing to dose alkalinity? If not, you definitely will not need to dose calcium because your demand is quite low.

Some salt mixes start with excessive calcium, and it may take quite a bit of time for it to decline because calcium drops a lot more slowly (on a percentage basis) than does alkalinity because seawater contains a lot more calcium to begin with.

no i do not dose much at all

 

[Susan Bates]

Maybe the calcium in your salt you use is high and your corals don't deplete or use as much as you would think and then the next water change you'll replenish whatever you've lost. After doing a water change. Check your calcium and then right before you do a water change check your calcium again and see how much your tank uses. And if you can try to use different test kits to get a better reading. Always helps. You have tangs. Bio loads gonna be high. How's your filtration?

Always fighting nitrates,I have a Aquacare 1000 blue skimmer, which i would like to up grade but not sure what to, I have a ton of live rock and marine pure balls

 

[Susan Bates]

What are your dkh,ph,mag levels? What do you feed pellets,flakes or frozen

DKH8, PH8 MAG1250, I feed all three of thoses, I think i over feed,I feed lobster eggs every day for my dragnets and they are as fat as mud

 

[RCs reef]

I think it's the red sea pro, everything is high in that brand of salt. I use IO and dose brs two part. As for feeding pellets are really high in nutrients, just a small amount is equivalent to a cube of frozen. I feed every other day, frozen food to be exact, and I rinse it to melt it instead of letting it melt in a cup or in the tank. That's what I did to cut my problem, my tank won't budge from .01.

 

[Susan Bates]

I think it's the red sea pro, everything is high in that brand of salt. I use IO and dose brs two part. As for feeding pellets are really high in nutrients, just a small amount is equivalent to a cube of frozen. I feed every other day, frozen food to be exact, and I rinse it to melt it instead of letting it melt in a cup or in the tank. That's what I did to cut my problem, my tank won't budge from .01.

So are you saying it is better to feed frozen more often then pellets

 

[Susan Bates]

Are you needing to dose alkalinity? If not, you definitely will not need to dose calcium because your demand is quite low.

Some salt mixes start with excessive calcium, and it may take quite a bit of time for it to decline because calcium drops a lot more slowly (on a percentage basis) than does alkalinity because seawater contains a lot more calcium to begin with.

I dose no pox every day to try to help with my nitrates, I was told to cut back on it and dose vinegar as well, so how much of each should i dose in a 400lt tank please?

 

[RCs reef]

Frozen is next best to live food. I would try to cut down to every other day, my fish are fat, full of color, and no health problems since I have had them. Same fish since I stocked tank from setup.

 

[Susan Bates]

Frozen is next best to live food. I would try to cut down to every other day, my fish are fat, full of color, and no health problems since I have had them. Same fish since I stocked tank from setup.

Thanks for that, I was feeding manly frozen but was told at LFS to manly feed pellets to cut back on nitrates even when i was defrosting it in ro water

 

[RCs reef]

What I do is put the cube in a small fish net, rinse it out with cold water then I run it in a cup of ro and add only what they will eat. Takes out all the rely small stuff

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

FWIW, from a nutrients added to the water perspective, it doesn't matter much at all if the food is eaten, or just degrades on the bottom. Nearly all of the N and P in it ends up in the water.

I discuss the many ways of how to deal with nitrate issues here:

Nitrate in the Reef Aquarium - REEFEDITION
https://www.reef2reef.com/blog/nitrate-in-the-reef-aquarium

 

[Susan Bates]

FWIW, from a nutrients added to the water perspective, it doesn't matter much at all if the food is eaten, or just degrades on the bottom. Nearly all of the N and P in it ends up in the water.

I discuss the many ways of how to deal with nitrate issues here:

Nitrate in the Reef Aquarium - REEFEDITION
https://www.reef2reef.com/blog/nitrate-in-the-reef-aquarium

Thanks for that, it was interesting,I have been considering vinegar dosing for a while, but have been scared i what i put in tank, i coursed it to crash last year by dosing tri-sulpur, any way i have started a ref in my sump, the sump my tank came with has 2 trickle plates one on the bottom the marine pure balls sit on it and one on top of them that the water trickles over them, should i remove one or both, i also dose no pox should i cut this back and dose with vinegar as well?