I've had my tank up for about 8 months now and my calcium/alk is driving me crazy. My calcium has always been over 500, usually around 540. My alk is always low despite using Kent super buffer. When I first started the tank, I used a product called BioCalcium by Tropic Marine, I have dripped Kalk off and on. I have not used any kalk in the past 3 weeks. Yesterday my calcium was 520 and alk 6 dKh. I have done water changes without any benefit. I have a DSB of aragonite, most of my rock is aragocrete. My coralline algae started grwoing about 2 months ago and then suddenly stopped and bleached out. I have also noticed a fuzzy brown algae growing on the sand, but only in areas exposed to light. I added Phoszorb to the sump about a month ago and run carbon in the sump as well. Anybody have suggestions or ideas? My LFS says that high calciums are common the first year as calcium leaches out of the sand bed, but I'm afraid that this is causing my corals to just not thrive. Help me.:doh:
What's wrong with my calcium?
- Thread starter hng
- Start date
What effect would it have on the pH throughout the day? I ask cause my xenia expands and pulses beautifully during the NIGHT but then shrivels up during the DAY. Another reason I think my tank has gone crazy. Actually, I've been thinking about getting a pH meter cause I think I may have some bad pH swings with the abnormal calcium and alk.
dKH = Degree Karbonate Hardness (German origin, measure for carbonate hardness alkalinity)
Its the same thing as saying KH or meq/L all depends on what test kit you have depends on what it reads. Salifert reads meq/L and dKH (KH), other test kits like tetra or what ever really only say dKH (KH).
So technically you are right in saying 5 meq/L is good for alk, a lil high in my oppinion, but that would equal to about 14.1 dKH. All according to Salifert that is.
Its the same thing as saying KH or meq/L all depends on what test kit you have depends on what it reads. Salifert reads meq/L and dKH (KH), other test kits like tetra or what ever really only say dKH (KH).
So technically you are right in saying 5 meq/L is good for alk, a lil high in my oppinion, but that would equal to about 14.1 dKH. All according to Salifert that is.
I just happened to have some biocalcium on hand and decided to add it. That was before I bought a calcium test kit, now I realize that I was adding too much of it....way too much of it. I restarted the kalk drip tonight and will be leaving things steady for at least the next week (I'm going on vacation). I will recheck my parameters tomorrow.
