Serious Calcium + Mag + Alk Problem!!!!!

[ouling]

Ok, ever since I came back from my 20 day vacation my tank have been like this.

Calcium 320 before, now i got it up to 380PPM, and WILL NOT GO UP.
Magnesium, always around 1000-1140, doesn't go up.
Alk 6-8 dKH and does not move.

I've finish 2 years of Chemistry and know how the equalibrium of these chemical works in seawater. What baffle me is this.

I've dose Magnesium till it supersaturate in the water or till it"Snow Storm", my test kit just ran out but the last time i check it always stays below 1100ppm.
I am very sure there is no limiting reagent for Magnesium to saturate in water, and the supersaturation point should be 1500+ppm

Calcium, of course limited by Magnesium in 3-1 ionic ratio. My calcium, no matter how much i add, even to the point of dropping my dKH to 5, WILL NOT GO UP. It supersaturates at 380, which make it seem like Magnesium is low, but magnesium is also supersaturate.

Alklinity: I know this is low because of my overdosing both Mg and Calcium which is pulling out the carbonate. Not really a problem i can't solve, however, i would like to know how to raise it safely. Use reef buffer over a few days or dose with alk treatment?

Isn't this crazy? I've done over 100 gallons of water change but nothing works. I think it's the Magnesium and calcium particles that percipated and dropped into my sand or stuck on plastics that keeps replinishing the problem.

Can you help me?

And no, it's not the test kit because i've done the calcium test on 3 different brand, 2 of those are "expert" tiatration type test.
Magnesium test don't do anything, because i know the magnesium is supersaturated and nothing is going to tell me otherwise.

 

[ouling]

Should I do another water change and test and add accordingly? or should i just start adding stuff in?

With my Calculation:

Assuming the Mg is at 1140 (calcium is at 380 thats why) I need to add 30oz. of Kent Tech.M
30 freaking oz!!!!

Calcium, since it is at 380 (unless adding the mag raises it) I will need to add 5 oz of kent reef complete.

Alk, to get from 5 dkh - 10 i need 5 oz of Reef Builder buffer...

Does that sound crazy to anyone?

 

[tsciarini]

Rather than playing chemist... try doing a few waterchanges over the next week and test again. It's potentially cheaper and more likely to produce positive results.... just my $0.02

 

[tsciarini]

...your numbers don't seem that</em> off.

 

[ouling]

My calcium can NEVER go up 360-380, and my dKH is 6-7. Before I left for vacation everything was good. The guy who took care of my tank forgot to dose everything. And i've been doing alot of water changes, well over 200-300% in the last two-three months. And a 30-50 gallon water change cost about $10-$15, and i got to do over 3 of those before anything corrects itself, so it's almost the same price if i buy the 124oz kent supplements.

 

[cameron]

What happens when you dose kalkwasser into the tank? It should bring up calcium and alk at the same time. The other suggestion is Seachem ReefComplete. You calcium levels should certainly come up with one of these suplements. You can also use food grade epsom salt to boost the mag up a bit which might (but I doubt it) fix your problem. How many test kits have you used to verify your numbers?

 

[FutureInterest]

Weren't you the one that used Oceanic salt water "without a problem?" Perhaps you should try doing a series of water changes with something other than oceanic and see if the problem subsists. You might just have a bad batch of salt...

 

[ouling]

i have used 3 calcium test kit from 3 different makers... yes, 380 every single time.

I use reef complete, i used the entire 8oz bottle with no results... I've even poured in 2-3oz of magnesium. All that lowered my dKH 3 points, and thats the only thing it changed...

I'm tired of doing massive water changes, and it isn't really helping anything based on my past experiences.

Personally I think it's because the amount of corals in my tank that requires calcium and mag, and i've been slacking the past few months with additives.

Based on my calculation with the numbers on the Kent Tech M, i would need 30oz of that stuff to get the magnesium to normal level. I would need over 14+oz of the two part calcium additives i've been using along with 9oz of part b alk to correct the dKH.

So i'ma order the Kent Tech M, Kent CB part A and part B in 128oz jugs.

 

[ouling]

I buy my salt in 30g jugs every time from different places. And i've been using oceanic for years, this thing started after I did a 50gallon water change with RC. I havn't been dosing much of anything in the past few months, and i guess thats the problem.

Correcting the magnesium first and see what happens. That must be the problem.

 

[FutureInterest]

Well there you go, go back to Oceanic and be merry!

 

[cameron]

If ReefComplete didn't do the trick it has to be mag. To my knowledge nothing else interferes with calcium dissolution in the water and dosing ReefComplete is pretty much dosing a pure shot of it in your tank. The thing that is odd to me is ReefComplete contains mag so you should have seen some raise in calcium on the test kits. If nothing else, it should have gone up on the kit even if it wasn't dissolving fast enough. My understanding is you get false high readings from kits even if the calcium isn't dissolving properly in the tank. Something very odd is going on.

 

[suasati]

Do you know what your tanks daily utilization? Always watch alk, since Ca change will be much less and might not be an accurate estimate. If your Mg is low there is no way you can miss it when you add the two part solution.
I would do this if you haven't already...

Check alk in the morning couple of hours before lights come on, add two part solution to raise your total alk by 1 dKh, add equal amount of Ca as well but don't worry about testing it, wait 45mins to an hour, measure alk again and see if you got that 1 dKh bounce, if you didn't you need Mg, if not you are good, measure alk again after lights out and see your utilization.

 

[ouling]

Well i know how it works. i add calcium, it snow storms out at 380, i could test the magnesium but i already know it is at 1140ppm exactly. So I'm going to add mag first to 1300-1400, then calcium till it saturates out of the water, and then drip the alk in till it gets 9dKH.

After all that stuff i'm going to test the water 3 days after that to see how much it uses.

 

[ouling]

screw it, i'ma do a 85% water change and we'll see what happens... 100% would kill my fish because they need the water