Should I give up?

[JohnIsNewToReefKeeping]

Hello, I’ve had my reef tank for over three years. The first three years I attempted to keep a reef tank with cheap black boxes and with no water changes and attempting to grow coral but with no luck. Cheato in my system worked so good it stripped all the minerals from the water along with the nitrates so I got a diatom out break and from my research the best plan of action was to black out the tank for three days and then just let nature take its course and eventually it would go away.
I get busy with work and the tank pretty much stood going unnoticed for over a year with diatoms showing no sight of going away. got back into the tank and dosed dinox that got rid of the dinos. Decided to get back into the reef tank so bought some zoas which melted away. Tested my water and realized that the parameters were out of wack along with my black box’s weren’t ideal so decided to go with t5 and started dosing my tank to get the right parameters.

didn’t like how the t5 made the tank looked so I found a good deal on radion xr30 blue and a Neptune system with a trident to test my water. Thinking I’m making this purchase to help my reef keeping easier.
I then saw that my parameters were good and ready for corals so I one last thing I did was recalibrated my refractometer and was shocked that it was only barely off after all these years.
bought coral and they weren’t doing too hot and noticed that my trident was giving me wrong numbers different from my test kits. I was already skeptical of my trident being accurate so I dismissed it along with the Neptune salinity probe which was ready 22ppt. So I ended up taking an icp test to find out my salinity was actually 22ppt instead of the 35 my refractometer was reading. Then to find out that my test kits were wrong too.
So I was told the Hannah checker for salinity was a good and reliable checker so I got one but after trying to raise my salinity using mainly my Neptune to monitor it I measured my water with the Hannah checker and it told me a different number than what my Hannah was saying. Along with my hydrometer saying a different salinity too.
I don’t know it seems like whenever I try to do something right everything goes wrong. And not getting the success I thought I would have and don’t understand why everything is failing and not good.
Any help is appreciated.

ATI Aquaristik Lab

Default Description

lab.atiaquaristik.com

 

[blaxsun]

With respect to wildly different test results - I certainly feel your pain.

First and foremost, salinity. If you feel your salinity is off with the Neptune probe, I would click under the advanced tab and enable TC (temperature correction) and use a default value of something like 2.1. This does require that you recalibrate the probe, so you'll need a Neptune salinity packet to do this. I let the sealed packet soak in the sump for 15 minutes prior to acclimate. After calibrating the probe, leave it in the packet for a minute or two to get the final reading. It should be somewhere in the high 34's to low 35s. Then you're done. Forget the Hanna salinity checker and the hydrometer. Stick with your refractometer and get it calibrated properly.

Second, I'm not sure what you're using for regular test kits - but I like Nyos for my nitrate, phosphate, calcium, magnesium and alkalinity. I test every 2-4 weeks to keep my Trident "honest", and so far it's been within the stated error range for almost the past year.

Your temperature might be a tad on the high side (I try to keep mine between 78.0-78.5), but this is somewhat personal preference and in any event - easy enough to adjust.

Your pH is good, ORP is good - and other than your alkalinity, calcium and magnesium being high - I don't see anything else really out of whack. I'd independently test those numbers, and if they confirm the Neptune readings - I'd reduce your dosing to get your calcium to around 450ppm, magnesium between 1350-1400 and alkalinity ideally somewhere between 8.0-8.5 dKH.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

No. Don't give up.
Start with mushroom coral. Cheap coral.
D

 

[Doctorgori]

Pardon the format, just hitting on a few things might be helpful:

• The fact that your salinity was low and somehow your Trident showed normal levels is odd. I suppose you could dose 22ppt water to “normal” Alk, Ca et… it weird it wasn’t caught
• I like the Hanna Alk Checker … like the previous poster I re-check my Trident from time to time with other kits
• Any light over 5000k can theoretically grow corals. Color temp is just a visual guide but roughly speaking if the light emits enough blue it will work more or less. Some units are over priced IMO with durability in a salty environment being my main purchase criterion
• As stated temperature isn’t that big a deal: it gets tricky over 82F IMO, Anything stable over 70F works, that’s my experience…I don’t use heaters on large tanks and/or flip over a small daily swings
• Here is my take on water adjustments: I raise salinity slowly, you have a lil more tolerance lowering salinity than raising it..Some say you can raise it fast but that’s tricky without likewise raising other parameters fast. Opinions differ on what’s tolerable/survivable
• There are a few that have never had failure but that’s not typical

 

[gbroadbridge]

Hello, I’ve had my reef tank for over three years. The first three years I attempted to keep a reef tank with cheap black boxes and with no water changes and attempting to grow coral but with no luck. Cheato in my system worked so good it stripped all the minerals from the water along with the nitrates so I got a diatom out break and from my research the best plan of action was to black out the tank for three days and then just let nature take its course and eventually it would go away.
I get busy with work and the tank pretty much stood going unnoticed for over a year with diatoms showing no sight of going away. got back into the tank and dosed dinox that got rid of the dinos. Decided to get back into the reef tank so bought some zoas which melted away. Tested my water and realized that the parameters were out of wack along with my black box’s weren’t ideal so decided to go with t5 and started dosing my tank to get the right parameters.

didn’t like how the t5 made the tank looked so I found a good deal on radion xr30 blue and a Neptune system with a trident to test my water. Thinking I’m making this purchase to help my reef keeping easier.
I then saw that my parameters were good and ready for corals so I one last thing I did was recalibrated my refractometer and was shocked that it was only barely off after all these years.
bought coral and they weren’t doing too hot and noticed that my trident was giving me wrong numbers different from my test kits. I was already skeptical of my trident being accurate so I dismissed it along with the Neptune salinity probe which was ready 22ppt. So I ended up taking an icp test to find out my salinity was actually 22ppt instead of the 35 my refractometer was reading. Then to find out that my test kits were wrong too.
So I was told the Hannah checker for salinity was a good and reliable checker so I got one but after trying to raise my salinity using mainly my Neptune to monitor it I measured my water with the Hannah checker and it told me a different number than what my Hannah was saying. Along with my hydrometer saying a different salinity too.
I don’t know it seems like whenever I try to do something right everything goes wrong. And not getting the success I thought I would have and don’t understand why everything is failing and not good.
Any help is appreciated.

ATI Aquaristik Lab

Default Description

lab.atiaquaristik.com

Wow.

One thing many don't understand going in is that keeping a slice of reef in you home is an extremely challenging and time consuming hobby, with a very steep learning curve.

Heck, it's easier to raise kids (and probably cheaper).

Folks get blown away with this gadget and that new gadget expecting that the gadget will make things easier, and while automation can certainly help, it does not remove the need for diligence, hard work, and continual learning.

Unfortunately the demands mean that the hobby does not, with few exceptions, mean you can just program it up and walk away. The gadgets assist, but the human needs to be in charge.

As with other technical hobbies, it's the magician not the wand.

A lot of folks have a lot of time and money invested, and so continue on not wanting to fail, when in fact they haven't failed, it's just that the hobby does not suit their lifestyle which may have changed over time.

I had a similar situation last year when I was deciding whether or not to sell a lot of Ham radio gear, a 40 year hobby that really held no interest any more, but I couldn't bear to sell all the gear and hand back a license I'd had for over 40 years. At the end I did, and I have no regrets.

Only you can decide whether to continue, but just ask yourself if you still enjoy the hobby, or has it become a chore that you are just going though the motions with each day.

The the answer will become self evident.