Should I Care That My Calcium and Alkalinity Levels are Very High

[pmasonf]

Despite lurking on this site for years, this is my first post so please be kind. I have a 30 gallon tank that has been running for almost 10 years. Filtration is provided by a Fluval 207 canister filter. The tank has a half dozen peaceful fish--royal gramma, fire fish, cardinal, etc--a diamond goby and the usual CUC plus a collection of soft corals. They seem reasonably happy but I always have difficulty introducing new occupants; they frequently don't thrive, leading me to believe that the current fish and corals are used to my water but new ones can't adapt well, even if I take a long time to acclimate them. For example, I recently tried to introduce some birds nest corals and I can see that they are already turning white and shrinking.
For the last several years my tank has run very high calcium and alkalinity levels: alkalinity 10-12 and calcium over 500. Water changes bring it back closer to normal but it creeps back up. I had been dosing Reef Fusion and had stopped that and switched to AFR but stopped that as well since I didn't see the sense in adding more of what is already too high. I had tested the levels with Hanna test kits but to be sure I did a Fauna Marin ICP. All levels are from that:

Salinity 1.025
PH 8.13
Alkalinity 10.6
Calcium 505
Mg 1371
Nitrate 10.4
Nitrite .12
Phosphates were very high and I recently added Rowa Phos to my canister filter to deal with it but I'm looking to bring it down slowly so it hasn't changed much yet.

Are the high alkalinity and calcium levels likely to be the source of my problems and, if so, what should I do? And if that's not it, what should I look at next?
Thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Those values are fine.

 

[pmasonf]

Ok…
That leaves me with:
Is it safe to go back to using AFR?
Where else should I look for answers to why a significant percentage of fish or coral I add don’t make it?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Can you tell us about the lighting and flow? Soft corals and sps are very different

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

And for fish honestly I would say that 6 fish in a 30 is a full tank. I only kept 5 in my 32.

 

[Reefering1]

Elaborate on "don't thrive"... does that mean they die? are we talking about fish or coral?

 

[pmasonf]

Can you tell us about the lighting and flow? Soft corals and sps are very different

The lighting is a ReefBreeder 24 LED. Even though my canister filter has a Fluval UV Inline Clarifier I constantly fight algae (probably due to the high phosphate level) so I mostly keep the lighting at less than full. The lights are on for a total of about 12 hours but are relatively low except for about 4 or 5 hours in midday. I also tend toward higher levels of blue and less white if that matters. I haven't sprung for a Parr meter so I don't know the exact levels inside the tank.
There is a single powerhead at one end of the tank. I forget the size but it creates enough flow that the corals at the other end are moving.
The IPC said that my CO2 level was at the high end of the range at 2.28 mg/l so I suppose reducing that might be helpful. I used to have an airstone but I hated the salt creep and took it out.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Honestly it sounds more like a lighting issue than a parameters issue. It might be worth it to rend a meter, some LFS's rent them out.

Point the powerhead at the water surface to help oxygenate the water, it should be agitated with creation of little bubbles. Algae loves low flow, consider adding another small powerhead.

It might be worth it to start another thread in the algae section if your still having issue.

 

[pmasonf]

Elaborate on "don't thrive"... does that mean they die? are we talking about fish or coral?

New coral frequently die, especially anything hard. Another example: I added a Kenya tree a few months ago that lives but is bent over in half. As to fish, since it's a small tank I don't have that many new additions but I'd say that over the last couple of years 10-20% of newly added fish die even after I spend hours acclimating them. I even have a relatively high mortality rate when adding snails and I know it's not the fault of John at Reef Cleaners.

 

[Reefering1]

Most the time that a leather "slouches" all the time it's low flow. The current helps keep them erect. As MOJO said, flow might be a issue, and it will cause other issues too.

 

[pmasonf]

Honestly it sounds more like a lighting issue than a parameters issue. It might be worth it to rend a meter, some LFS's rent them out.

Point the powerhead at the water surface to help oxygenate the water, it should be agitated with creation of little bubbles. Algae loves low flow, consider adding another small powerhead.

It might be worth it to start another thread in the algae section if your still having issue.

I'll do both. Thanks.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Ok…
That leaves me with:
Is it safe to go back to using AFR?
Where else should I look for answers to why a significant percentage of fish or coral I add don’t make it?

If alk and calcium are higher than you want, dosing more seems inappropriate.