help me grow acros

[ctyler85]

What about your source water? Is it RODI w/ 0 TDS?

Correct, RODI water with 0 TDS, unit was just rebuilt and I'm also running a degasser

 

[ctyler85]

Ok, I think we might be making progress. I picked up a Hannah salinity checker while I was in WWC today.... Calibrated it and it's 43ppm. So way high. Starting to slowly dilute it back down. Used the new calibration fluid to fix my refractometer

 

[am3gross]

Ok, I think we might be making progress. I picked up a Hannah salinity checker while I was in WWC today.... Calibrated it and it's 43ppm. So way high. Starting to slowly dilute it back down. Used the new calibration fluid to fix my refractometer

If your refractometer is off, or was off, I would not use it.... Ever again, lol

 

[ctyler85]

If your refractometer is off, or was off, I would not use it.... Ever again, lol

Yeah I think I'm gonna stick with the Hannah for me salinity, everything is crazy high right now because he refractometer was so far off, my salt mix is sitting at 48ppm right now. So that's going to have to be diluted a lot before I do a water change

 

[homer1475]

Ok, I think we might be making progress. I picked up a Hannah salinity checker while I was in WWC today.... Calibrated it and it's 43ppm. So way high. Starting to slowly dilute it back down. Used the new calibration fluid to fix my refractometer

If I'm reading this right, you used the hanna calibration solution to calibrate the refractometer? You cannot do that. A conductive calibration solution will not work on an optical salinity checker. 2 different ways to measure salinity, and their respective calibration solution are not interchangeable.

FWIW, you calcium nor magnesium are not that high.

Many years ago we intentionally raised magnesium above 1500 with a particular product to combat bryopsis. Mine currently sits around 1600 without issues.

If I had to gather a guess, its the no nutrient levels that are killing your acros, along with the lack of light.

Recently switched up my lighting. From a 6 bulb t5 with reefbrites, to an 8 bulb powermodule hybrid. My corals always grew OK, but in the month I've been using the new light, my corals have exploded in growth(ALK and CAL consumption has nearly doubled). No idea what the new par values are(haven't used a par meter yet), but with more light my corals are certainly growing and coloring up much better.

Hanna makes a new high range nitrate kit that is perfect for measuring nitrates with a hard number without guessing what shade of color your sample is. Just make sure it's the high range, and not the low range(low range kit is super hard to use, and doesn't give very consistent readings with all the steps it takes to perform the test).

 

[ctyler85]

If I'm reading this right, you used the hanna calibration solution to calibrate the refractometer? You cannot do that. A conductive calibration solution will not work on an optical salinity checker. 2 different ways to measure salinity, and their respective calibration solution are not interchangeable.

FWIW, you calcium nor magnesium are not that high.

Many years ago we intentionally raised magnesium above 1500 with a particular product to combat bryopsis. Mine currently sits around 1600 without issues.

If I had to gather a guess, its the no nutrient levels that are killing your acros, along with the lack of light.

Recently switched up my lighting. From a 6 bulb t5 with reefbrites, to an 8 bulb powermodule hybrid. My corals always grew OK, but in the month I've been using the new light, my corals have exploded in growth(ALK and CAL consumption has nearly doubled). No idea what the new par values are(haven't used a par meter yet), but with more light my corals are certainly growing and coloring up much better.

Hanna makes a new high range nitrate kit that is perfect for measuring nitrates with a hard number without guessing what shade of color your sample is. Just make sure it's the high range, and not the low range(low range kit is super hard to use, and doesn't give very consistent readings with all the steps it takes to perform the test).

2 different calibration solutions. Sorry if that was not clear. I did pick up a hanna LR nitrate tester and it is reading 0.00
So now the question is... how do I dose nutrients?

 

[neonreef3d]

2 different calibration solutions. Sorry if that was not clear. I did pick up a hanna LR nitrate tester and it is reading 0.00
So now the question is... how do I dose nutrients?

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