Interesting Thing that I noticed...

[RocketBunny]

Tank looks pretty good to me !

Thanks

 

[RocketBunny]

My lights are off, but I will tomorrow. My Xenia took a long time to grow. Yours looks healthy.

Ok thankyou... I'll probably just give it a lot of time, maybe it needs more stabilization.

 

[Katrina71]

You need to look at the ugliest tank thread. You will laugh. Wait until you get cyano and aiptasia.

 

[RocketBunny]

You need to look at the ugliest tank thread. You will laugh. Wait until you get cyano and aiptasia.

I hope I won't get them xD. I do have anemone sargassensis.... a rare anemone i got as a hitch hiker on the live rock. they were the only ones that multiplied. I had 2, now I got 6.

 

[Benny Morosco]

What water source are you both using?

 

[Retro Reefer]

I have one of those little 3.6 AIO’s converted to a reef and it’s a pain.. the temperature and salinity is all over the place, the only things happy are Kenya trees and GSP. Getting ready to tear it down and plumb it into the sump of my new tank as a fuge

 

[RocketBunny]

What water source are you both using?

I was using part salt mix part NSW in my 40 gallon 2 years ago... because we lived some distance from the sea.

Right now my sister and I solely rely on NSW. SOMETIMES, very rarely (maybe like twice this year) I have used mixed saltwater for a water change.
So yeah. Mostly natural sea water.... its clean here.
My salt mixes were made from Ro/DI

 

[RocketBunny]

I have one of those little 3.6 AIO’s converted to a reef and it’s a pain.. the temperature and salinity is all over the place, the only things happy are Kenya trees and GSP. Getting ready to tear it down and plumb it into the sump of my new tank as a fuge

Which company made yours? My sisters was made by Imagitarium FOR FRESHWATER (lol, salt it up!) and it is running fine... we did mod the pump for better flow and switched around the filter sponges/carbon filters... and added chaeto + lighting

 

[Retro Reefer]

Same one as hers.. did all the mods and more, tank has just been a nightmare. To small water volume to be stable.. I have other reefs that are hands off and thriving.

 

[Cory]

What kind of gravel does she have? Seems like dolomite. Paul b uses dolomite and his tanks running a long time.

 

[RocketBunny]

What kind of gravel does she have? Seems like dolomite. Paul b uses dolomite and his tanks running a long time.

I use Caribbean sand (bought). She got a couple cups of beach sand with lots of fractured shells... its not dolomite

 

[Cory]

Maybe try and confirm your salinity is actually correct and hers is high. Maybe hers is normal and yours low.

 

[SteadyC]

Your tank looks to clean to me, I.e. your rocks are white with no life on them, no algae (brown, green, hair, corraline, or otherwise), no sponges, nothing. I would remove some nutrient export (like turning off the protein skimmer) to get some life going. Get a rock from your LFS (or your sister ) that has some life on it, like coralline algae or sponges. If algae isn’t growing, neither will corals. Tanks with no nutrients should have lower alkalinity, like 7-8, yours is high at 10 in my opinion. Until you can get some nutrients to grow some life.

 

[Swoody]

Is your Salinity tester calibrated properly? Yours is slightly high, and hers if correct is pretty darn high...also her Alk at 9 is fine...I keep mine at 8.5 (or try to) my corals are happy as can be... Plus a little No3 and Po4 like around 5 for the Nitrate and .03 for Phos would give your corals some nutrients to "snack on" so to speak. Are both aquariums in the same house, using same salt mix, testers etc....?

 

[RocketBunny]

Maybe try and confirm your salinity is actually correct and hers is high. Maybe hers is normal and yours low.

No my salinity is good.... and all the params are true.... the refractometer is calibrated.

 

[RocketBunny]

Is your Salinity tester calibrated properly? Yours is slightly high, and hers if correct is pretty darn high...also her Alk at 9 is fine...I keep mine at 8.5 (or try to) my corals are happy as can be... Plus a little No3 and Po4 like around 5 for the Nitrate and .03 for Phos would give your corals some nutrients to "snack on" so to speak. Are both aquariums in the same house, using same salt mix, testers etc....?

Yes. Both of ours aquariums are in the same house... same testing equipment and so on...

 

[Cory]

No my salinity is good.... and all the params are true.... the refractometer is calibrated.

Id send off an icp anylysis test to be sure. Id also increase nutrients.

 

[RocketBunny]

Id send off an icp anylysis test to be sure. Id also increase nutrients.

Alright... I will try

 

[a-mused]

I didn't see any PO4 readings in the values you posted. Are you testing for those? If not, the explanation could be as simple as hers are in an excellent ratio to her nitrates and yours may be off (they're certainly going to read inaccurately based on the amount of algae you've got soaking some up).

 

[saltyhog]

What are you calibrating your refractometer with?

First of all did I read your post right that her ammonia level is 4.0?! If that is correct every thing in her tank should be dead or dying. Maybe get a different test kit? If it's correct her tank will be dead in a week without intervention.

To me your corals look much more healthy. Her GSP looks like it's dying, colors are not good in other corals. I agree with the above that you need to get your nitrates up a little. High dKh is not good with low nitrates, especially for SPS.