Clacium

Stay away from seachem's crappy trace elements additives...Just last week I returned their Advan. Cal, Advan. Mag and respective test kits. I was adding cal. likes there was no tomorrow only to have a minimal impact in the trace elements, but a HUGE impact on my tank in a BAD way..my skimmer went nuts with extremely wet skimming, which is normaly a bad sign.

Seachem takes pride on their crap, but at the end, they're only trying to make a buck out of suckers like myself...not anymore. It is surprisingly odd, because some of their stuff is good, like phosguard and purigen, but I was extremely disappointed by their trace elements and their "recommended" chemical levels according to their kits.

One clear example, their Alkalinity test kit says you must keep an ideal Alk. level of 4-5, when in fact, it's supposed to be bellow 4. So I had mine at 4.5 and what did it do? it threw my tank's chemical balance off, by not allowing mag and cal to go up. I was putting a crap load of both with almost no results....after adding their Advan. Cal for a week, my cal level DID NOT go up AT ALL, and the Mag levels only when up about 35 or 36 from the original level before I started using their additive. All I was trying to do was to get some coraline growing and I trusted Seachem, but luckily a great reefer at this forums told me to try "purple up" and I did...couldn't be happier, I've started noticing patches of nice purple coraline. If you want expert advice, LISTEN to what Coral Reefer has to say, if it wasn't for him, I would've screwed up my whole tank set up.

However if you don't want to try Purple Up and still want to add Calcium and keep Alk up with separate additives, I suggest you give these a try, my local LFS uses it and swears by it: E.S.V. B-Ionic 2-Part Calcium Buffer 64oz (32oz each bottle) (Saltwater Aquarium Supplies > Additives > Two Part CA/ALK )

 

In my honest opinion and that of marine guru's like Delbeek, Sprung and Borneman, a higher alkalinity level is more advantageous than a higher calcium level, especially in terms of coral precipitating their carbonate skeleton for growth and proper build.

 

Thankyou GROTTO for clearing up part of the issue! I would say that "Purple Up" and Kalkwasser make fine alternatives since I have had success with both of those products.
The two part additive like clownfish was talking about has received some good reviews as well!
Good luck!

 

Purple up started working for me at an insane rate....I don't know how they do it, but holy moly! this stuff is good! I'm sure I'm not seeing things, the purple patches are visible where coraline used to be on my LR. Before I started adding Purple Up, there was some coraline, but it was very dull and barely visible, now, thanks to this stuff, the purple looks vivid and I can't wait to see all over!!

 

Grotto,
I used Kent Turbo Calcium and it worked great. 1 cup would bring 300g of water up 50 ppm on ca. Now that Tangster hooked me up with a 25lb bag of Ca Chlo. I won't have to purchase Kents any more. I have been keep my Ca at about 440 ppm with no problems.

 

For over the counter supplements, I like the Kent's Turbo Calcium granuals

 

Also, make sure that you continue to test your alk and mag when you test your calcium so that you can be sure that alk and calcium are not fighting each other.

 

Purple up works great at keeping Calcium and Alk at proper levels, on the down side it also raises the Iodine levels to crazy level.
Which is supposed to be a good thing for some corals like Xenia, Shrimp and Sponges. But it has also been said that to much Iodine
not only can be toxic but can cause Algae blooms.

Here is a really good article on Iodine.


Iodine in Marine Aquaria by Randy Holmes-Farley

EDIT: I was using Purple up buy have since switched to B-Ionic 2 part, Got my calcium up to 410, Alkalinity to 11 DKH and Magnesium
to 1250 since I have been using it, never could get it this close using purple up. One last note I have two frags that I got from Reef Guru
back in mid January, it has had some growth but Since I started using B-Ionic and am able to keep my calcium and alkalinity levels up,
it has exploded and grown mew branches and added a 1/4 to 1/2" in places.

 

This is just my personal opinion but I would not use Purple up as gazog said it contains other elements than CA and ALK buffers. I would stick to Kent Turbo CA or two little fishes C-Balance is a Great CA and ALK buffer.

J

 

+1 I never understood why it's so hard to convince people that if they just used "regular" calcium/magnesium/alkalinity supplements, they'll get coralline algae just as quickly (if not sooner) than they would if they used Purple Up (which is expensive and full of iodine and other stuff that you don't really need).