This might be more appropriate for the water chemistry forum, but I still feel like a newbie...
My tank has been running for over a year and a half now, 45 gals with 25 lbs aquacultered rock and 30 lbs Lalo rock and a 4" SB of Caribsea from my LFS. After the first 3 months I started dosing with C-balance. I stopped because I was getting Ca readings of 600-650ppm. Did some research, bought more test kits: Red Sea, Seachem, Salifert, did some major water changes, had the LFS do a Ca test for me, and still 650ppm. I've tested my make up water, Instant Ocean and it's around 400ppm before putting it in the tank.
So for the past year, I have not added any Ca, I do add Reefbuilder twice a week and that keeps my Alk at 3 meq/L and PH hovers around 8.2. I do 25% water changes monthly. Yet I still get 600-650 ppm readings.
Is there some big part of the equation I'm missing? Am I not testing the right things? Could the rock or sand be leaching Ca for this long? Is this even a problem? I have 10 or so SPS in the tank that are doing great, coraline algae grows everywhere, and I have tube worms or feather dusters covering everything now. The down side is that I can't get any soft corals to live, which I don't know if that's related or not. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
Bill
My tank has been running for over a year and a half now, 45 gals with 25 lbs aquacultered rock and 30 lbs Lalo rock and a 4" SB of Caribsea from my LFS. After the first 3 months I started dosing with C-balance. I stopped because I was getting Ca readings of 600-650ppm. Did some research, bought more test kits: Red Sea, Seachem, Salifert, did some major water changes, had the LFS do a Ca test for me, and still 650ppm. I've tested my make up water, Instant Ocean and it's around 400ppm before putting it in the tank.
So for the past year, I have not added any Ca, I do add Reefbuilder twice a week and that keeps my Alk at 3 meq/L and PH hovers around 8.2. I do 25% water changes monthly. Yet I still get 600-650 ppm readings.
Is there some big part of the equation I'm missing? Am I not testing the right things? Could the rock or sand be leaching Ca for this long? Is this even a problem? I have 10 or so SPS in the tank that are doing great, coraline algae grows everywhere, and I have tube worms or feather dusters covering everything now. The down side is that I can't get any soft corals to live, which I don't know if that's related or not. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
Bill
