Forgive me if I missed reading any answers to the questions I ask.
Calibration:
Are you extremely triple sure you have calibrated your testing devices correctly?
Conductivity probe/ hydrometer/ refractometer , Temp gauge, PH?
Are the test kits for alk, cal, mag new or of a trusted brand?
Stability:
How stable are your parameters? Meaning how much do these parameters swing on a 24 hour basis?
Temp, Alk, salinity, PH, PAR, color spectrum, types of salt, how often topping off? Are you changing brands? Are you dosing additives?
Contaminates:
Are there any metal parts anywhere possibly corroding? Metal screen? Fitings? Are you using any green colored rubber tubbing? For plumbing, what did you use to seal pipes? Does your local water supply add chloramine, or does it have any increased levels of heavy metals or pollutants? Is your RO device clean/ reliable? Is there any windex in the nearby areas? Any sun tan lotion on skin, when putting hands in water? Any copper in the water?
Pests:
Any midnight pests? Any sight of nudibranch, red bugs, gorrilla crabs, parasitic copepods/isopods, flatworms?
Hi Travis - missed this post earlier apparently, sorry!
My Salifert test kits (kH/Ca/Mg) seem to be calibrated correctly and are in-date, and I measure temp with the Seneye, the heater and the backup heater which all have a thermometer. As above, API kit for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate. Haven't checked stray voltage if that's what you mean by conductivity probe. I use a refractometer for salinity and it seems to be accurate compared to the fancy version at my LFS.
My parameters don't seem to swing very much - there is a very small dip in pH at night before the chaeto starts working, so I try to keep it a little higher than I might normally choose. Right this second, for example, the Seneye says that the pH is 7.87. For PAR, depends on the place in the tank, but I light with Radion XR15 with all channels on for "coral radiance" setting with red turned off (in an attempt to help with algae, doesn't seem to change anything). I have been using RS Coral Pro salt for about two years now, and just changed about 1.5 weeks ago to AF Probiotic Reef salt - the Alk is noticeably lower quickly after just two water changes (good lower, 8.8 now vs 11 before).
All the equipment is pvc/plastic, nothing metal in the tank. No green tubing, all vinyl I think, the clear stuff with the mesh built into the hose for the return. No adhesives in any place that would get wet, and the kind that was supposedly safe for drinking water. RO/DI I do myself, 0 TDS, filters change when it creeps up to 1-2 TDS. I use white vinegar to clean the glass and everyone in this house knows cleaning chemicals are forbidden near the tank (lol). I wash my hands up to the elbows prior to putting my hands in the tank, and usually wear gloves.
As for pests, no signs of flatworms, nudibranch, anything - I'll regularly go and look with a flashlight in the middle of the night when I get up to use the bathroom to see if there's anything. There are lots of tiny little (1cm) bristleworms that come out more during the night and hide most of the day except when I am feeding fish. They all seem to leave everything alone though, and I rarely see any that are very big. I used to have a Banded Coral Shrimp who used to love to hunt the bristleworms but he died a couple weeks ago in the ice storm when we had a power cut for 3 days - only have battery backup for 1.5 days. (As an aside, these troubles have been ongoing for my whole reef experience thus far, so the sad deaths didn't affect any occupants, I have so very few corals in there right now, and they are all mushrooms plus two blasto that keep holding on somehow, just not growing at all, and they've been there a year)
Thoughts? As above, my next step is a Triton test.
