Extremely high calcium

[Schadenfreude]

Tank Paremeters:
Salinity .026
PH 7.8 - needs Raising
dKH - 14
Calcium - off the charts for API's test. 26 drops is 520, whilst I'm at 32
Running for 3 months, 2 since cycle.
It's a 45g tall tank, setup with only 1/2 the tank lit/used. 35lbs live rock, 1.5" sand bed. 165W LED fixture over half, 2 koralia 480s blowing from the left, and a canister filter with surface skimmer to clean the surface/aggravate it.

I have snails, a few crabs, two damsels and a condy anemone and they're all doing fine. But I added a rock with hairy mushrooms that are doing great(fully extended) and polyps/regular shrooms that aren't doing so great(curled up after a week, shrooms turned white with tons of red spots.)


I'm wondering if the low PH is from not enough flow? Is there not enough oxygen getting down into the tank? And the calcium... Where the hell is it coming from? I get all my water from the lfs, so I don't think there's anything wrong with it, but I'll test it this weekend I suppose.

Anyway, looking for suggestions/tips as I do more research

Thanks in advance!

[DDon]

Are you dosing anything that would raise alkalinity and calcium? Both are high.
Also the API test kits are not very good. Might want to invest in decent test kits; Salifert or the like before doing anything to correct it as it may not be as high as you think.

[Schadenfreude]

I don't dose anything. The only things going into the tank are small bits of nori for a small urchin I forgot to mention, and reef blend food for the Damsels/crabs.

I will definitely look into ordering better test kits asap. Thanks!

[DDon]

Let us know your results with new test kits and we can go from there.

[DDon]

You can also take a sample in to the fish store and ask them to sample.

[Mark9]

How do you check your SG? Swing arm?
Maybe its way off and your SG is way higher than you think?
What is your mg?

[alb_56]

My API tests also told me my calcium was off the chart. Checked it with Red Sea test kit and it was 520ppm. Those API calcium test are no good.

[Schadenfreude]

The two LFS use API test kits... so I'm hesitant to go back to them now, lol. I think I know what the problem *might* be.
After the tank cycled, I added about 10lbs of dead "live" rock to the tank. The store owner said I should be ok with soaking it for a few days then adding it to the tank.... So I did that. But this was incredibly chalky stuff, and I still noticed a cloud when I added it to the tank. From my understanding these are essentially ungodly old chunks of coral that have dried for extremely long periods of time. And considering Coral skeletons are calcium....

[acabgd]

Calcium will rather precipitate than dissolve in saltwater, especially with such high alleged numbers.
As already suggested you should double check your salinity.