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Ok good! haha! ;HappyIm sorry for my english for cup I ment this
Ok that 'cap' is 5mL not 6mL.
You also said you had chaeto growing? Sounds like it is consuming available phosphate. Like taricha said, organic phosphate(fish/coral food) cannot be tested. Only after so long it converts to inorganic phosphate(can be tested with hanna checker. Seachem Phosphorus is inorganic phosphate). It might be too soon to have chaeto growing if phosphate is limiting factor. Also, to reduce coral reaction from seach phosphorus, dose at night when lights are off and in morning before lights on. Seachem phosphorus does not contain any food so it won't make a feeding response. The importance of phosphate for stony coral is the corals ability to use phosphate in its stony skeleton as well as nitrate in the form of calcium phosphate/nitrate precipitation. Too much nutrient restricts growth. Too little restricts growth. Healthy po4 levels are 0.02 - 0.08ppm. No3 is 1-10ppm. No3 can be higher but will cause coral to brown out. Coral colors aren't important with battling dinos.
Thanks for replying.
I suppose I should get a cheap scope and figure out how to use it and get a picture.
I have another test kit...Red Sea Pro. I'll check it. Last time I used it I got close numbers and they were around 16 if I remember right. I'll check it again.
I have a Kessil H380 about 12 inches above the water level in my fuge. I was running it about 6 hours a night to start. I sure grew some green algae in the glass that wasn't shielded from the light.
My source water is good as far as I know (RO/DI). I've tested if for PO4 and nitrate and get nothing (sometimes like 1 or 2 ppb with the Hanna ULR but I think that's zero or close....noise in the analysis I believe). So big water change like 30-40%? My usual water change schedule was 15 gallons every 2 weeks but I've done them at like 30 gallons at a time before. Not sure which is best.
With a cell phone you can stick the camera to the lens. Its a pain but it works. Video works too, just upload to youtube if you have gmail account or vimeo.
Yes, try another nitrate test kit.
The Kessil H380 is a powerful light, start at 4 hours for the first few days then increase 1 hour every day after till you reach 8 hours and see how it goes.
Without doing a water change it could also mean you are Iron deficient and with the water change will help replenish iron. Whatever water change you did before this at the frequency you are comfortable with is fine. Maybe start with 15 gallons a week for the first 2 weeks then go back to bi-weekly.
Don't forget the picture of the algae growths.