Tropic Marin Bio-Calcium

[R.W.]

I am using Tropic Marin bio-calcium supplement for my tank to raise and maintain my calcium levels. It contains other elements such as strontium, iodine, carbon dioxide, and a whole bunch more. I am wondering how should i add it to my water?
Dump it in the high flow zone in the DT? (thats what the directions say, and what i have been doing)
Dump it in my sump?
Dissolve it in my top-off water, then add it?

I am just wanting to double check incase there is a better way to add it.



Thanks.

[crayolaiii]

I've just added it to my display. I've used that product quite a lot before switching to a two part additive system recently. What I did find though, is if you overdue it with that product, you tend to get build-up.

[R.W.]

How long did you use it? Did you like the results?

[bertoni]

It can't be dissolved in fresh water, because it'll form calcium carbonate (limestone). The only issue with dosing into the display tank is that some undissolved particles might hit an animal and damage it.

[R.W.]

ok thats what I was thinking with the freshwater but wasn't sure. I posted this question because my anemone got a little calcium on it and closed up totally. I now found a nice spot to pour it into the DT without hitting any animals. But my fish keep thinking its food, is it bad if they bite it? (little particles floating around)

[bertoni]

I don't think the fish will have a problem. They should be fine.

[crayolaiii]

Sprinkle slowly...don't just toss in a bunch... And if you have high flow, that would be best to do so in that area. Let one of those blue scoops blow around for a bit, then add the next.

Yes, I did like it a lot. To this day, I think it likely gave me faster and stronger coraline growth than almost any other product. Just don't overdose it...don't fire it all in fast... Sometimes when the levels are low, it's easy to think "ahhh an extra scoop or two won't hurt..." but honestly, water can only absorb so much calcium in that form at once... Just don't do it and you'll be fine. I've never had problems with fish and bio-calcium, and sure, i've had the odd coral not like to be dumped on, but I've never seen it show long term ill effects or death. Maybe if I kept hitting it each time I dosed that might be a problem.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Be sure to note that it is a balanced calcium AND alkalinity supplement, despite the wording that in English does not communicate this well. I just recommend to the Tropic Marin Product Manager in another thread that they modify it, and he suggested they may change the wording.

The most important aspect of that is that this material is not useful to make a big boost to calcium as alkalinity will rise too much. Plenty of people get into trouble that way.

A 60 ppm boost to calcium will try to boost alkalinity by 8.4 dKH.

So use calcium chloride for such a boost.

I discuss this product, and others, here:

How to Select a Calcium and Alkalinity Supplementation Scheme
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2003/chem.htm

from it:

One-part balanced additive systems: Salt Mixtures

Another type of balanced one part additive is comprised of a simple dry mixture of sodium bicarbonate (or carbonate) and calcium chloride. Just as with the two-part additives described below, this type of system can be further formulated to have a natural seawater residue after removal of calcium carbonate. Tropic Marin’s Biocalcium seems to fall into this category, though it’s written descriptions are notoriously difficult to interpret. It costs about $8 for 500 grams (estimated to contain about 1800 meq of alkalinity), so that puts the cost at about $4.40 per thousand meq of alkalinity. It claims to add 79 trace elements to the tank, along with the calcium and alkalinity, but doesn’t specify amounts for any of them.

You cannot mix this type of additive in water prior to adding it to a tank. If you do, the calcium will react with the carbonate present to form insoluble calcium carbonate. Consequently, the directions advise adding it directly to the tank. If you do, be sure to add it in a high flow area away from corals (like a sump), as the solids are reported to irritate corals if they land on them.

If you use a product like this, be sure to keep it as dry as possible, even to the extent of keeping it in a sealed container to keep out atmospheric moisture. If moisture enters the mixture, it may allow the formation of undesirable calcium carbonate.

Continual use of products like this will increase the salinity in the tank. The rise in salinity over time can be roughly calculated, though not knowing exactly what is in it makes the calculation only a ballpark figure. For every 1000 meq of alkalinity added in this fashion these products will deliver on the order of 60 grams of other ions to the tank. In a tank with a low calcification demand (defined below to be 18.3 thousand meq of alkalinity per year in a 100-gallon tank (50 meq/day)) this effect will raise the salinity by 3 ppt per year (compared to a normal salinity of S =35). In a high demand tank (defined below to be 219 thousand meq of alkalinity per year in a 100-gallon tank (600 meq/day), the salinity will rise by 35 ppt in a year, or approximately doubling the salinity. Consequently, the salinity should be monitored closely in using this type of additive, especially in a tank with high calcification rates.

[ruski]

Is there any way to dry out Bio calcium that may have moisture in the product ?
I live in a very humid area .