What do you aim to keep your calicum at?

[Roc]

I am a slowbie and just started testing for Cal, the reading came out as 400 twice. I don't have a ton of SPS but my collection is growing. So what should I aim to keep it at, and what are the best ways to rasie/lower it?

 

[DurTBear]

FWIW, I keep my Cal at 440ppm. Once I started loading my tank with SPS, my Ca was being consumed at a high rate. So I started dosing 2-part and used the handy reef calculator to calculate how much to initially dose to raise your Ca. Then you use trial and error to determine the daily dose (or how much your tank consumes on a day-to-day basis).

http://www.2partcalculator.com/

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

 

[tuberider]

In reality it should be balanced with your alk, I keep my alk at 8.5 dkh, and my cal ~420 I use a ton of two-part to maintain it.

 

[DurTBear]

Out of curiosity, how much two-part do you use daily? I have a 20 gallon tank but I am dosing 40 ml of each to maintain my balance of Cal/Alk. Seems like a lot to me but any less and the levels slowly decrease.

 

[Roc]

I need to test my alk tonight

 

[corals b 4 bills]

My Ca Reactor keeps my Ca at 420-440 and my alk is at 9, for now I dose my Mag manualy until I get the LM3 up and running.

 

[tuberider]

[quote author=DurTBear link=topic=4300.msg52102#msg52102 date=1218584735]
Out of curiosity, how much two-part do you use daily? I have a 20 gallon tank but I am dosing 40 ml of each to maintain my balance of Cal/Alk. Seems like a lot to me but any less and the levels slowly decrease.
[/quote]I dose a little over 3 oz of each a day (about 100ml is what I dose), my tank has a 36"X18" footprint.

 

[CookieJar]

My calcium recently measured at 420. I dose about 6 oz. of 2 part solution 5 days a week, but am going to increase it since I've got 200+ gal. I do 25% water changes every 3 weeks. Before I dosed my calcium was always around 360, never got to 400.

 

[Vincerama2]

I havn't checked either CA or ALK in like 3 years. Sometime last November I moved my tank and haven't reconnected my Kalk mixer yet. I do water changes once every ... uh....hmmmm....

I guess I'd better check too. I don't have much sps at all, but I know all coral consume calcium.

V

 

[Gomer]

I have a 40g (36x x 15) and I can tell you that 40mL/day of each wasn't enough and I am still finding balance.

 

[patchin]

OK, you guys have convinced me to test both tonight.

 

[FinalPhaze987]

i keep mine at a steady 420 with the alk in the 9-10 range. I used to run my alk around 10-11 and the ca around 400 when i dosed 2 part, but its alot easier for me to set the ca rx and forget about it all.