Calcium at 500??

[robertnb64]

So I have 2 tanks:
120 gallon fish only, 6" dsb, live rock, skimmer and refugium

20 gallon coral only, shallow sand, live rock and a hang on filter

I use the same water and salt mix at water changes and dose close to the same.

I am using a new Salifert kit to test both tanks, here are the results:

120 Gal: Ca 500, Mg 1275, KH 8, Ph 8:18

20 Gal: Ca 430, Mg 1175, KH 4.1, Ph 8:27

I do not think the 120 gallon could have a calcium reading of 500...the color never changes on the test kit for this tank as it does on the smaller tank.

The 120 also have a hair algae problem I am trying to combat. Could this be a factor?

[tmz]

500ppm calcium will not encourage hair algae.

What are the calcium and alk readings for newly mixed slat water . What salinity are you mixing it to?

The coral in the smaller tank will consume some calcium and alkanity.Coralinealge will too.

If that's 4.1 dkh for the 20 gallon it's very low.What kinds of coral are you keeping? What dosing are you doing exactly?

[robertnb64]

Hey Tom,

Thanks for the reply....

I will need to test the salt mix, it is the Reef Crystals brand.

The large tank has so much nuisance algae I do not have any coraleagle algae anymore, could that be the cause of high calcium?

The small tank has only zoa's and i am now dosing for dkh to slowly raise it. I also add a pinch of turbo Ca and a squirt of Mg daily.