Help with Calcium and Carbonate.

[Blake_Cond]

I'm having trouble with seachem advantage calcium and reef builder. I'm mixing 2 tablespoons of calcium in 600ml of RODI and 5 tablespoons of carbonate in 600ml of RODI (different container). I then put 20ml of each on different days e.g. calcium on Monday and carbonate Tuesday. I also add 1 teaspoon of seachem magnesium twice a week on Wednesday and Saturday. So my question is why is my calcium 320ppm and 5 dkh and my magnesium is 1300ppm which is right measurement. All help would be appreciated, I've never had the proper levels ever sine I've started the hobby which was 1.3 years ago.

System details:
100lt nano cube.
Dosing:
Seachem Reef Advantage Calcium.
Seachem Builder.
Seachem Reef Advantage Magnesium.
aqua vitro fuel 5ml once a week.
AcroPower 5ml once a week.
Vodka 37% 5ml every day.

Thanks Blake.

[disc1]

What is the salinity?

My first guess is that you need to dose more.

[Blake_Cond]

My Salinity is about 1.025.

[bertoni]

A tank that size might consume a teaspoon of baking soda a day. 20 ml of that solution is a tiny dose. I'd try dosing the tank up to 8 dKH, and then measure the level after 24 hours. If you do that for a few days, you should get a good trend line.

This calculator might help:

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

[Blake_Cond]

I've increased the doses to 30ml hopefully that might lead me down the right track. That calculator helped.

[DiscusHeckel]

Why don't you test your calcium, for example, the same time every day for a couple of days without dosing to calculate the consumption rate?

Then use the formula on the Seachem calcium bottle to work out the exact amount to bring your calcium level to the level you want.

Finally using the same formula, dose every day the amount required to maintain the consumption rate.

As for alkalinity, you could repeat the above, but ensure that it will not drop too low while calculating the consumption rate.

[bertoni]

Calcium and alkalinity are consumed at a ratio of about 2.8 dKH per 20 ppm of calcium, and alkalinity kits are a lot more precise than calcium kits, on average, so measuring just the alkalinity should be fine.

[Blake_Cond]

I'm getting a proper Salifert test kit next week that way I can test with hight quality test kits so I can calculate the consumption rate. At the moment I've increased the dose from 30ml to 60ml for calcium (I got the water tested and the calcium was 280ppm) and 30ml 40ml for alkalinity which at the moment is 7 dKH.

[Blake_Cond]

Happy to say as of today my calcium is 400ppm and alkalinity 10 dKH. I'm happy with those parameters at the moment I will bump up the calcium to 450ppm after I go through this batch of mixture. I'm already seeing improvements in coral health and colours are starting to show up and the coraline algae has blown up. Very happy now

[bertoni]

Okay, those numbers sound fine to me. Good new all around.