Let’s talk test kits.

[Luno]

Did you end up testing mixed up salt water? If you get the salinity right hopefully it is what the bucket says it should be and you should see if each test kit is far off

 

[madweazl]

I had my lfs test my phosphate last and I think he said .6 or .06... sorry was in a panic . And my no3 is 0.

Good call on lowering my alk. I normally run it around 10.5

I’m going to let it slowly drop between 11-10. Get my cal back to 45O and for my mag... let’s hope it comes down out of the clouds.

All three test were some what close for the alk. And the salifert and the Red Sea where close on the cal and mag. But elos is so far down and I don’t here any Acro guys with good experience with elos saying anything...

The weird thing is my coralline Algae has died off in the last few weeks so I question the mag.

Dose anyone have thoughts on ULN and coralline?

And thanks for you guys that have shared. Makes me feel a little better about this process

Our nitrate and phosphate levels are similar and I have no issues with coralline growth. You had mentioned adding/replacing a Hydra; did you add one or replace one? Both? If there was an increase in light output, this could affect your corals and coralline algae.

 

[coralseas]

I replaced one that was old. I’ll try to get a picture of loss areas this morning. You can see the coralline build up but with loss of color.

I have 6 t5s and 2 hydra 52s but only reaching 35% at peak.

Also I did take test on a bucket of fresh reef crystals but need to take do a mag test on it. I’ll do this around noon and post. But the alk and cal seemed close to the set points

 

[coralseas]

I wanted you share some non depressing photos of my tank this morning before I drop the results it this mornings tests

This neon Ozzie table is doing great, you can see the nice growth on the Tips

Also this red Accra Porra named raspberry limeade from barrier reef in Seattle as nice growth tips but receding at base

And this huge Cali tort growing like crazy with the appearance of my little cromises

 

[coralseas]

OK, so I have my results this morning. I want to mention that when I went to my local fish store and they tested my water I felt like my Red Sea test kits were off so I buffed my water according to the elos test, which at this point I think was a huge mistake. But no one has said anything about these tests and how accurate you elos Can be.

R.S.
Alk 12.6
Cal 500
Mag 1600/1700
NO3 0

Salifert
Alk 14.1
Cal 550
Mag 1620

The elos test from 2 days ago

Alk 12
Cal 350
Mag 1300

So on the salifert teats. The calcium was 550, I used .010 more reagent to get those numbers, and also magnesium is 1620 I used .008 more reagent to get that number doing the math mathematics with their chart.

So I took my calcium reactor off-line until tomorrow morning to retest and hopefully my calcium alkalinity and magnesium slowly drop.

I wanted to share some pictures of Coralline line algae die off, I’m not sure what this is do too. Does anyone know if high magnesium can kill Coralline

Also I’ll post later today test results on fresh Reef crystal salt to compare with their default parameters.

I would love to hear from any Elos Acro tank users

 

[Ocdreef]

Good idea to leave your CA reactor off for a while, but I say no way your high Mag is killing off coraline algae. Sometimes if nutrients are too low your corals and other algaes can out compete it. Also I used to have a problem with coralline because of asterina stars (the little white guys). If left unchecked they will leave you with empty dead spots all over your coralline population. Sucks about your Limeade, but could that be from shading that it seems to be getting around that base area?

 

[coralseas]

Good idea to leave your CA reactor off for a while, but I say no way your high Mag is killing off coraline algae. Sometimes if nutrients are too low your corals and other algaes can out compete it. Also I used to have a problem with coralline because of asterina stars (the little white guys). If left unchecked they will leave you with empty dead spots all over your coralline population. Sucks about your Limeade, but could that be from shading that it seems to be getting around that base area?

The limeade has encrusted up around and up the back. I have not had a issue with base in the dark receding dude to being in the shade. Most of my bigger corals have bases that don’t really get any light. And I don’t have those little white stars either. ‍

 

[Ocdreef]

Right on, just trouble shooting. I actually used to have a raspberry Limeade in a ULN and it eventually STN’d on me, and now a friend has a colony in his not so ULN which is doing fantastically, so take that for what it’s worth. Sometimes these corals have a mind of their own. Awesome acro tank you got there in any case.

 

[coralseas]

Thanks ocdreef, I would love to figure it out. Having the lfs test my water with elos kits really screwed with my head. So than I buffed and now I’m all out of wack. And NO ACRO GUYS SAID ELOS IS WORTH A SH#T . Lol

Just trying to get to the bottom. Guess I’ll have to wait for the icp test or just keep guessing lol

 

[Ocdreef]

lol. Yeah I would just stick to Salifert for Ca, Alk, and Mag and Red Sea for no3 and then Hanna test is great for the phosphates and trust those numbers and go with them and stay stable.

 

[Cory]

I would test saliferts alkalinity to verify its correct.

1.135 grams of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) in 1 gallon of ro/di = 10dkh.

If you dont have a scale, a pharmacist will be happy to weigh it out for you. 14dkh could be causing problems.

 

[Dlealrious]

Aquaforrest test kits are really accurate and come with icp reference solution

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

Also check all you equipment for rust, or metal leaching. Impeller shafts, everything. Did your ICP test come in?

 

[coralseas]

Can I do that with brs soda ash? That is a great bit of info

Thank you

 

[coralseas]

No rust. No broken equipment

I did cut a quarter size chinch of shrimp and put it in my filter sock to try to naturally boost NO3

Having some RTN in the middle of the the pac dragon

 

[coralseas]

Update.

Rs
Alk 10
Cal 475
Mag 1700
NO3 0

Salifert
Alk 12
Cal 500
Mag 1500+

 

[EddieJ]

My Hanna ALK meter reads 8.5 while Salifert tests out at around 9.3 (first bit of color change to purple) to 9.6 (the pink/red end point). This has been totally consistent across almost an entire bottle of Hanna reagent against the same Salifert test kit. Now the good thing is that my alk has been extremely stable, which in the end counts the most unless it's way out of range on one end or the other..