Calcium

[KookyNewky]

I was talking to my LFS attendant and asked about how I could get my failing liverock to bloom again. He rapped off a bunch of products that I should buy such as trace element solutions and a few other things including Calcium. I know the salt I use boasts about trace elements within it so I decided to get some calcium. It was the second time I had heard that I need to add calcium to get the rocks back to their original color. My question is...
When adding calcium for the first time are there anything precautions I should take. Guy at store said just follow the directions on the bottle. It is a bottle of SeaChem Reef Advantage Calcium.

 

[Carpentersreef]

Keep it simple to start. Calcium only, and follow the bottle directions.
Make sure you test your water for calcium before and after!
Are you presently doing water changes?

Mitch

 

[tazdevil]

Not only that, but watch your ph levels closely, as well as the hardness level. These can both be affected by calcium additives, you get into a balancing act basically. Be real careful about using any additives, if you don't really need them, they'll potentially cause you more problems than they might solve.

 

[KookyNewky]

To be honest I havent been doing routine water changes because my well draws sulfur water and doing this requires that I lug 15 gallons of water from my inlaw's house to this one(about 15 miles).
My ph is a littlle low between 7.7 and 8.0. I figure the calcium would actually help me out in gettin the ph up to snuff.

Can you recommend a good calcium tester? My tester only includes tests for ph, nh3/nh4, NO2, KH, and GH.

 

[Carpentersreef]

Most people recommend Salifert.

Mitch

 

[Anonymous]

I think that the 2 part calcium additives are better, because they buffer alkalinity to. Most 1 part part additives are just calcium chloride. If you use this exclusivly without water changes, eventually the osmolality of you water will be skewed.