Was it Triton testing? Need more in depth water testing

[LeslieP]

I'm a bit at a loss; many of my corals are just fading away. I just have LPS right now and I've been unable to keep acans, favia and chalices. Even corals that I have had for over 10 years have begun to fade away, euphyllia, bubble and an open brain. Gorgonians are fine as are my zoas, ricordias and palys. The tank is 2 years old and most of these corals and some SPS originally were growing and expanding the first year but then over the 8 months or so the reversal began. The water has always tested ok using RedSea kits and a Hannah ULR checker. Alk & Mg have tended to be a bit low, but it hasn't been going through any drastic swings.

NO3 - ~0.4
KH - 7.8-8.4
Ca - 430-460
Mg - 1260-1360
PO4 - ~0.1
SG 1.025

I never tested my water in my old tank and all of these corals and more grew quite well then. I don't think I'm doing anything differently except that I have better equipment now. Go figure. My fish are all fat and happy and I've been feeding more trying to get more food at these poor corals. I turn off the skimmer and the pumps for a while when I feed so that the food doesn't get skimmed out. I don't even supplement with anything other than Kalkwasser in my top off and a little bit of vinegar to help get a more saturated solution to try to get the alk up.

Wasn't Tweaked or someone here talking about sending their water out to Triton or something like that to get a more in-depth analysis of their water? Does anyone remember what that was?

Thanks for looking

 

[GobyWanKenobie]

I remember it as Triton and costing around $50.

 

[Triggreef]

unique corals is the only US supplier for Triton. I did a group buy on the kits a while ago which got the cost per test down to about 42 per test. test looks at 26 different elements.

 

[gpwdr]

I'm a bit at a loss; many of my corals are just fading away. I just have LPS right now and I've been unable to keep acans, favia and chalices. Even corals that I have had for over 10 years have begun to fade away, euphyllia, bubble and an open brain. Gorgonians are fine as are my zoas, ricordias and palys. The tank is 2 years old and most of these corals and some SPS originally were growing and expanding the first year but then over the 8 months or so the reversal began. The water has always tested ok using RedSea kits and a Hannah ULR checker. Alk & Mg have tended to be a bit low, but it hasn't been going through any drastic swings.

NO3 - ~0.4
KH - 7.8-8.4
Ca - 430-460
Mg - 1260-1360
PO4 - ~0.1
SG 1.025

I never tested my water in my old tank and all of these corals and more grew quite well then. I don't think I'm doing anything differently except that I have better equipment now. Go figure. My fish are all fat and happy and I've been feeding more trying to get more food at these poor corals. I turn off the skimmer and the pumps for a while when I feed so that the food doesn't get skimmed out. I don't even supplement with anything other than Kalkwasser in my top off and a little bit of vinegar to help get a more saturated solution to try to get the alk up.

Wasn't Tweaked or someone here talking about sending their water out to Triton or something like that to get a more in-depth analysis of their water? Does anyone remember what that was?

Thanks for looking

Here is a link if you would like to get an in depth water test.
Triton Labs ICP-OES Water Test- Full Panel Test Packet with Return Shipping - TRITON - GOODS
Gene

 

[LeslieP]

Thanks everyone. I'll order up a kit. Even at $50 it's a small price to pay to figure out if something is leaching into my water or if something is way out of whack.

 

[icycoral]

I had been having some issues and some things I found that were chasing trouble for me were
Temp swings during my light cycle from an error in programming my reef keeper and the position of temp probs one from the heater the other from the reef keeper

Alk swings
Magnesium troubles (pretty sure my test kit is messed up) but my Ca alk mag balance was wayyy out and I was having some big ph swings due to that.