Low Calcium

[swivel]

How do I raise my calcium level faster? My alk is usually around 9-10 but my calcium stays around 380-390 and I can't seem to raise it over 400. Right now I dose B-Ionic part 1 and 2. I tried dosing more calcium and less alk but it still does not raise my calc level. By dosing more calc my mag dropped. I would prefer not to get a calcium reactor.

[HighlandReefer]

Which salt mix do you use and at what salinity? Are you using a swing arm hydrometer to measure salinity?

[LifeAquatic]

You might have to raise your magnesium to the proper levels to get Alk and Cal to hold. Try raising your magnesium level to 1350-1400. This will support the calcium numbers you are looking for.

[swivel]

Which salt mix do you use and at what salinity? Are you using a swing arm hydrometer to measure salinity?

I am currently using Salinity Aquavitro salt and my salinity is about 1.026. I have a refractometer from ebay that I got to measure my salinity.

[swivel]

You might have to raise your magnesium to the proper levels to get Alk and Cal to hold. Try raising your magnesium level to 1350-1400. This will support the calcium numbers you are looking for.

So I should raise my Mag and that would also raise my Calc? Before I dosed more Calc my mag, calc and alk was very stable but I just couldn't raise the calc to 450. I haven't been able to raise the Calc over 400.

[bertoni]

Dosing calcium won't lower magnesium. The drop likely was just noise in the testing, which can be fairly high. If the magnesium is at 1280 ppm or so, it's fine. Very low magnesium levels can be a problem, but are very rare. Most likely, you just need to dose more calcium. A product like Kent Turbo Calcium will be a bit cheaper than the B-Ionic, but either will work. This calculator will help pick a dose:

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

[swivel]

Dosing calcium won't lower magnesium. The drop likely was just noise in the testing, which can be fairly high. If the magnesium is at 1280 ppm or so, it's fine. Very low magnesium levels can be a problem, but are very rare. Most likely, you just need to dose more calcium. A product like Kent Turbo Calcium will be a bit cheaper than the B-Ionic, but either will work. This calculator will help pick a dose:

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

I've my Mag for past couple days and it has dropped a good amount. My mag level was at 1280, ever since I started to dose more Calc my mag has dropped to about 1170. Thanks for the calculator it should help raise my calcium level.

[bertoni]

For magnesium to drop that much, you'd see a total alkalinity drop of 14-15 dKH. Another issue might be water changes with a low-magnesium salt. I wouldn't be surprised if the difference was mostly just testing noise. Testing is not one of the strong points of this hobby.