Lbacha’s 25g Lagoon & 8g Peninsula zoa & SPS garden

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Well lesson learned today, I decided to order a fresh bottle of brightwell refractometer calibration fluid and it came in today. I still had about a quarter of my last bottle but I felt like I was getting some odd salinity results and my Neptune has been a little up and down lately as I hadn’t calibrated it in a while (it was showing 35 ppm). Well I found out my old bottle of calibration fluid was off and my salinity was actually about 38.5 ppm. I had been wondering why my corals hadn’t looked happy lately even though my parameters are dead on (well at least all of them other than salinity). Well I’m slowly lowering the salinity back down and hopefully everything will perk back up. I got some calibration packets for my Neptune in the mail as well and recalibrated everything and now it is dead on again. I set an alert to calibrate every 3 months going forward just to be safe since calibration packets are cheap.
 
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8b9994c776e947cc7f12f42f3cf77986.jpg

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So my ph has been running really low lately, it’s dropping below 7.6 on occasion and my guess is CO2 in the apartment due to winter and the gas furnace running a lot.

I just ordered a CO2 scrubber from BRS to see if it remedies the issue. If that doesn’t work then I’m going to start using kalk.

Things look decent but I haven’t seen much growth the past few months so I’m thinking low PH may be the culprit. I’ve added quite a few corals and haven’t seen any increase in alk/cal usage in 2 months.
 

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Well lesson learned today, I decided to order a fresh bottle of brightwell refractometer calibration fluid and it came in today. I still had about a quarter of my last bottle but I felt like I was getting some odd salinity results and my Neptune has been a little up and down lately as I hadn’t calibrated it in a while (it was showing 35 ppm). Well I found out my old bottle of calibration fluid was off and my salinity was actually about 38.5 ppm. I had been wondering why my corals hadn’t looked happy lately even though my parameters are dead on (well at least all of them other than salinity). Well I’m slowly lowering the salinity back down and hopefully everything will perk back up. I got some calibration packets for my Neptune in the mail as well and recalibrated everything and now it is dead on again. I set an alert to calibrate every 3 months going forward just to be safe since calibration packets are cheap.

For salinity testing, you may be interested in the new Hanna salinity tester. It's simple and quick to use and can be a backup or be use as daily as needed.

I got one recently and just like it a lot. I would now would only use either my manual refractometer and digital refractometer as backup.

https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?posts/5659927
 
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For salinity testing, you may be interested in the new Hanna salinity tester. It's simple and quick to use and can be a backup or be use as daily as needed.

I got one recently and just like it a lot. I would now would only use either my manual refractometer and digital refractometer as backup.

https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?posts/5659927

That’s funny, I actually added it to the cart with the CO2 scrubber. It should be here Wednesday. Yeah I’m tired of having to calibrate the refractometer every time I use it and even then as I found out it could be off.

Thanks for the suggestion
 

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I have the Hanna Salinity checker as well, so far it’s working great. Just got the PH version as well but I haven’t had a chance to use it. My ph is super low so I wanted another option to monitor. Hopefully it works out as well as the salinity checker has.
 
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I have the Hanna Salinity checker as well, so far it’s working great. Just got the PH version as well but I haven’t had a chance to use it. My ph is super low so I wanted another option to monitor. Hopefully it works out as well as the salinity checker has.

I was looking at the ph checker as well. I trust my Neptune for rapid swings but the actual values I always question so a second set of digital probes will be nice.

Let me know how it works out for you. I have just been using a Red Sea test kit to double check but I don’t always trust them
 

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I was looking at the ph checker as well. I trust my Neptune for rapid swings but the actual values I always question so a second set of digital probes will be nice.

Let me know how it works out for you. I have just been using a Red Sea test kit to double check but I don’t always trust them
I’ve been using the Salifert test kit and it stays steady at 7.7. My Apex, which I don’t think was properly calibrated during my initial setup reads between 7.4 and 7.5. I bought the Hanna because I’m not totally trusting anything else I have. I don’t want to chase numbers but my ph seems really low. I’m going to break out the Hanna today and also recalibrate the Apex so hopefully I’ll have a number I’m more confident in soon.
 
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I usually don’t worry about ph and my apex had been showing around 8 which is lower than I’d like but not terrible. I was really surprised after I recalibrated the probe and it went down to 7.56. I tested with my Red Sea and it was correct. I live above a bar and with winter they have big propane heaters and lots of people and that all makes it up to our apartment so I’m not surprised now that I know how low it is. Unfortunately the aquarium isn’t near a window so no way to get fresh air to the tank. It also explains why things grew well when I moved in at the end of the summer (I leave the windows open and use a fan to pull fresh air through the aprt). And once the weather got bad and I stopped opening the windows growth almost stopped.
 
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I usually don’t worry about ph and my apex had been showing around 8 which is lower than I’d like but not terrible. I was really surprised after I recalibrated the probe and it went down to 7.56. I tested with my Red Sea and it was correct. I live above a bar and with winter they have big propane heaters and lots of people and that all makes it up to our apartment so I’m not surprised now that I know how low it is. Unfortunately the aquarium isn’t near a window so no way to get fresh air to the tank. It also explains why things grew well when I moved in at the end of the summer (I leave the windows open and use a fan to pull fresh air through the aprt. And once the weather got bad and I stopped opening the windows growth almost stopped.
Mine isn’t near a window either. I live in a newer home which is very well sealed so mine being low isn’t a surprise now that I’ve thought about it for a while. It’ll work itself out I suppose. There are things that can be done if it has to be addressed.
 

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I’ve been battling low pH in my similar setup as well. I got a CO2 meter around Christmas for $50 on an Amazon deal:
Hydrofarm Autopilot Desktop CO2 Monitor & Data Logger https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FYWU2IS/

I found that my CO2 rarely reaches very high levels. It’s typically around 750ppm right now with peaks around 1100 typically and rarely up to 1800 and will probably be more like 450 which it is on warm winter days with the windows open. Even then my CO2 stayed pretty darn high. I use Red Sea blue bucket. I calibrated my Neptune pH probe and it still reads around 7.7 to 7.9 regularly. No lights or coral or fish yet or bioload at all.

Looking forward to seeing how you resolve this. I’m in the same boat. Only thing we really share is our tank layouts which probably have insanely high gas exchange with the room air.
 
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Thanks for all the advice and comments on my ph issues

So I figured I should post some positive vibes on the page lol

Here are some of my new frags looking as good as they were when I got them

PC rainbow
fc357dc815e813e852cfcd28772d4bf0.jpg


Vivid rainbow delight (not a great pic)
31264a503c66209e645d2afc924027c0.jpg


RMC Red devil (amazing red polyps on a nice blue base)
9298c129a739fcee81f8f1ecf16468fc.jpg


GH aquadelight
7d2267f85632c4219b6da59dea1163a3.jpg


Purple yellow shag (crazy polyp extension)
4a4d1c4c465183b4a55f291ab31357ee.jpg


GC Acroberry (great blue acro with nice polyp extension)
5c1b560b046dd66350454da75e1cb6c7.jpg


M confusa
da7a548d034dad81138d01918e05790b.jpg


Pachyseris
53746e917ffc059cca6f52bb6899901b.jpg
 

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Thanks for all the advice and comments on my ph issues

So I figured I should post some positive vibes on the page lol

Here are some of my new frags looking as good as they were when I got them

PC rainbow
fc357dc815e813e852cfcd28772d4bf0.jpg


Vivid rainbow delight (not a great pic)
31264a503c66209e645d2afc924027c0.jpg


RMC Red devil (amazing red polyps on a nice blue base)
9298c129a739fcee81f8f1ecf16468fc.jpg


GH aquadelight
7d2267f85632c4219b6da59dea1163a3.jpg


Purple yellow shag (crazy polyp extension)
4a4d1c4c465183b4a55f291ab31357ee.jpg


GC Acroberry (great blue acro with nice polyp extension)
5c1b560b046dd66350454da75e1cb6c7.jpg


M confusa
da7a548d034dad81138d01918e05790b.jpg


Pachyseris
53746e917ffc059cca6f52bb6899901b.jpg
Nice pack! The PC rainbow is on my short list, along with some old school sps.
 
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lbacha

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Well my new 24hr highs and lows for ph look to be high of 8.2 and low of 8.06. If this holds I’m pretty happy with how this has worked out.

I put a fitting in the lid of my skimmer so I can pull air from the skimmer chamber (I got the idea from a fellow reefer on here) this way I’m actually pulling already scrubbed air through the CO2 scrubber which should prolong the media

7c87c61ed6b33f0e6499601c645cbf0b.jpg
 
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lbacha

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Brilliant. Never seen that.

How big is your sump under there? Having trouble sizing a skimmer worth the space besides my ASM MiniG which has some issues.

It’s a trigger 20c 20”x20” by 15” tall. It’s actually the ruby but custom made in blue. I also have a 15g column tank from aqueon as my cheato fuge

3878ebd6b172061daec9609c98aa6015.jpg

This is before the skimmer was in there
 

gatohoser

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I just keep learning from your tank. Such a perfect analogue to mine. Is that a chaetomax light on your fuge? I just picked one up. Wonder if I couldn’t fit a nice column fuge like you did. I left around 8” of room. Could probably get something custom built replicating what you did for my more narrow spot. Sweet man. Love watching this and learning.
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

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  • None.

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