Neptune Aquatics

Can snails crash my calcium level?

Qckslvr

Qckslvr

Supporting Member
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I am not sure what is going on. My tank has no corals, no fish, only 7 snails. Three trochus, two turbo, and two nassarius. The capacity of my tank is 32 gallons, more likely has 28ish due to rocks and such. My calcium level is normally 390ish, and last night it tested at 60 - 70 ppm! I was a bit shocked and tested it 2 more times (Red Sea Calcium test kit) and the results were the same each time. It was a bit late so I couldn't run over to Neptune for a water test to make sure it really had crashed. All my other levels are pretty average, phosphates are up from .06 to .12 but I did feed the tank that morning.

So bad test kit? or did my snails intake that much calcium?
 
psidriven said:
If your last test was within a month, I’d say it’s unlikely to drop 300+ in that time and is likely an error. Also, what is your magnesium? Mag affects Cal levels.
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Magnesium has been pretty steady at 1300-1350

I was kind of figuring user error or bad test kit....

also getting ready to dose my tank for Alkalinity. My tank since new seems to be around 6, the last two times it tested at 6.2. I have some BRS soda ash, so I will mix that up tonight.
 
Qckslvr said:
Magnesium has been pretty steady at 1300-1350

I was kind of figuring user error or bad test kit....

also getting ready to dose my tank for Alkalinity. My tank since new seems to be around 6, the last two times it tested at 6.2. I have some BRS soda ash, so I will mix that up tonight.
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There’s no need to dose anything. Let the aquarium do its thing. Your wasting your time
 
Finnaddict said:
Get rid of that Red Sea test kit. Salifert is more reliable.

BTW. Is your test kit expired?
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test kit is not expired

I went by Neptune last night, got my water tested, and everything checked out to be about the same as Saturdays test. So either I did my calcium test incorrectly or the test kit has an issue.
 
So in conclusion, snails cannot crash your calcium level. More like a lesson to validate test kit results with a secondary test kit if reperformance of the test does not bring up a different result. i believe most of the times reperforming the test by re-reading the instructions solves most unreasonable test results.

Also, there is no need to use any other test kit to measure CA than Salifert. I have tested this now 10+ times (multiple test kits) against ICP and it is within a 5 ppm difference.

But what can 'crash'/impact CA negatively?

Low magnesium levels.

High SPS consumption (without additional supplementation of CA)

Cheap salt

Other?
 
If you mix salt wrong, use cheap / bad QA salt, low salinity, bad test kit, and probably more

Those are more likely to cause the low reading than super high uptake of calcium in such a new system imo
 
tribbitt said:
If you mix salt wrong, use cheap / bad QA salt, low salinity, bad test kit, and probably more

Those are more likely to cause the low reading than super high uptake of calcium in such a new system imo
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Agreed - I was more brainstorming about what could cause low CA more broadly, not specifically to a particular system.
 
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