Orange Circles appearing on Rocks

[kamehameha]

Forget trying to keep those rocks white. Over the next year you're going to have all sorts of ugly, weird stuff growing on them. Just sit back and enjoy the show of nature doing its thing

Oh yeah, that was never the plan haha. I just had a bad experience before buying "live rock" off of someone. It was full of pests.

Also, just added some Nassarius snails today, they aren't as stealthy as they think they are...

 

[kamehameha]

You’ll probably end up goin with Hanna. I thought the same thing as you and now I prefer a digital readout over tryna decipher a color graph. I use the liquid when I feel like I need a second opinion. To be perfectly honest. I use Hanna for calcium, phos, and alk….the rest are liquid test kits but are done less often. I’ll be happy if they ever put out a Hanna magnesium checker.

I think if I upgrade my testing methods I might get a Neptune Apex. I love the in-tank ph and salinity meter idea, just too expensive.

Also, my RO unit adds magnesium and calcium back to the water before it is stored so I'm not too worried about those levels, and I don't plan to keep any corals that are in the difficult realm.

I do agree however, the Hannah checkers are awesome and fairly easy to use, provided you read the instructions, I just am telling myself if I go to spend that kind of cash ill probably target a used Neptune system.

 

[olonmv]

I think if I upgrade my testing methods I might get a Neptune Apex. I love the in-tank ph and salinity meter idea, just too expensive.

Also, my RO unit adds magnesium and calcium back to the water before it is stored so I'm not too worried about those levels, and I don't plan to keep any corals that are in the difficult realm.

I do agree however, the Hannah checkers are awesome and fairly easy to use, provided you read the instructions, I just am telling myself if I go to spend that kind of cash ill probably target a used Neptune system.

I recently started dosing all for reef with a single head dosing pump. Not sure how comfortable I’d feel with my RO unit adding those elements. RO water is supposed to be stripped of all minerals from what I’ve read. I agree the apex is expensive and too rich for my blood lol. I test alk periodically throughout the week and all my other parameters weekly before wc. If I notice my corals looking unhappy I’ll also test all parameters. Apex is great but like previously mentioned, it’s expensive and just another piece of equipment that could possibly go wonky IMO.

 

[kamehameha]

I recently started dosing all for reef with a single head dosing pump. Not sure how comfortable I’d feel with my RO unit adding those elements. RO water is supposed to be stripped of all minerals from what I’ve read. I agree the apex is expensive and too rich for my blood lol. I test alk periodically throughout the week and all my other parameters weekly before wc. If I notice my corals looking unhappy I’ll also test all parameters. Apex is great but like previously mentioned, it’s expensive and just another piece of equipment that could possibly go wonky IMO.

My RO system is also our drinking water system. We have well water here so we needed it anyway. So far as I can tell everything is going well using that water exclusively though.

I'm still a bit afraid of dosers and even ATO systems. I'm worried they might overdose or overfill the tank. The amazon reviews of the ATOs I saw on amazon didn't help my fears lol.

I think if I had a larger tank I would be more on board with them honestly, and if the tank wasn't in my bedroom.

 

[olonmv]

My RO system is also our drinking water system. We have well water here so we needed it anyway. So far as I can tell everything is going well using that water exclusively though.

I'm still a bit afraid of dosers and even ATO systems. I'm worried they might overdose or overfill the tank. The amazon reviews of the ATOs I saw on amazon didn't help my fears lol.

I think if I had a larger tank I would be more on board with them honestly, and if the tank wasn't in my bedroom.

Sometimes you gotta pull the trigger bud. I have a nano tank (13.5) and too was Leary of dosing, I find all for reef to be absolutely awesome….corals look happy and growth seems to have improved. Testing daily consumption is a must and then setting a dose follows. Once you get a dose, a tweak here n there is needed. I find it way easier and more stable than manual dosing. I have no complaints so far.

I’ve had an ATO for about 10 months. As long as you keep up with maintenance you should be ok. I learned that the hard way, neglected to clean a spong filter in my AIO chamber which became partially clogged and tricked my ATO into thinking I had low water levels, luckily my resivour ran out of RO before actually spilling over out of tank. It’s be dead nuts since then.

 

[kamehameha]

My new lid came Woohoo! So this algae really never seemed to get out of hand. The snails are clearing it up right now.

How do you know when it's time to get coral? I still have a watchman goby/pistol pair to add as far as fish go.

 

[kamehameha]

You’ll probably end up goin with Hanna. I thought the same thing as you and now I prefer a digital readout over tryna decipher a color graph. I use the liquid when I feel like I need a second opinion. To be perfectly honest. I use Hanna for calcium, phos, and alk….the rest are liquid test kits but are done less often. I’ll be happy if they ever put out a Hanna magnesium checker.

So I'm actually going to return my Hannah checker. Not sure if I got a faulty one or something, but since the readings were pretty far apart each time I decided to do 4 readings from the same sample cup of water. Each reading was different by a lot. They ranged from .07 - .44 ppm.

If it isn't faulty, the only thing I can think of is I'm not getting all of the reagent powder out of the packet, which is quite difficult to pour into the vial. I'm thinking I'll just stick with liquid from now on. Even if the results weren't all over the place, those packets are not a friend of mine!

 

[olonmv]

So I'm actually going to return my Hannah checker. Not sure if I got a faulty one or something, but since the readings were pretty far apart each time I decided to do 4 readings from the same sample cup of water. Each reading was different by a lot. They ranged from .07 - .44 ppm.

If it isn't faulty, the only thing I can think of is I'm not getting all of the reagent powder out of the packet, which is quite difficult to pour into the vial. I'm thinking I'll just stick with liquid from now on. Even if the results weren't all over the place, those packets are not a friend of mine!

I too once got inconsistent readings and was not happy with the variances in readings until…….I watched a video on YouTube that touched on the inconsistencies. I started getting more consistent readings when I started to incorporate a couple of techniques.
First. I fill the cuvette with sample water up to the line and swirl, this coats the inside of the cuvette and forms the meniscus (water curvature) better. Then I fill the cuvette until the bottom of the meniscus is at the top of the line of the cuvette then proceed with my test process. Second. Always face the cuvette the same way when placing in egg. I always place the 10ml mark towards front of the egg. Reason for this is that when the cuvette is blown into shape there are inconsistencies in the shape of the glass and if you face it differently from C1 to C2 light might be getting refracted differently and affecting the test results. Once I started using this procedure I started getting more consistent results. Hope this helps.

 

[kamehameha]

I too once got inconsistent readings and was not happy with the variances in readings until…….I watched a video on YouTube that touched on the inconsistencies. I started getting more consistent readings when I started to incorporate a couple of techniques.
First. I fill the cuvette with sample water up to the line and swirl, this coats the inside of the cuvette and forms the meniscus (water curvature) better. Then I fill the cuvette until the bottom of the meniscus is at the top of the line of the cuvette then proceed with my test process. Second. Always face the cuvette the same way when placing in egg. I always place the 10ml mark towards front of the egg. Reason for this is that when the cuvette is blown into shape there are inconsistencies in the shape of the glass and if you face it differently from C1 to C2 light might be getting refracted differently and affecting the test results. Once I started using this procedure I started getting more consistent results. Hope this helps.

I did watch that video, and haven't tried opening the packet that way yet but I might in the near future. I attempted to return it, but they just gave me my money back and said to keep the checker.

I also got the liquid test kit for calcium and phosphate and tested phosphate a couple of times. I got 0.3ppm both times. I know that's a bit high, and that a skimmer would likely help lower that number, but I'm wondering if I should wait until the algae stages are done to start skimming. I am assuming algae will use up some phosphates.

The calcium is right on target! The only other concern is my KH. It was either 11 or 12 dKH. Either way I'm at the top of the scale for what I've seen recommended. Is that okay, or is 6-8 dKH better?