Help! Water parameters are getting me frustrated…

[diamondreef]

Patience young grasshopper, all will align in due time. First look into an rodi buddy unit, they’re reasonably priced for the 2.5g you should approximately be changing weekly, plus the few litres a week for the top ups. This will save you an enormous amount of headache in the long run, you’ll be able to consistently have your ATO reservoir full and be able to mix your own water changes, which will in turn allow you to be able to know what your parameters are going forward.

Redsea or salifert for testers, cheap and accurate. No need for Hannah’s until there’s disposable income. I used a floating hydrometer for making wine to test my SG, they’re 5$, just read what it’s calibrated for temp wise and do the basic math difference to figure out what it’ll be floating at. (Mine was 1.023=1.025 at 78)

stick to one salt, every brand will mix differently. Instant ocean is basic and reliable imo and probably the cheapest, at least where I’m from.

Don’t be discouraged, it’s a learning process and hard to start up on a budget, but once you acquire the basic tools to maintain and keep things in line it gets a heck of a lot easier.

Thank you! And yes I plan to grab some Salifert tests here soon. I have a Hanna Salinity tester and honestly I don’t know if I love it yet. It was testing quite different from the LFS but it actually has been consistent lately so idk lol. We do 5 gallon weekly water changes currently. Not sure if we should be doing more?

 

[diamondreef]

Just a thought, bring in their water ,unknown to them ,and have it tested.
and agree need your own refractor to check salinity ,regularly yourself.
test kits are good idea also, alk,cal,po4 ,nitrate most important.
you can also buy bottled distilled water and salt mix , make your own water.
i see too much swing in their water.

I do have a Hanna Salinity tester that I use. And I plan to get all those test kits as soon as possible. The store we get our water from is one of the best in the area so I have a hard time considering them the problem but definitely can’t rule them out at this point lol. Is it possible for their tanks and water to look so good but just not work for my tank at home? Does that make sense? Lol

 

[diamondreef]

Well that is a good sign they have great display tanks. Congrats on the job as well, maybe it'll come with so perks like dry goods and live goods at a discount.

Do you know what salt mix they are using? It's probably really high in ALK.

The reason I was wondering about consistency is your first number @ 1.022. That's really low and honestly it's hard to get low, easier to get higher in the SG from lack of top off. Did you maybe do a water change without unplugging the ATO?

Your corals are most likely ticked and closed from the GFO and phosphate stripping. It looks like you went form .2 (really not bad IMO) to 0 and that's not good. Then it shot back up to .3ish. I'm guessing they said zero so feed more? But maybe forgot you had been running GFO. So you removed it AND fed more. I dont' like GFO, it's to hard to control and can easily strip everything.

Testing parameters yourself and having a consistent feeding hand/habit will help get you some success and stability. I'd be feeding small amounts of frozen in a nano. Pellets and flake food tend to bump up phosphates. I haven't experienced that with frozen as much, plus it's overall a better food source.

Thank you! And yes I already get to use my discounts haha. The salt dropped before because we did forget to turn it off once during a water change and when we skipped a water change after dosing one dose of vibrant we got a little low on water for a day. Not much but enough. And this was the first and only time we put GFO in the tank and took it out less than 24 hours after because it seemed like a possible culprit to the ticked off corals. Was the only different thing we did so idk lol just took it out in case.
I wasn’t sure if flakes and pellets were possibly raising parameters.. I wouldn’t mind doing small amounts of frozen food if it isn’t going to affect parameters.. I thought opposite honestly lol.
I’ll also add as a side note that I recently got back into reefing after about 8 years without a tank. And I had the tanks with my ex who handled most of the technical stuff so few parts of reefing I’m having to relearn on my own now and makes me nervous haha.

 

[diamondreef]

This is pretty genius, lol! Could you imagine how awkward that could be? No joke, phosphates make it past TDS meters and cause problems even for the most experience reef keepers. That would be interesting to see the ALK, salinity and po4 values.

Id consider it but I just got hired there and haven’t started yet so don’t wanna tick people off before I start lol

 

[fishguy242]

may have just been the "dust" from gfo that ticked off corals, PO4 not really that bad ,even though all over the charts.

 

[diamondreef]

may have just been the "dust" from gfo that ticked off corals, PO4 not really that bad ,even though all over the charts.

Yeah the po4 is slowly coming down since cutting back on feeding but just not understanding the jump in alk. And the LFS says they make the water and test and keep alk at 8. But guess ya never know lol.

 

[diamondreef]

may have just been the "dust" from gfo that ticked off corals, PO4 not really that bad ,even though all over the charts.

I was thinking maybe the dust irritated them :/

 

[fishguy242]

yes ,the alk readings in such a small amount of water,in a short time ,is what would really concern me.
could just be testing errors, but up two,down two,not good i would put that at top priority to figure out
if really happening .
can live with 10 constant, kinda expect that in sm tank ,and weekly water changes.
12 hard to fathom 2 dkh consumption in a week,on drops.
if their mix is higher dkh will compile ,with water changes.

 

[diamondreef]

10/15/21
Salinity- 1.025
No3- 5
Po4- .21
Alk- 11.2

 

[Smite]

10/15/21
Salinity- 1.025
No3- 5
Po4- .21
Alk- 11.2

10/13/21
Salinity- 1.025
No3- 25
Po4- .32
Ca- 450
Alk- 12.5
Mg- 1290

So did you do a big water change yesterday then?

 

[dvgyfresh]

Not saying ye lfs is intentionally messing with ya , but just last week I got RODI water from a lfs , once I was home I opened my jug and the water smelled like very dead fish , like extremely bad I had to toss all the water out. A different lfs sells “filtered water” come to find out it’s literally water from a hose. So it’s best to make yr own water

 

[ReefPiracy]

I run a 20 gallon AIO. I run at max 1/4 cup GFO just in a bag over a felt pad for mechanical filtering. I think .2 po4 is great. The closer to I get to zero, the coral close up. If anything reduce the amount of GFO. I just use bulk reef supply in a bag, works great and I can control the amount. The water change must be something with high alk, so the water changes are keeping your alk high. I would just use IO or a low alk salt.

 

[fachatga]

It’s easier to feed less with frozen. Might be worth a shot

 

[diamondreef]

10/13/21
Salinity- 1.025
No3- 25
Po4- .32
Ca- 450
Alk- 12.5
Mg- 1290

So did you do a big water change yesterday then?

We did a 5 gallon water change on Wednesday, changed the sock and added some GFO for less than a day. And switched to pellet food rather than flakes.

 

[Uzidaisies]

Just a thought, bring in their water ,unknown to them ,and have it tested.
and agree need your own refractor to check salinity ,regularly yourself.
test kits are good idea also, alk,cal,po4 ,nitrate most important.
you can also buy bottled distilled water and salt mix , make your own water.
i see too much swing in their water.

But do you tell them afterwards or no?

 

[Rmckoy]

It really doesn’t make sense how the alk is all over the place if nothing os dosed . The water they are selling you isn’t 8 dkh
But you would need a test kit to confirm salinity and alkalinity .

I personally would purchase test kits .
it’s a investment , why not try having the most control over the one thing we can control …
The initial water source .

rodi , test kits would be the most important purchase

 

[FinnWessemius]

Hello,

So I have a 25g JBJ Biocube. It was doing pretty good until recently. Been having issues with Phosphates and Alkalinity. So I’ve been going to the LFS weekly and having them test everything. Asking what I should do or not do. I went in yesterday expecting my Alk to have dropped and it went back up! Came home and did a water change, changed the sock, added GFO and switched from flakes to pellets. I stopped feeding all extras a couple weeks ago until parameters are better like suggested by the LFS.
Now, corals that have been doing well even with the swings in parameters are all closed up and not happy. I just took the GFO out because idk what to do right now and I have no idea why this is happening.

Last few weeks of water tests below:

9/22/21
Salinity- 1.022
No3- 10
Po4- .28
Alk- 10.9

9/25/21
No3- 20
Po4- .22

9/29/21
No3- 5
Po4- 0.2
Ca- 470
Alk- 12.1

10/6/21
Salinity- 1.024
No3- 2.5
Po4- 0
Alk- 12.1

10/9/21
Salinity- 1.025
No3- 2.5
Po4- 0.57
Ca- 470
Alk- 10.2
Mg- 1350

10/13/21
Salinity- 1.025
No3- 25
Po4- .32
Ca- 450
Alk- 12.5
Mg- 1290

Someone please offer some suggestions before I cry lol… I’ve been doing everything the LFS has recommended for the last couple months to try and get my water stable and it’s been everything but that.

Hi! Have you tried nopox from redsea? Could help to keep your no3 and po4 under control.

How many times do you do a water change?

 

[diamondreef]

Hi! Have you tried nopox from redsea? Could help to keep your no3 and po4 under control.

How many times do you do a water change?

5 gallons once a week every Wednesday. And no I haven’t tried nopox

 

[fishguy242]

have you figured out the alk issue??

 

[diamondreef]

have you figured out the alk issue??

Just had my water tested (no I haven’t been able to buy test kits yet unfortunately lol)

Salinity: 1.025
No3: 7.5
Po4: 0.18
Ca: 450
Alk: 11.5
Mg: 1350

also just did a water change and changed the sock