calcium off the charts help needed

[Tshaner1990]

i have a 29 gallon biocube with my calcium levels close to double the amount of sea water and my carbon levels are very low.  i am in need of any advice anyone can give me on how to fix this issue.  right now i have 2 clowns a blue tang and green pocillopora, lemon lime monti, Duncan, some mushrooms, some zoas, and a couple leathers.  thanks so much

[Cliff Puckstable]

Do you dose anything? I would confirm your Ca level with a different test kit. How are you checking for carbon? Don't let the tang police catch you.

[Tshaner1990]

the only thing i use is instant ocean reef crystals as my salt for my water changes do about 5 gallon water change weekly and i used the api reef master test kit for both the calcium and carbon

[Marc Weaver]

Carbon (assuming you mean carbonate hardness or KH) is more often called Alkalinity.  Just trying to eliminate confusion.  Definitely have another person verify your test or get another test kit to double-check before taking any action.

 

If your Alkalinity is low and your Calcium is high the best thing to do in my opinion is water changes to bring it back into balance SLOWLY.  Unless you are adding calcium or using salt that is either bad or not mixed well I can't see how your calcium is that high.  Seawater is 420ppm or so, are you measuring 800ppm or so?

Edited October 10, 2013 by Marc Weaver

[TheyCallMeMr.703]

LOL, Hilarious....http://wamas.org/forums/topic/59440-calcium-overdose/?hl=calcium   <--- You should read this... I went through the same thing a Lil' bit ago... Easy Fix, Don't stress it, As long as everything looks happy right now, Your alright.

     Just get ready to do some Water Changes, and Stop Dosing, or putting in Any additive until it gets back to " normal " levels.

  A Larger Water Change does more to parameters then a bunch of smaller ones, So Start with a large change... Then some smaller ones..  Get it Manageable,,, But Don't overdo it.

  Initially I'd recommend either a 40%, or even dare I say... 50%, and then maybe a 20%, and another if needed...

 

 

          Hope it Helps,  
 

Edited October 10, 2013 by TheyCallMeMr.703

[Tshaner1990]

thanks for the advice everyone im gonna do a big water change to help make the levels better and see how it goes from there and thanks for the clarification i will make sure to use alkalinity next time 

[TheyCallMeMr.703]

thanks for the advice everyone im gonna do a big water change to help make the levels better and see how it goes from there and thanks for the clarification i will make sure to use alkalinity next time 

 Let us know how it goes after the first water change, Hope all is well

[Tshaner1990]

Thanks I will deff let you guys know.  I greatly appreciate the advise. 

[Tshaner1990]

advice*

[epleeds]

i have a 29 gallon biocube with my calcium levels close to double the amount of sea water and my carbon levels are very low.  i am in need of any advice anyone can give me on how to fix this issue.  right now i have 2 clowns a blue tang and green pocillopora, lemon lime monti, Duncan, some mushrooms, some zoas, and a couple leathers.  thanks so much

If your not dosing anything and only doing water changes, i seriously doubt that your test kit is correct.  I have overdosed calcium before, but have never reached levels of 800.  I would make sure your test kit is reading correctly before doing anything.  I like salifert kits for ALK/CAL/MAG.

 

Test them again, or have someone else test the water for you to determine if things are really out of whack.

[Tshaner1990]

Yeah it seemed really weird to me to have my levels be that off with only doing water changes.  My phosphate is only 0.25 and my nitrates are zero but its saying my alkalinity is very low and calcium is very high.  But I will deff look into the salifert kit thanks 

[epleeds]

Yeah it seemed really weird to me to have my levels be that off with only doing water changes.  My phosphate is only 0.25 and my nitrates are zero but its saying my alkalinity is very low and calcium is very high.  But I will deff look into the salifert kit thanks 

also, get a MAG test kit.  If you mag levels are off, the readings for the cal/alk will be off too.

[Origami]

If you mix up your change water with tap water or conditioned tap water, or top off with tap water, and not RO/DI, then calcium could be very high. This is because our tap water is hard (has calcium in it).

 

Sent from my phone

 

 

[Jim Mc]

I had this happen once.  Did you check the vial you test with to be sure it doesn't have calcium build up that is throwing off your test?  That is what happened in y case just soakedit overnight in vinegar and all set.

[sachabballi reef]

Yeah it seemed really weird to me to have my levels be that off with only doing water changes.  My phosphate is only 0.25 and my nitrates are zero but its saying my alkalinity is very low and calcium is very high.  But I will deff look into the salifert kit thanks 

 

that is really high phosphate....I like to keep mine at 0.03 but I know most strive for 0.  

[Tshaner1990]

I usually go to walmart and buy the gallon jugs of spring water for my water changes but im looking to invest in a ro/di system for sure. Any advice to get my phosphates down i cant seem to get them under control.  I have a poly pad and a bag of rowa phos in my back chamber and still no luck i dont even feed the fish much since there is only 3 of them.

[taiscici]

Buy a phosban reactor and put rowa phos in there.

[sachabballi reef]

have you tested the plain water for phosphate levels before mixing it up? I would start there as I suspect that is your main source.  The money you are spending in water and gfo etc would more than pay for a used RO/DI and you can control what you put in there....

You need to figure out your source and then as said above...water changes and GFO 

[lutz123]

I'm not sure spring water is what you need. Try distilled instead. It might be worth testing calcium of the spring water just to see.

[Origami]

I usually go to walmart and buy the gallon jugs of spring water for my water changes but im looking to invest in a ro/di system for sure. Any advice to get my phosphates down i cant seem to get them under control.  I have a poly pad and a bag of rowa phos in my back chamber and still no luck i dont even feed the fish much since there is only 3 of them.

 

 

I'm not sure spring water is what you need. Try distilled instead. It might be worth testing calcium of the spring water just to see.

 

Spring water will almost certainly have dissolved calcium in it.

[Tshaner1990]

Okay thanks ya I will deff test the spring water then it only makes sense that it could be one of the only problems im having since im not adding anything extra to the aquarium.  I'm going to go ahead and try distilled till I get a chance to get a ro/di system. I appreciate all the advice

[Tshaner1990]

Update: I took out 9 gallons of water and cleaned the gravel in the aquarium and put new water using distilled water from walmart and reef crystal salt. Hopefully it helps a bit im going to try testing again in the morning. 

[sachabballi reef]

Update: I took out 9 gallons of water and cleaned the gravel in the aquarium and put new water using distilled water from walmart and reef crystal salt. Hopefully it helps a bit im going to try testing again in the morning. 

LOL it will only help if you know that the water going in isnt the source of the issue

[Tshaner1990]

Whats the source of the issue then?

[Tshaner1990]

I'm new to all of this and I honestly don't understand what else I'm doing wrong but clearly I'm doing something wrong LOL