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Calcium
Hello everyone. Some time ago, I was having trouble getting my phosphate
level down. The plants were not doing bad but I was having some trouble
with algae. after reading your references to calcium and water test, I had
my wife pick up a chemical analysis of our water from the water company.
The analysis showed that the water was hard(400ppm); almost completely from
sodium bicorbonate. Very little calcium. I have been changing about 25%
evry 2 weeks (or less) and replacing with RO water. I added enough crushed
coral to keep the alkalinity (measured with a Lamotte kit) to about 100ppm.
I've adjusted my CO2 for a pH of ~7. With these values, the plants are
doing well and I am finally getting my PMDD dosage right. Iron is in the
right range(~.1ppm) and nitrate is below 10ppm.
The question is: What should the calcium level be? With 100ppm alkalinity,
the calcium level measures about 30ppm. I searched through the archives
and the only reference to an actual value I could find was the Plants
article. It referenced the Optimum Aquarium and gave a value of 90ppm for
calcium. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Regards,
Onis
k5vkq at ix_netcom.com