Got all the gear and did all the research but its not enough

[sixline]

Sorry to hear. I can't offer too much advice, but will be following this thread because I have an eerily similar problem with my tank. It's been running for ages, but can't keep corals alive. Currently, my only parameters that seem off are Alk a bit low, Ca a bit high and Iodine a bit low. I am slowly adding baking soda starting tomorrow morning, and monitoring Ca and Alk. Once I get Alk up to a reasonable level, I'll try adding a coral again for the hundredth time.

Best of luck!

 

[Nick Steele]

Run an alk test to see if trident is wrong. If it isn’t I would up your alk to 7.5-8.5

 

[MoH]

Alright BRB going to test everything I can

 

[naterealbig]

I concur. The salinity probe on the Apex simply cannot be relied on. While many would say that 6.7-7.5 is normal sea level alkalinity, corals will do MUCH better in the 8-10 dKH range. Calcium seems incredibly high. I would imagine this by itself would cause major issues. My bet is the Trident reading is off.

Pro tip - Hanna calcium Checker is not reliable. Use Red Sea or Salifert.

Do you use RODI for top off /water changes?

How are you dosing calcium and alkalinity?

 

[MoH]

Alright BRB going to test everything I can

Well this is jacked up

 

[MoH]

I concur. The salinity probe on the Apex simply cannot be relied on. While many would say that 6.7-7.5 is normal sea level alkalinity, corals will do MUCH better in the 8-10 dKH range. Calcium seems incredibly high. I would imagine this by itself would cause major issues. My bet is the Trident reading is off.

Pro tip - Hanna calcium Checker is not reliable. Use Red Sea or Salifert.

Do you use RODI for top off /water changes?

How are you dosing calcium and alkalinity?

I use a rodi system 4 stage and I store my water in brute bin.

I got a completely different reading of calcium on Hannah check vs the trident. I unfortunately do not have Red Sea test kit for ca

 

[naterealbig]

I use a rodi system 4 stage and I store my water in brute bin.

I got a completely different reading of calcium on Hannah check vs the trident. I unfortunately do not have Red Sea test kit for ca

That's fine, but I still wouldnt trust the Hanna calcium reading one bit. A Salifert kit is ~ $15 and will give you a result that you can have faith in.

Very curious to know your Hanna Alk and PO4 reading (Hanna is excellent for these).

 

[MoH]

That's fine, but I still wouldnt trust the Hanna calcium reading one bit. A Salifert kit is ~ $15 and will give you a result that you can have faith in.

Very curious to know your Hanna Alk and PO4 reading (Hanna is excellent for these).

Running that now

 

[Jonify]

With the Hanna checkers, I've noticed that if you use the smallest syringe and try to eyeball that 0.1 ml of sample tank water, numbers will be way off; but if you use the spring-loaded syringe (and attach the fine adjustment tube to the end), push it down to the first stop, then dip it into the tank sample water, and then let go, you'll have the exact amount you need and results will be spot-on. With the other syringes, you'll want to make sure the bottom of the black rubber plunger (not the actual water/or reagent line) is at the line you want. The way those syringes work accounts for extra space and vacuumed air in the tip and top, so the bottom of the black plunger is where you want to measure.

 

[MoH]

135ppm or 7.56 Dkh trident was showing much less

 

[MoH]

I think it’s safe to say that following the readings of the trident are leading me towards my failures. I will try recalibrating the trident again but very disappointed in what I’m seeing so far

 

[DivingTheWorld]

On the bright side, your Alk and Salinity appear to be in a good range. I agree the Hanna Calcium can’t be trusted. I prefer Salifert for Cal & Mag.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

I get by with the calcium Hannah checker just fine. Not sure why there are so many bad reviews on it?