Calcium and Algae

[Berger9953]

I have a two part question for yall.

 

1) I use red sea salt and I don't add any calcium supplements yet my calcium doesn't seem to want to go down.( I have LPS) I test for it every week and every week it is around 530ppm. Should I get some sps so the calcium is used up? Or is having more not a big deal?

 

2)I also have green blanket algae on my rocks(used to be red slime, now is a green version of the cyano) and brown algae on the sand. And a bit of hair algae on both. I have switched to RO water about a month or two ago and I have seen dramatic reduction of the nutrients an therefore romoving alot of the algae, but it's still not very clean. I have a little bit of coralline, but not enough. Is this just a normal stage for a 7+- tank? It will be a year in august. Can you all help me out? Thank you so much in advance everyone!!

[coralreefer]

1) You don't have to use up your calcium...don't get sps unless you want them...your question is like "I have an extra bedroom in my house...should I have a kid so it is occupied?" You are lucky...not having a dropping calcium is one less thing to worry about.

2) Check your nitrates, phosphates, age of lights, TDS, flow within tank, turnover flow, filters, skimmer, crab level, snail level, photoperiod, frequency of water changes, amount of food being fed, frequency of food being fed, type of food being fed...whew!

 

DrMerle

[Berger9953]

Thanks so much for the reply. Thanks for correcting me about my calcium "problem". But for the cuc, I think I do need more crabs(I have only 1 blue legged crab). My lights are fairly new. I have the oceanic biocube skimmer for my 20 gallon. I change the airstone every 3-4 weeks. My tap water is already great, but you'd think using RO would make it way better, it does but the results are not "way better"(I did see algae reduction but not all total). I have only 4 small bumblee snails, I'm going to my lfs today, so I'll pick up a better cuc. But I am hesitant because I don't want snails to get to big and knock over or disrupt corals. I'll definetly try to reduce the amount I'm feeding my fish. It may be too much. I'm using marine cuisine by the way. Thanks for the feedback

[Lowman]

since you were using tap water, there are silicates and/or phosphates in your live rock and sand. It will take a while, maybe up to a year, to leach them out of the rock. Be patient and maybe try some phosphate remover or a phosban reactor. I think you should upgrade your skimmer to a better hang on type or if you have a sump, you could do an in sump model.

[Rick]

What us your PH? Extra high calcium levels go hand in hand with low PH so keep an eye on it. I'm guessing you used new sand that wasn't rinsed really well when you set it up? I put 2 bags of sand in my tank last year without making sure it was rinsed well and it put my Calcium above 550 and dropped my PH really low (seven point something). Eventually it dropped low enough that I didn't have to fight to keep the PH up.

[dsoz]

Get a turbo snail or two. If they get too big you can take them back to the LFS. I know some LFSs in Portland will do a "snail exchange" to keep the large ones out of your tank.

 

If the turbos don't do it for you, then a long spine urchin would probably be the ticket. Long spines will decimate an algae problem pretty quickly. The problem with them is that if you get stuck with a spine it HURTS!!!

 

I would say no to more crabs. They get to be a pain as they get larger. I have crabs that will walk INTO an anemone and steal the food that I put there for the anemone to eat. Then the crab lives to walk away dragging the piece of fish with it. If I catch them, then they get a free trip to either the back of the tank or to the sump for a time-out. Crabs are more bad than good.

 

dsoz

[Berger9953]

Wow, I had no idea that the tap water would take that long to get all out. My pH has actually never been a problem only fluctuating from 8.0-8.3 in a day. oh, and I have no sump. And dsoz, thanks for the heads up, I'll get snails only. I guess all that I can do is wait, add the cuc and do wc's...right?

[jackaninny]

Thanks so much for the reply. Thanks for correcting me about my calcium "problem". But for the cuc' date=' I think I do need more crabs(I have only 1 blue legged crab). My lights are fairly new. I have the oceanic biocube skimmer for my 20 gallon. I change the airstone every 3-4 weeks. My tap water is already great, but you'd think using RO would make it way better, it does but the results are not "way better"(I did see algae reduction but not all total). I have only 4 small bumblee snails, I'm going to my lfs today, so I'll pick up a better cuc. But I am hesitant because I don't want snails to get to big and knock over or disrupt corals. I'll definetly try to reduce the amount I'm feeding my fish. It may be too much. I'm using marine cuisine by the way. Thanks for the feedback[/quote']

 

Your tap water is not even close to great compared to what an RODI will produce. Get an RODI unit or start getting said water from your LFS.

 

Almost everything I've been told about Bumblebe snails is that they are better at looking pretty than they are at eating. Astrea, Nassarius, and Margarita snails all seem to be cleaning freaks in my Nano.

[reefnjunkie]

I have a two part question for yall.

 

1) I use red sea salt and I don't add any calcium supplements yet my calcium doesn't seem to want to go down.( I have LPS) I test for it every week and every week it is around 530ppm. Should I get some sps so the calcium is used up? Or is having more not a big deal?

 

 

What are you using to test your Ca-are you certain that the readings you are getting are correct?

[Smann]

I would have someone test your calcium for you, test your Mag as well. I had a Bryopsis out break back in Jan, my fuge had got covered with it and it spread into the tank. I sent my water in to have it tested and the Mag was aroud 900, I confirmed that. Balanced the Mag in my water change water and bought one of these

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/products/reactors/gfo-and-carbon-reactors/brs-gfo-and-carbon-reactor.html

very good for the money $34, I'm running a cup of GFO in the bottom and 2 cups of carbon in the top, a maxi 12 fits right on

 

I cleand the fuge out, balanced the Mag, started running the reactor and all the algea is gone, as always I did all three at once so which one did the most I cant say. Algae is almost always a water quality issue so I would start there.

[Berger9953]

The calcium kit is an API kit. I'll take a water sample when I go in next weekend. I do have a ro unit if I didn't mention that b4, I think I did. BUt I've never tested my mag b4 either, I'll have him test that too. What is the ideal reading?

[Smann]

The calcium kit is an API kit. I'll take a water sample when I go in next weekend. I do have a ro unit if I didn't mention that b4' date=' I think I did. BUt I've never tested my mag b4 either, I'll have him test that too. What is the ideal reading?[/quote']

 

It needs to be balanced with your calcium, Cal-400 Mag-1200 1-3. To help with the bryopsis I raised my Mag to around 1300+ My calcium is around 420 to I try to keep Mag around 1280

The unit I linked is a reactor for GFO or Carbon or both

[jackaninny]

RO or RODI? Also does it have a TDS meter on it so you know it's properly filtering the water?

[Berger9953]

RO, and I don't have a tds meter. Maybe my lfs has one.....

[jackaninny]

Here's a link to a simple TDS meter

 

TDS Meter on Amazon

[jackaninny]

Better yet - I just noticed one of the PNWMAS sponsors - Air Ice Water is having an RO sale and they have TDS meters also.

 

http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/showthread.php?p=178771#post178771

[Berger9953]

Thank you very much for helping, but I found out one of my lfs's have one that I can test my RO with.

[reefnjunkie]

The calcium kit is an API kit. I'll take a water sample when I go in next weekend. I do have a ro unit if I didn't mention that b4' date=' I think I did. BUt I've never tested my mag b4 either, I'll have him test that too. What is the ideal reading?[/quote']

 

I have not had great "consistency" with API-and as such would never use them again.

My experiance anyway

[Berger9953]

I have not had great "consistency" with API-and as such would never use them again.

My experiance anyway

 

oh, really? Interesting, I'll keep that in mind when I need to get another one.

[Berger9953]

Better yet - I just noticed one of the PNWMAS sponsors - Air Ice Water is having an RO sale and they have TDS meters also.

 

http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/showthread.php?p=178771#post178771

 

Hey Jack, on my other thread you gave me a link about lights, and it said that the actinic light actually encourages algae growth. ANd my bulbs are 1 10k and and 1 420nm actinic. Could that be a factor? But on the other hand I have seen plenty of tanks with alot of actinic bulbs and they have crystal clear sand.