dkh AND calcium very hi...

[jbird69]

My calcium has always hovered in the 500 range. I have been moving more and more toward sps in my tank. Ive been dosing tech C-B 2 part for most of the life of the tank. Tho I have kicked up the dosing volumn in the last couple months with the addition of a lot of sps frags.
I hadnt tested in about 2 weeks at which point I was at 500 calc. and 8-9 dkh.

Today it tested at; calc. 560 (which is off the chart by 60ppm on my API kit) and 14 dkh.

All of my livestock looks amazing with great PE. I do not have a magnesium test kit so I dont know where I am with that. All my other perams tested perfect.

Should I be concerned? I tyipcally let my corals/livestock tell me how the health of my tank is and there has been no obvious clues to any stres....

Jay

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/jbird35/DSC04938.jpg

[ReefEnabler]

14dkh is really high but I don't think its dangerous. Some people intentionally run at 12 because they claim to get better growth, so if the corals look fine then I'm willing to bet it will come down just fine. Calcium is high but aside from precipitation issues (powerheads heaters getting coated in white powder) I've never actually heard of a problem come from high calcium.

the fact that you have that much alk and ca in the water suggests that the Mg level is at least 1300 to dissolve so much, probably higher. Worth testing.

I'd just stop dosing for a couple days and then test again, chances are they'll sop it right up.

probably a good idea to dose slightly less from now on. maybe halfway between what you used to be dosing and what you last dosed.

[bertoni]

I agree that stopping the dosing for a day or two should help reduce the levels. I would dose alkalinity only for a while and let the calcium drop as well. Since the animals are doing well, I wouldn't worry too much.

[MCsaxmaster]

The biggest concern with calcium and alkalinity in that neighborhood (unless pH is also rather low) is annoying amounts of abiotic CaCO3 precipitation. If you're not seeing that, or you don't mind what you're seeing, I don't see a compelling reason to change what you have.

The elevated calcium will increase abiotic rates of precipitation a bit, relative to a lower level of say 420-450 ppm, but may not actually encourage faster calcification in many organisms. The data here are not entirely straightforeward, but calcification in most critters probably is calcium saturated by ~450 ppm, at least in otherwise normal sea water. That may not be the case with high alkalinity...

[ReefEnabler]

good point Bertoni, I forgot about the Ca/Alk balance.

jdiecks reefcalc (http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html) says that balanced alk for ca 560 is 10meq/l or 28 dkh... youch :)

[MCsaxmaster]

"Balanced" in this sense only applies to what you WOULD have if you dissolved CaCO3 in sea water, not what you SHOULD have in your aquarium. It's an observation about what happens to the two if you increase the concentation with a 'balanced' additive (in this sense, balanced means 1 mol of calcium per 2 eq of alkalinity) and is not an imperative about what our targets should be. There's no reason we need to strive for that sort of 'balance'--it serves no practical benefit to keep the two 'balanced' if it gets us to parameters for one or both that are suboptimal.

[jbird69]

Okay, So I have a 7g container with mixed saltwater for water change. I usually keep two of these mixed, sealed and ready in case of an emergency or just for next water change.

I decided to test this mix, that has been mixed for aprox. 1 week in 5 stage RODI.

Tha results at 1.025sg

Calcium 500
Dkh 13

The salt I use is this...
http://www.aquariumguys.com/coralifesalt1.html

Pretty high huh? I think I should be most concerned about the kh?
Should I bring it down? If so, How?
Should I not do any dosing in this tank? I would be concerned tho, of a constantly falling calc and kh between water changes, then a sudden spike when water change happens.

To restate my previous post, my tank is very healthy according to the appearance of corals/fish/inverts etc..

Am I overthinking this and should just continue a mild 2 part dosing schedule?

Thanks

Jay

[bertoni]

The levels should fall on their own if you stop dosing. The alkalinity shouldn't take long to change.