Calcium additive help

[Jasontkd]

Please Help!!! I am setting up a 180 gallon FOWLR. nothing fancy. Just want to keep my calcium levels up to get good coraline growth. What shoudl I use? What is a good product? Please Help? something simple please.

[TheReefer12]

I use SeaChem raises calcium and SeaChem maintains calcium. I will but some of one in one week and some of the other the next. Seems to be working great for me.

Brian

[washowi]

Here is the stuff you want "Walt Smiths' Fiji Gold" I talked to Walt last week and he quarantees that if you dose it twice a week your tank will be between 400 to 580 and stay there. I just got some I am going to see how it works. I could never get my tank above 380 no matter what I did.

Best advice I got was form Jenn. "it's only a number" Is everything thriving and doing well? If so, It's only a number.

Todd

[drsyme]

Originally Posted by washowi

Here is the stuff you want "Walt Smiths' Fiji Gold" I talked to Walt last week and he quarantees that if you dose it twice a week your tank will be between 400 to 580 and stay there. I just got some I am going to see how it works. I could never get my tank above 380 no matter what I did.

Call me a skeptic but this sounds suspicious. If you are not able to get your calcium above 380 it could be because you are not adding calcium supplementation fast enough because of the high load of stony corals, and crustaceous algae. Or it could be becuase your magnesium concentration is too low.

Magnesium is a divalent cation, like calcium. So it binds to calcium carbonate particles and helps to prevent rapid precipitation of calcium carbonate. So if magnesium is low, the added calcium just gets precipitated out, and the level of calcium does not rise.

It just so happens that "Fiji gold" contains magnesium as well as calcium. If it works any better than calcium chloride in raising calcium levels in tanks such as yours, I bet it is for this reason. And in fact if a tank is low in calcium, AND LOW IN MAGNESIUM this might be the stuff to add. Otherwise I am highly suspicious of any other claims that it makes.

[washowi]

I also dose with Kent tech M

[drsyme]

What is your calcium level, alk level, pH in the morning and night?

What do you keep in the tank?

What is your magnesium level?

What brand salt do you use, how often do you do water changes, how big is the tank?

[washowi]

Oh man you ask alot of me this morning.

Like I said 380 to 390 most of the time on the Ca. Ph is 8.2 to 8.4 on average
Magnesium I never tested for. I use Kent Salt, I do 10 gallon water changes every 2 weeks in my 90 gallon with about a 10 gallon sump.

I have just about everything in the tank. Run 560 watts of light with 2 10K HQI 150 watt MH combined with 260 watts of PC light.

I just started the Walt Smith Fiji Gold this week. I have noticed trewmendous poylop extension after using it.

I will run the test today and see how the tank is running and post in a bit.

Here is the tank. Can't list everything in the tank. Maybe the picture will help.

Todd

[drsyme]

Tank looks great! You should take Jen's advice.

Do you supplement with kalkwasser? This will control your calcium and alkalinity both with one additive.

I dont see any reason you should not be able to raise your calcium if you add enough. I dont think the source of calcium is going to make much difference.

I would not continue adding the Kent tech M unless you are measuring mag. You also did not list the alk, I assume you are measuring that. Calcium and alk levels are very much related. In order to know what to add, you really need both measurements. IMO kalkwasser, or some other balanced buffer added regularly, and calcium chloride or sodium bicarb as needed to balance out the calcium and alk is all you need to add.

Gotta go for now, I hope Tom is around today.

[tdwyatt]

Originally Posted by drsyme

Call me a skeptic but this sounds suspicious...

I think so too.


I am not familiar with the product, but if it DOES contain Magnesium, this will only lead to long terms problems unless it is around 2-4% of the total calcium. Magnesium is basically a conservative element, and although it is found in low concentrations in Kalkwasser, anything significantly over 2% or so will begin to skew the proportionality of your conservative elements.

Before I go off the deep end and stick my foot in my mouth, lemme do some background on the product. Basically I am against products that combine more than one element as an additive for a reef system, as many are consumed (if they are at all) at different rates, making a combination product inappropriate over time if you need to maintain ASW proportions. Adding a substance like Mg on a regular basis when there is little abiotic loss of the element or sinking via biological sequestering will result in accumulations in the water column. That CAN be just as bad as having not enough magnesium, because in order to maintain your salinity, SOMETHING has to be displaced, and it is usually your other conservative elements. Adding magnesium as a supplement can do this as well, totally changing your ASW from a decent representation of seawater to a mixed brine of salts. It is better for coral reef tanks to do large percentage water changes rather than supplement individual conservative elements outside those with large biological sinks.

I'll try to find out some more on the Walt Smith product, back later.