FAULT ISOLATION MANUAL · MAJOR IONS — CALCIUM

CA-001 · Calcium not responding to dosingv1.0.1

Dosed calcium fails to rise, or keeps falling, despite an unchanged dosing program. This sheet isolates why, the way an aircraft maintenance manual would: confirm the reading and the trend, clear the confounds, check the magnesium prerequisite, verify supply and delivery, and only then act. Answer each numbered block and the sheet lights the path.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

Your calcium test kit (plus a second kit or fresh reagent)
A magnesium test kit
Your alkalinity test kit
A graduated container and the dosing calculator
Your tank journal

JavaScript is off, so the interactive sheet can't run — the complete printed logic is below. Start at block 1 and follow the YES/NO links. Nothing about your tank is inferred or stored.

Block 1 — Have you confirmed the reading with a second test (a different kit, or fresh reagent)? (Note: Calcium titration kits are sensitive to technique and reagent age: a mis-timed endpoint reads low every time.)
YES → block 3 · NO → block 2

Block 2 — Retest before troubleshooting: a single reading is not a stalled trend. Confirm with a second kit or fresh reagent, then return to this procedure. (Verify — 2 days, CALCIUM: A second kit or fresh reagent reproduces the low or stalled reading across two daily tests)
END — ESCALATE RETEST

Block 3 — Across at least 3 comparable tests (same kit, same time of day) taken while your dosing program ran UNCHANGED, has calcium failed to rise, or kept falling, despite the dosing? (Note: Comparable means same kit, same time of day, dose unchanged. A dose changed mid-window makes the response unreadable, and a single low reading is not a stalled trend.)
YES → block 9 · NO → block 4

Block 4 — Is calcium still inside your tank-type target range: 400–450 ppm (mixed reef) or 410–445 ppm (SPS-dominant)?
YES → block 5 · NO → block 6

Block 5 — CA-001 NOT ACTIVE — calcium is responding to your dosing program and sits inside your tank-type target range. That establishes only that this fault's entry condition is not met. Log the trend in your journal: a recorded baseline makes the next investigation faster.
END — NO FAULT

Block 6 — Is calcium BELOW the range (rather than above it)?
YES → block 7 · NO → block 8

Block 7 — BELOW TARGET RANGE BUT RESPONDING: the dosing program is working; the level started low or was recently drawn down. Restore the level with correction mode, which paces the raise at safe daily rates. Leave the maintenance dose unchanged; the response trend says it is matching demand. (Verify — 3 days, CALCIUM: Calcium back inside your tank-type target range and holding across three comparable tests)
verified resolved → done · problem continues → block 3

Block 8 — ABOVE TARGET RANGE: do NOT dose upward; correction mode only raises calcium and has no place here. Let normal consumption bring the level down into range and test on your regular schedule while it settles. (Note: Falling from an elevated level toward range is the system self-correcting. Chasing the number upward re-creates the elevation.) (Verify — 3 days, CALCIUM: Calcium moving down toward or inside your tank-type target range with no upward dosing in the interval)
verified resolved → done · problem continues → block 3

Block 9 — During that SAME trend window: any water change, salinity adjustment, magnesium or alkalinity correction, or change to any dosing program? (Note: Replacement water with different calcium, a salinity shift, or a parallel correction can mask or mimic a stalled response: the window has to be clean before the stall is attributed.)
YES → block 10 · NO → block 11

Block 10 — TREND WINDOW CONFOUNDED — the stalled response cannot be attributed while the window contains an intervention. Re-establish the trend: 3 comparable tests, same kit, same time of day, dosing unchanged, with no water changes or parallel corrections. If the stall reproduces, return to this procedure. (Verify — 3 days, CALCIUM: Three comparable tests in an intervention-free window still show calcium failing to rise or falling despite unchanged dosing)
END — ESCALATE RETEST

Block 11 — Is calcium currently ABOVE your tank-type target range: 400–450 ppm (mixed reef) or 410–445 ppm (SPS-dominant)? (Note: A stall at an elevated level is dispositioned differently: no dose-raising action is safe above range.)
YES → block 12 · NO → block 13

Block 12 — ABOVE TARGET RANGE: whatever the trend is doing, no upward correction is safe from here. Identify what produced the elevation (a correction overshoot, an unbalanced two-part, a high-calcium salt mix), log it in your journal, and monitor while the level settles toward range. (Note: A level that is elevated and not rising further needs no intervention at all. The tank is not required to reach range in three days: if verification fails, the level is reclassified fresh at the range check before any further step.) (Verify — 3 days, CALCIUM: Calcium moving toward or holding inside the target range with no upward dosing in the interval)
verified resolved → done · problem continues → block 11

Block 13 — Is magnesium inside its applicable range, 1230–1360 ppm (mixed reef) or 1260–1340 ppm (SPS-dominant), on a test taken within this trend window? (Note: Magnesium is the prerequisite check for a calcium stall: seawater magnesium interferes with abiotic calcium carbonate precipitation, so when magnesium runs low, dosed calcium can leave solution as carbonate instead of staying available. No calcium-side correction is trustworthy until magnesium is known.)
YES → block 17 · NO → block 14

Block 14 — Is magnesium BELOW the range (rather than above it)?
YES → block 15 · NO → block 16

Block 15 — MAGNESIUM LOW: restore magnesium BEFORE continuing any calcium correction. Use correction mode to plan the raise, no faster than 50 ppm per day, and hold your calcium dosing program unchanged while magnesium comes up. If magnesium itself keeps falling, run MG-001. (Note: Raising no faster than 50 ppm per day is BioForge correction policy. The calcium stall is re-evaluated fresh once magnesium is in range: low magnesium alone can account for it.) (Verify — 3 days, MAGNESIUM: Magnesium rising on the correction schedule at no more than 50 ppm per day, or back inside the applicable range, across comparable tests)
verified resolved → done · problem continues → block 11

Block 16 — MAGNESIUM ABOVE RANGE: not the calcium blocker this procedure tests for, but it distorts the consumption checks that follow. Do NOT dose magnesium. Log the reading, let routine water changes and consumption bring it down, and re-enter this procedure once magnesium is back in range. (Note: With magnesium out of range high, the calcium–alkalinity corroboration downstream cannot be read cleanly: dispositioning magnesium first keeps this procedure from acting on distorted evidence.) (Verify — 3 days, MAGNESIUM: Magnesium moving down toward its applicable range with no magnesium dosing in the interval)
verified resolved → done · problem continues → block 11

Block 17 — Does the tank have ANY active calcium supply: liquid dosing pump, two-part, calcium reactor, kalkwasser (ATO or manual), or regular manual dosing? (Note: Calcium can enter the tank without the owner thinking of it as "dosing": kalkwasser and calcium reactors supply it continuously. Only a true absence of supply counts as no supply.)
YES → block 21 · NO → block 18

Block 18 — Is calcium currently BELOW the target range? (Note: Below range adds a second task, restoring the deficit, on top of establishing supply.)
YES → block 20 · NO → block 19

Block 19 — NO CALCIUM SUPPLY: consumption with no replacement; there was never a dose to respond to. Set a maintenance dose sized to measured daily demand: enter tank volume and measured daily drop in the dosing calculator. (Verify — 3 days, CALCIUM: Three comparable tests (same kit, same time of day) show calcium holding inside the target range on the maintenance dose)
verified resolved → done · problem continues → block 11

Block 20 — NO SUPPLY AND BELOW RANGE: two separate tasks. First restore the deficit with correction mode, which paces the raise at safe daily rates. Then set a maintenance dose sized to measured daily demand (tank volume + measured daily drop) in the dosing calculator. (Note: Correction mode restores a level; the maintenance dose matches ongoing demand. Neither substitutes for the other.) (Verify — 3 days, CALCIUM: Calcium back inside the target range and holding across three comparable tests on the maintenance dose)
verified resolved → done · problem continues → block 11

Block 21 — Is that supply a liquid dosing pump (peristaltic or DC doser)? (Note: The delivery check below, timed container runs, quantifies a liquid dosing pump only. It cannot verify calcium reactor effluent, kalkwasser saturation, or manual dosing consistency.)
YES → block 23 · NO → block 22

Block 22 — UNSUPPORTED SUPPLY METHOD — this revision of CA-001 can verify delivered calcium for liquid dosing pumps only. With a calcium reactor, kalkwasser, or manual dosing, a delivery shortfall cannot be excluded or confirmed here, so this procedure stops rather than guess. Log your supply method and the confirmed stall in your journal; a future revision will add calibration procedures for these methods. (Note: If several parameters are drifting at once, not just calcium, a full ICP analysis may be warranted on its own merits. That is a separate decision, not this procedure's exit.) (Why this procedure stopped: CA-001 has no calibration procedure for calcium reactors, kalkwasser, or manual dosing: the timed-container check quantifies liquid dosing pumps only. This is a Manual coverage gap, not evidence of a tank fault requiring multi-parameter analysis.)
END — UNSUPPORTED METHOD

Block 23 — Verify actual delivered dose. Run your calcium doser into a graduated container for a timed 60-second run, twice. Convert the measured mL/day into ppm calcium delivered with the calculator, then return here.
then → block 24

Block 24 — Across BOTH timed runs, does measured pump output match the programmed dose within ±10%? (Note: ±10% is BioForge equipment-check policy. A single run must not isolate a delivery fault: peristaltic tubing fatigues gradually and output varies run to run.)
YES → block 26 · NO → block 25

Block 25 — DOSING DELIVERY SHORTFALL: the tank never received the programmed dose, so the level never had a dose to respond to. Recalibrate the doser or replace fatigued tubing, then reprogram to the verified output and re-run the timed-container check. (Note: Peristaltic tubing loses accuracy long before it visibly fails. Recalibrate on a schedule, not on symptoms. Verification here is the doser's measured output: the calcium trend is re-checked downstream once delivery is proven.) (Verify — 1 day, DOSER OUTPUT: Two fresh timed 60-second container runs each match the programmed dose within ±10%)
verified resolved → done · problem continues → block 11

Block 26 — Is alkalinity ALSO falling across the SAME test days: measured with the same alkalinity kit each time, with no change to alkalinity dosing and no water change during the interval? (Note: Balanced skeletal growth draws calcium and alkalinity together, roughly 7.1 ppm calcium per 1 dKH. That ratio is theoretical: test error, water changes, unequal dosing, and precipitation all distort it. Treat agreement as corroboration, never proof; and only comparable, confound-free alkalinity readings count.)
YES → block 27 · NO → block 30

Block 27 — Is calcium currently BELOW the target range? (Note: Below range means two tasks: restore the deficit AND match demand. In range means one: match demand.)
YES → block 29 · NO → block 28

Block 28 — PATTERN CONSISTENT WITH BALANCED CONSUMPTION exceeding your calcium dose: calcium and alkalinity are falling together, which is what skeletal growth does. Raise the calcium MAINTENANCE dose to match measured daily demand: tank volume and measured daily drop in the dosing calculator. Correction mode is not the tool here: the level is in range; there is nothing to restore. (Note: This corroborates consumption after test error, confounds, the magnesium prerequisite, missing supply, and delivery shortfall were eliminated. It does not isolate by ratio alone.) (Verify — 3 days, CALCIUM: Three comparable tests show calcium holding inside the target range on the new maintenance dose)
verified resolved → done · problem continues → block 30

Block 29 — CONSUMPTION EXCEEDS DOSE AND THE LEVEL IS BELOW RANGE: two separate tasks. First restore the deficit with correction mode, which paces the raise at safe daily rates. Then set the calcium maintenance dose to match measured daily demand (tank volume + measured daily drop) in the dosing calculator. (Note: Correction mode restores a level; the maintenance dose matches ongoing demand. Doing only one leaves the fault active.) (Verify — 3 days, CALCIUM: Calcium back inside the target range and holding across three comparable tests on the maintenance dose)
verified resolved → done · problem continues → block 30

Block 30 — In the last two weeks: new filtration media, new rock added, or anything curing in the system?
YES → block 31 · NO → block 32

Block 31 — RECENT SYSTEM CHANGE UNRESOLVED — a change in the last two weeks coincides with the stalled response, but this procedure cannot attribute the stall to it or quantify it from calcium readings. A full 38-parameter ICP analysis with photo and history context is the next step; note the recent change when you submit. (Why this procedure stopped: A recent system change is an unresolved confounder: this procedure cannot attribute or quantify its effect from calcium readings alone, and a confirmed stalled response should not be waited out on an assumption.)
END — ESCALATE DECODE

Block 32 — This procedure cannot isolate the fault from calcium readings alone: delivery is verified, magnesium is in range, and alkalinity is not moving with calcium. A full 38-parameter ICP analysis with photo and history context is the next step. (Why this procedure stopped: Confound window, magnesium prerequisite, supply, delivery, and consumption-corroboration checks completed without isolating a cause: a calcium-only stall with verified delivery, in-range magnesium, and stable alkalinity needs multi-parameter analysis, not another guess.)
END — ESCALATE DECODE