high ca and alk

[kcfehring]

I have a 44 gallon reef tank that has been set up for about two years, but I have only had it about 3 months. I am using a testing kit from Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.. to test

ph - 8.0
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5ppm

and using Tropic Marine for
phosphate - 0.1

and using Salifert for
Ca -over 500 (I did the whole 1ml of reagent and the water color didn't change)
KH - over 16 dKH
Alk - over 5.71 meq/L (same thing happened here that happened with the Ca)

I was using a calcium supplement once a week (10mls) because that is what I was told to do at my LFS. I haven't put any in in over a month, and I do 10-20% water changes once a week. I have two clowns and one pseudochromis, a plate, bubble coral, kenya tree, green polyps, yellow sunburst polyps, cabbage leather, finger leather, feather duster, a two kinds of mushrooms, 2 peppermint shrimp, a coral banded shrimp, 3 turbo snails, 2 nassarius snails, a small red starfish, and a few bristle worms. I have a 3"sand bed with crushed coral mixed in, about 30lbs of live rock, 130 watt 50/50 PC lighting, a biowheel filter, a 1140 penguin power head with hydor flo attachment, and a 640 penguin power head.

I know that I can get a phosphate buffer, but what should I do about the high ca and KH? All of my fish and corals are doing fine, but I do have some red bushy algae that I can not get rid off, but it isn't spreading and maybe some hair algae (what does it look like?) Okay enought!! All that just to ask about what I should do about my Ca and KH lol. Any help is appreciated.

Kim

[drummereef]

Well, I would stop dosing any calcium or alkalinity suppliments asap. What salt mix are you using?

[kcfehring]

Man! I thought I put in all the information anyone would need! LOL I am using Oceanic Natural Sea Salt.

[scoots]

I would try to confirm your results with another source. Is there a LFS near by that could test them for you. I would be quite surprised if your Alk and calcium are both what you report. I would expect calcium carbonate to precipitate out of solution before reaching the high end of both. This would look like a snow storm in the tank. When in solution there is a maximum level of saturation that can be achieved with these 2 things and although you can impact what this level is by say havein high magnesium levels to keep them in solution and your buffering capacity high, I still think it unlikely to have a dkh of 16 and a calcium level above 500.