Excessive calcium issue

perryxcore · Mar 30, 2011

Hello all, I got back from a week outta town and love my parents who cared for my tank while I was gone but my calcium is reading 880...yes I triple checked it: 880

I have a 28g nano and I plan on doing a 12 gallon water change as soon as I get off work. I was wanting input on if this process will probably need to be repeated again in a week to completely stabalize? Also i have a rbta high up in the tank and this change will probably leave it out of the water temporarily, is this going to agitate it enough to start moving?

_Alex_ · Mar 30, 2011

wow what test are you using to even get that high of a reading? all the tests i have seen only go up to like 550!

also what did they do to get the calcium that high?? taht seems kinda odd unless they where dosing WAY to much.

drainbamage · Mar 30, 2011

Check your alkalinity- your calcium shouldn't be able to trigger that high unless there's a lack of carbonates for it to bind with.

Do a water change, but it's not a huge issue in and of itself so don't freak out and overcompensate and actually cause problems! Just water change, wait 2-3 hours, check alk/calc/mag, and go from there.

Alex- kits like Salifert are titration kits- so if you haven't titrated the solution (gotten the color change) you can continue adding and just add on to the base scale (so if it goes to 550, start with a new 1mL amount of solution, and if you end up coloring at '340' add that to the already-passed 550 and you'll get 890ppm)

_Alex_ · Mar 30, 2011

drainbamage said:
Check your alkalinity- your calcium shouldn't be able to trigger that high unless there's a lack of carbonates for it to bind with.

Do a water change, but it's not a huge issue in and of itself so don't freak out and overcompensate and actually cause problems! Just water change, wait 2-3 hours, check alk/calc/mag, and go from there.

Alex- kits like Salifert are titration kits- so if you haven't titrated the solution (gotten the color change) you can continue adding and just add on to the base scale (so if it goes to 550, start with a new 1mL amount of solution, and if you end up coloring at '340' add that to the already-passed 550 and you'll get 890ppm)

ah true didnt think about that :neutral: :nerd:,

yea and like said above check you alk/dkh and your magnesium as well something else is most likely out of wack if calcium is that high!

perryxcore · Mar 30, 2011

I had the same thought about alk and mag. Alk is 9.6 and mag is a solid 1500 I'm honestly surprised they're both fine, they must have dosed a ton part 1 every morning.

drainbamage · Mar 30, 2011

wow...that is odd. typically calcium precipitates out of solution once it's in excess of 600ppm (at least to the best of my knowledge.) With all your other levels being good, simple water change and you should be set, just lay off your standard dosing for a few days/week to let things settle down.

Heffe01 · Mar 30, 2011

Wouldnt the excessive Calcium drop your alk pretty quickly? I cant imagine the alk being fine if there is that much calcium in the tank. I would check your test kits first.

Paul_N · Mar 30, 2011

I agree on the water change. With that water volume, that would be the easiest solution. Also I would test when I did the water change and see if maybe the test kit is bad.

drainbamage · Mar 30, 2011

Heffe01 said:
Wouldnt the excessive Calcium drop your alk pretty quickly? I cant imagine the alk being fine if there is that much calcium in the tank. I would check your test kits first.

The calcium in that level should react with the alkalinity and precipitate out of solution as a solid- that's what's weird with neither one being low

perryxcore · Mar 30, 2011

For those with doubts of test accuracy, I use salivary tests and after my initial tests I had my lfs test it too. Def not dosing til it's back to normal but its pretty strange

Paul_N · Mar 30, 2011

drainbamage said:
The calcium in that level should react with the alkalinity and precipitate out of solution as a solid- that's what's weird with neither one being low

I agree. I bumped my Ca up to 660 for a week or two about two years ago(for an experiment) and I had to dose a bunch to get it there. I betcha it's the kit.

Paul_N · Mar 30, 2011

perryxcore said:
For those with doubts of test accuracy, I use salivary tests and after my initial tests I had my lfs test it too. Def not dosing til it's back to normal but its pretty strange

hmmm, how much were you dosing?

drainbamage · Mar 30, 2011

Paul_PSU said:
hmmm, how much were you dosing?

His parents were watching the tank- So not surprising if they were doing the "well shoot, if 5mL is good, think how good 50mL will be!" method.

Paul_N · Mar 30, 2011

Ya, I was wondering if they said how much they were dosing. They probably aren't sure anyways if they got it up to 880...lol. If they had to mess up dosing, at least they did it with the Ca and not the ALK!

drainbamage · Mar 30, 2011

Paul_PSU said:
Ya, I was wondering if they said how much they were dosing. They probably aren't sure anyways if they got it up to 880...lol. If they had to mess up dosing, at least they did it with the Ca and not the ALK!

Not to mention the food!

CJO · Mar 31, 2011

I would think it would be impossible to get your calcium that high. What is your pH at? If it's anywhere near 8 (or above), it would have precipated out.

cJ

beaslbob · Mar 31, 2011

i think the best thing to do is keep alk up and let the tank recover on its own.

patent · Mar 31, 2011

beaslbob said:
i think the best thing to do is keep alk up and let the tank recover on its own.

I'd agree with that. No problem to do a water change, but don't stress on it too much, and I wouldn't do a panic water change that would leave the nem out of water.

As others have said, I can't imagine what is going on in the tank to leave the CA that high w/o precip out. Have you tested pH? What is that at?