Calcium

[narny]

What do you guys think of Kent Liquid Calcium?

At the moment all i add are KLC as above, Kent Tech-I and Kent essential elements.

I've been looking at kalkwasser, but the complicated drip setup that goes with it puts me off, not to mention the possibility of overdose.

Secondly, i never have tested for alk, why's it so important, my tanks been up for 10 months now and looking great without complicated equipment and a dozen or so additives. PH stays at about 8.2 with no messing about, i buffer it once a month with Kent superbuffer DKH.

 

[Anonymous]

I just circulate 5x water flow through crushed oyster shells. And calcium slowly rose from 250ppm to 400ppm and has stayed there for months. alk at 2.0 meg/l. A local club member circulated his water though crushed coral and his calcium rose to 500ppm.

In both cases the calcium source basically replace the more normal filter media. So simple methods can be effective.

 

[Anonymous]

The correct combination of calcium and alk keeps your pH at a happy place for your fish and other critters. I started out with Kent calcium and later moved to the 2 part Kent formula. Things seem to be working for ya, though, so why change it.

One note, though...the Kent Tech-I and Essential Elements stuff may be unnecessary if you are doing regular water changes.

 

[liquid]

I just circulate 5x water flow through crushed oyster shells. And calcium slowly rose from 250ppm to 400ppm and has stayed there for months. alk at 2.0 meg/l. A local club member circulated his water though crushed coral and his calcium rose to 500ppm.

RO/DI water or already made saltwater or are you just running it in a mechanical filter that's already on your tank?

Shane

 

[Anonymous]

I just circulate 5x water flow through crushed oyster shells. And calcium slowly rose from 250ppm to 400ppm and has stayed there for months. alk at 2.0 meg/l. A local club member circulated his water though crushed coral and his calcium rose to 500ppm.

RO/DI water or already made saltwater or are you just running it in a mechanical filter that's already on your tank?

Shane

It's a diy filter box in my external sump/refug. The other club member uses the crushed coral in an external wet/dry type filter box.

here is an old link. http://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/showthr ... adid=82529

the oyster shells are in the acrylic box between the red lava landscaping rocks. The powerhead has been replaced with a mag 5. Meanwhile a 20g with very similiar conditions but no crushed oyster shells are remained at 250-300ppm calcium.

edit followup: here is the RC link to the other club member:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showt ... did=476360

The filter system with drawers is shown below his screen name. It is sideways but you can get the idea. To change media he just turns off the pump then pulls out a drawer. That seems like a good idea to me anyway.

 

[Anonymous]

Just a warning to anyone wishing to duplicate Beaslbob's Oyster Shell results - Crushed Oyster Shells contain massive amounts of Phosphates from the proteins in the shell. In a healthy tank the shells won't dissolve but if your PH and ALK are low it is possible for the Shell to slowly dissolve. This will release plenty of phosphate to inhibit calcification in corals. Ironically, this interference with calcification will allow the Calcium level to rise since fewer animals can building skeleton.

 

[ZooKeeper1]

Are you monitoring alkalinity levels? Calcium and alkalinity are best added together in a balanced fashion. You should look into using a two part addative. I like B-ionic.

 

[Anonymous]

Good point, ZooKeeper. Liquid Calcium is calcium chloride, if I remember correctly, and it is not balanced. However, it is one of the quickiest way to increase calcium, and you can follow it with alk. buffer/soda to make it less inbalanced.

 

[Anonymous]

Just a warning to anyone wishing to duplicate Beaslbob's Oyster Shell results - Crushed Oyster Shells contain massive amounts of Phosphates from the proteins in the shell. In a healthy tank the shells won't dissolve but if your PH and ALK are low it is possible for the Shell to slowly dissolve. This will release plenty of phosphate to inhibit calcification in corals. Ironically, this interference with calcification will allow the Calcium level to rise since fewer animals can building skeleton.

Thank God my corals didn't listen. All are growing rapidily including an sps that has doubled in a month or two. As has a couple of accidental frags also. And the green corraline has there plus the pink corraline is now about twice the area but still relatively small. (like about a 2"x6" area.)

Additionally, oyster shells are the basis for florida aqua farms saltwater cleaning formula. Plus oyster shells are processed and use to clean up the phosphates from industrial waste water in korea.

Additionally, phosphates are added through the food for your fish. And easily consumed by rapidily growing plant life which my tank has.

So whatever Guy's concerns are they are not happening with my tank.

Perhaps Guy can submit scientific data on what amount of phosphates are added through fish food and crushed oyster shells. And how much phosphates are bio accumulated in rapidily growing plant life when exposed to various levels of phosphates. I have attemped to find such data on common macros but none seems to be available. But such data on copper indicated that 1/10 pound of one macro bio accumlated the equilivant of 250ppm copper in a 55g tank in two weeks when exposed to 250ppm copper.

So I am not worried about copper, phosphates or anything else. I have seen too many Fw and Fo tank run for years with the only filtration plant life and in salt plant life and a UGF. When a calcium source costs $5 for 50 pounds and maintains 400ppm cal and 2 meg/l ALK that is all I need to know.

Perhaps Guy could relate his experiences with crushed oyster shells.

 

[SnowManSnow]

I know they aren't good for your teeth. Kinda like eating ice.

B.

 

[Anonymous]

LOL

 

[Anonymous]

Wow Bob, don't get your panties in a bunch. One thing Macro Algae accomplishes very well is removing Phosphate and Nitrate resulting from degraded Protein. I'm not surprised your tank can take care of the excess PO4 and I wasn't slamming your "plant Life" at all. This is the arena where Algae actually can perform miracles.

Just warning those that might try Oyster Shells that they need to be sure their system can incorporate excess PO4 and not to expect dramatic results if they have a healthy PH and Alkalinity.

My experience? Oyster shells immediately raised tested Calcium levels to 500ppm and ALK to 4.5 Meq/L. This quickly subsided to the original level but PO4 climbed to above 2ppm (limits of my test). When I repeated the test but rinsed all the dust out of the shells first the Calcium level actually dropped slightly but the Phosphate still slowly climbed to above 2ppm. This was in a small system without macro algae though so I wouldn't expect it to resemble your results.