Struggling with Coral

[Mike_1]

Oh and some cool news is I finally tested phosphate with my Hanna checker and it came out to .12 so that's a lot better. I'm sure that's partially from the water change so I'm gonna test that again throughout the week and see how it rises.

 

[Mike_1]

I'll redo it here In a minute. Yesterday I did about 8 gallons while I cleaned everything.

I did the test 3 more times. If anyone's familiar with the salifert test I did 2ml of water 5 drops of agent and then it took 50 drops of the regeant before it changed color which according to that chart is 750.

Maybe the test is bad? I've done API/Hanna/Salifert tests for awhile now so I get how they work, I'm just not understanding the result I guess.

I dunno if it matters but my water is RO and the salt is use is instant ocean

 

[Lavey29]

I did the test 3 more times. If anyone's familiar with the salifert test I did 2ml of water 5 drops of agent and then it took 50 drops of the regeant before it changed color which according to that chart is 750.

Maybe the test is bad? I've done API/Hanna/Salifert tests for awhile now so I get how they work, I'm just not understanding the result I guess.

I dunno if it matters but my water is RO and the salt is use is instant ocean

I'm guessing if your mag is that far off it would affect alk and cal also to some degree. If those 2 are stable then your mag test is inaccurate.

 

[Geebs19]

I did the test 3 more times. If anyone's familiar with the salifert test I did 2ml of water 5 drops of agent and then it took 50 drops of the regeant before it changed color which according to that chart is 750.

Maybe the test is bad? I've done API/Hanna/Salifert tests for awhile now so I get how they work, I'm just not understanding the result I guess.

I dunno if it matters but my water is RO and the salt is use is instant ocean

Mix up some new salt water and test it. That should tell you if the test is an error. New salt water shouldn’t be that low

 

[Mike_1]

I'm guessing if your mag is that far off it would affect alk and cal also to some degree. If those 2 are stable then your mag test is inaccurate.

Alk was 10.1 today which seems normal. I'll go test calcium right now

 

[Mike_1]

Alk was 10.1 today which seems normal. I'll go test calcium right now

Calcium is 440 according to api

 

[Lavey29]

Calcium is 440 according to api

As the other poster suggested mix up a batch of salt water and test it for mag.

 

[Mike_1]

As the other poster suggested mix up a batch of salt water and test it for mag.

Completely missed that. I'll do that here in a moment.

 

[Mike_1]

As the other poster suggested mix up a batch of salt water and test it for mag.

So I did a gallon of RO water with half a cup of instant ocean and the result was 1170, so it's definitely higher than my water.

Also just retested my water just for fun and it was still 750.

Maybe the test is bad, I dunno. I'll look at what other mg testers are out there

 

[Geebs19]

So I did a gallon of RO water with half a cup of instant ocean and the result was 1170, so it's definitely higher than my water.

Also just retested my water just for fun and it was still 750.

Maybe the test is bad, I dunno. I'll look at what other mg testers are out there

Need to make sure the mix was matched to proper salinity to get a proper result. Did you test salinity before you took your mag reading from the new salt did you test salinity?

 

[Mike_1]

Need to make sure the mix was matched to proper salinity to get a proper result. Did you test salinity before you took your mag reading from the new salt did you test salinity?

Yes. Salinity for my tank is 1.024 and so is the gallon I mixed.

 

[jabberwock]

Looks like you are getting a lot of good info here. I would like to add something I have observed about flow. I have had power heads in the past that had an "else" setting. It was a random pulsating setting that all my corals LOVED.

 

[Mike_1]

Looks like you are getting a lot of good info here. I would like to add something I have observed about flow. I have had power heads in the past that had an "else" setting. It was a random pulsating setting that all my corals LOVED.

I have six options:1. Pulse | 2. Sine | 3. Surge | 4. Stream | 5. Turbulent | 6. Random. I have it on stream currently but I could try random. My right powerhead is just a cheap Petco brand tho and doesn't have any settings.

 

[cpalminteri]

I have six options:1. Pulse | 2. Sine | 3. Surge | 4. Stream | 5. Turbulent | 6. Random. I have it on stream currently but I could try random. My right powerhead is just a cheap Petco brand tho and doesn't have any settings.

Did you ever figure out what was wrong?

 

[Mike_1]

Did you ever figure out what was wrong?

No. I ended up just quitting saltwater altogether. Something was always going wrong and despite testing daily I could never pinpoint what exactly was going on. I brought water samples to my LFS, talked on this forum, and another and I still could never figure it out. Went back to just having planted fresh water tanks

 

[cpalminteri]

No. I ended up just quitting saltwater altogether. Something was always going wrong and despite testing daily I could never pinpoint what exactly was going on. I brought water samples to my LFS, talked on this forum, and another and I still could never figure it out. Went back to just having planted fresh water tanks

Ahhh I hear you, those are beautiful as well. Thanks