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scottbeth
10/07/2009, 09:19 AM
My calcium has been staying around 560-580. My dkh is 8.5. My magnesium is 1420. pH is 8.02-8.28. I was running a cal. reactor untill about 3 weeks ago and had shut off the co2 and allowed the water to circulate through the reactor. 3 months ago, my dkh was14 and cal. was 420, mag. was 1100. Since bringing these #'s up, is this what affected my calcium or is it the calcium reactor? What is the safest and fastest way of bringing my calcium back down? I have a heavly stocked sps system, and have seen no ill effects. I do use live mudd which I know is adding calcium. I did check the calcium test against a new one. Someone please help.--------------Thanks Scott

landlord
10/07/2009, 09:25 AM
Elevated Magneisum will alow you to keep CA at higher levels. I doubt (maybe but doubting...) the CaRX was the cause. I imagine if you let the Mg drop the Ca will follow.

See you at the swap

your neighbor :)

Percula9
10/07/2009, 09:27 AM
The mudd can't add significant calcium to the water. The reactor raised your calcium. I would just do some water changes with a low calcium salt like Instant Ocean.That and consumption will bring your calcium down.

scottbeth
10/07/2009, 09:36 AM
The reason for my high mag. is temporary control of bryopsis. Has anyone had luck with the this, 1500 or higher?

scottbeth
10/07/2009, 09:47 AM
Landlord, didn't realise that was you., thanks for quick reply (everyone) and see you at the swap.

bertoni
10/07/2009, 09:24 PM
I'd shut off the reactor for a while, and supplement alkalinity with baking soda until the calcium was back in the normal zone. For calcium to be that high, I would think that a calcium chloride supplement was added. For that matter, the test kit might be having problems. The calcium reactor can't raise calcium without also raising alkalinity, so something's a bit fishy.

scottbeth
10/08/2009, 11:30 AM
I have not added any calcium for about a month. My calcium reactor is not completely off (had co2 off, but water circulating through it). I am currently using corallife salt and Sg is 1.027. My additives are coral accel, (lots of frags), strontium, tech-I, and mag.( stopped dosing), and a live mudd fuge. I'm also dosing algae-fix. Going to start 10% water changes every 2-3 days to try and get this down a bit. Keep the replies coming----thanks Scott

scottbeth
10/08/2009, 12:56 PM
correction- my reactor IS completely OFF.

Billybeau1
10/08/2009, 02:43 PM
Your calcium level is not going to fall if you keep doing water changes with Coralife. It has a lot of calcium out of the box.

Personally, if your tank looks good, I would not sweat it. Calcium on the higher end rarely cases any problems for reefers with the exception of maybe a little more maintenance keeping your pumps and power heads clean.

On the high magnesium for bryopsis, it has worked for some, but it didn't work for me.

Just concentrate on keeping your alkalinity up and enjoy. :)

scottbeth
10/08/2009, 02:55 PM
yeah, the more I read, it seems like the high calcium shouldn't hurt my corals. So, I'll try letting my mag. fall and see if my calcium will follow. Any thoughts on bryopsis control? Thanks again, Scott

Billybeau1
10/08/2009, 03:17 PM
Do you test for phosphates ?

scottbeth
10/08/2009, 08:37 PM
yes, I also use a phosban reactor plus carbon. Tests always read 0. I have a really good skimmer too. The algae-fix worked great for my hair algae but did nothing for the bryopsis. ----Scott

Billybeau1
10/09/2009, 06:22 AM
Well, I would try and clean out as much bryopsis as you can and maybe get a little more aggressive with the GFO, even though you are reading zero phosphates. Sometimes the microalgae can use it up as fast as it is being produced.

You might also try and cut an hour off your light cycle. This can help as well.