Post your parameters - BE HONEST THREAD

[Sailfinguy21]

Alk 6.6-7.2- test weekly
Phosphates .01-.03 - test monthly
Calc - 410-420 test monthly
Ph - no clue, never tested before
Nitrates - 5-25ppm test monthly

Tank started cycle in August 2018, first coral frags started in October 2018

Here is current tank

Pretty tank what is the purple acropora in the center of your picture. Has like one big arm branching up

 

[Sailfinguy21]

That sounds exactly like what happened when my nitrates pegged to zero. Everything looked especially colorful one day, went pastel a few days later and I started getting dinos & cyano immediately after. I checked my nitrates with salifert test and the vial was as clear as vodka, eeek. I was able to save most of my corals by feeding everything in the tank partially chopped up mysis for the following week and turning off my ats & skimmer. I had the same issue later with chaeto and swore to never keep more than a baseball sized ball of it per 100 gallons again. Dealing with too much nitrates is easy. Dealing with too little nitrates is hard and simply dosing nitrates from a bottle has always caused a slew of additional issues in my experience.

Your story sounds like mine cept eith phosphates.. i had s hair algae issue in my tank.. phosphates were .50ppm... I got seachems phosguard and i put in like half a socks worth in a 55g hexagon.... it did take a week or so before i noticed the phosohates to drop to NEAR 0 not 0 but close. And when it happened my corals all started to close up.. i really noticed it on my octo and frogspawns.. and my bubble corals.
M.k i took that stuff out and phosphates went back to .50ppm and evrrything opened backup.

To fix my hair algae issues.. i got two pincushion and tuxedo urchins. And a small like 3 or 4 inch foxface.

No more chemicals or gfo for me

 

[James M]

I don’t test my water anymore and just do water changes when I feel like it.......

 

[Rick.45cal]

Last I checked:
NO3: 10 ppm
PO4: 0.25ppm
Alkalinity: 9.3-9.6 dKH
Ca: 460 ppm
Mg: 1420 ppm

 

[KrisReef]

P04- 0.02-0.3
N03- 10-11 ppm
Ph- 8.3
Alk- 7.6 -7.65
Calc- 420
Mag- 1360
Salinity- 1.025

That’s what I’m aiming at but I haven’t measured most of them this month, really!

 

[Crustaceon]

Your story sounds like mine cept eith phosphates.. i had s hair algae issue in my tank.. phosphates were .50ppm... I got seachems phosguard and i put in like half a socks worth in a 55g hexagon.... it did take a week or so before i noticed the phosohates to drop to NEAR 0 not 0 but close. And when it happened my corals all started to close up.. i really noticed it on my octo and frogspawns.. and my bubble corals.
M.k i took that stuff out and phosphates went back to .50ppm and evrrything opened backup.

To fix my hair algae issues.. i got two pincushion and tuxedo urchins. And a small like 3 or 4 inch foxface.

No more chemicals or gfo for me

I’m the same way with gfo and carbon dosing. It’s just way too easy to strip the tank of No3/Po4. Before I went the algae scrubber route, I dosed vodka and stripped all of the Po4 from my system. I noticed nitrates were still rising (over 50ppm!) regardless of how much vodka I added, so I tested phosphates and they were 0. Algae and bacteria consume No3 & Po4 in a ratio so when one is gone, they other can’t be processed. In my case, the treatment was to dose Seachem Flourish in VERY small quantities which pretty much immediately reduced nitrates thanks to a massive amount of carbon still in the water from my last shotglass-worth of vodka. I had nitrates down to 10ppm within a few days and emptied A LOT skimmer cups in the process.

 

[mfollen]

I ran into some issues with my acros that I believe were low phosphate-related. Here’s the before and after

During issues (ICP)
Alk: 7.7
Ca: 440
Mag: 1400
Ph:8.0
PO4: 0.006
No3: 4

Now:
Alk: 7.7
Ca: 440
Ph:8.0
Mag:1350
PO4: 0.06
No3: 10

 

[Wh00pS32]

I wouldn't know my parameters, i havn't tested them for over 4 years.

 

[SuncrestReef]

I test various parameters in different ways and at different intervals:

Temp: Apex, every 10 min
pH: Apex, every 10 min
Alk: Trident, every 3 hours
Cal: Trident, every 6 hours
Mag: Trident, every 6 hours
NO3: Red Sea Pro kit, every few days
PO4: Hanna ULR, every day

Here are my recent readings:



(the spike in these Trident readings is due to a calibration operation)

 

[Tastee]

My most recent tests.

And the tank.

 

[reaper0268]

90 peninsula/54 corner

9.9 DKH 8.9
.2 NO3 25
<.03 PO4 .03
8.3 pH 8.3
78 F 78
460 Ca 480
1410 Mg 1410
35 ppt 35

I use 50/50 Instant Ocean/Reef Crystal's mix.

I dose two little fishies 2 part and nothing else.

In the past, I have treated both tanks with Reeflux for bryopsis. I treated the 90 once with Red Cyano Rx for green powdery cyano. I have had no other algae issues.

Both tanks have lots of rock, deep sand beds, chaeto, protein skimmers, and UV sterilizers.

Full tank shot tonight.

 

[Drewe]

Full honesty:

Alk - 8.5 (would prefer it to be around 9.5 but got lazy this week)

Calcium - 460

pH - 7.8 right now, I'd prefer 8.3 but I'm certainly not going to chase a pH number

Magnesium - no clue, checked it about 2 months ago and it was 1400. I don't test or add it unless I notice something wrong

Salinity - honest, haven't checked salinity in over a year, don't even check it on my monthly water change, I know how much salt to use and I'm assuming it's around 1.025 but who knows, SPS is growing fine.

Phosphate - last I checked a week or so ago it was like .02 or something. No algae issues that the turbos don't take care of

I'm not very precise on my numbers when it comes to maintenance, it's less stressful and my fish/coral are happy and healthy. When stuff goes wrong I intervene but for the most part I let it take care of itself.

With dosing I use my best judgement, I certainly don't test more than once a month but I dose daily because I know what my tank needs.

 

[Robink]

I test all parameters weekly on Mondays, alk is tested every day at the same time.
Here are last weeks results and today's alk. Works for me...
Alk: 8.34
Calc: 425
Mag: 1460
N03: 20
P04: 0.35
pH: 7.98-8.2+ (better when I can open windows)

 

[Huff747]

Tested mine tonight:

Alk: 9.58
Ca: 455
Ph:7.88 - 8.08 today according to Apex
Mag:1155 - dosed some to bring that up after the test, guess maybe I should test this one a bit more frequently
PO4: 0.08
No3: 12

 

[12gallonsofhex]

Btw. Can anyone weigh in on this color on the salifert pH test. I have no idea how to read this. I’m on 8?

I have the same issue with the Salifert PH color test. It is not quite 8.15 or 8.3 when I test. I just assume that its in between tge 2.

 

[12gallonsofhex]

My latest parameters. I recently moved everything from my 12 gallon to this 20 long. Added a refugium, and the chaeto started growing well last week. I added another fish, am feeding more, and cut the 'fuge light down to 8 hrs to raise NO3 and PO4 levels. Never thought i would have this problem.

 

[jd371]

75g mixed reef tested Saturday

Sg - 1.025
Temp 78.5 - 79.5
pH 8.2 - 8.4
NO3 - 25 ( usually at 10 and working to bring it down )
PO4 - 0.08
Mg - 1440
Ca - 460 - 480
Alk - 8.5 - 9.5

20g Anemone tank with a few mixed corals tested Saturday

Sg - 1.025
Temp - 78 - 80 ( this tank is in my workshop and the ambient temp swings a lot. Fan over the tank switches on when the tank reaches 81.5 )
pH - don't test and no controller to monitor
NO3 - 1.0 ( don't like it this low and will bring it up to 5 again )
PO4 - 0.09 ( usually 0.01 working to bring it down )
Mg - 1440
Ca - 420
Alk - 9

 

[OfficialReefWife]

As of June 29, 2019:

Nitrate: 3.5 ppm
Phosphate: 0.052 ppm
Calcium: 450 ppm
Alkalinity: 7.8 dkH
Salinity: 1.026
Magnesium: 1400 ppm

 

[Yates273]

10g office nano (mixed lps, zoas, sps): Measured this morning.
Sg: 35 ppt
Ph: 8.2
Alk: 9.4
P04: .08
N03: 15
Cal: 440
Mag: 1490

90g/45jbj shared sump (mixed reef w/5 species of nems): Measured last night.
Sg: 35 ppt
Ph: 8.3
Alk: 9.2
P04: .03
N03: 10
Cal: 450
Mag:1450

210g tank (sps dominated): Measured last night.
Sg: 35 ppt
Ph: 8.1
Alk: 8.2
P04: .03
N03: 5
Cal: 440
Mag: 1350

150g lps, zoa, bubble nem tank: Measured last night.
Sg: 34 ppt
Ph: 8.1
Alk: 11.5
P04: .12
N03: 20
Cal: 420
Mag:1550

125 mixed reef: Measured day before yesterday.
Sg: 35 ppt
Ph: 8.2
Alk: 9.5
P04: .03
N03: 10
Cal: 460
Mag:1450

Frag tank 1 (28 gallons) (zoas): Measured day before yesterday.
Sg: 35 ppt
Ph: 8.1
Alk: 12.5
P04: .12
N03: 25
Cal: 420
Mag:1500

Frag Tank 2 (48g) (lps): Measured day before yesterday.
Sg: 35 ppt
Ph: 8.3
Alk: 11.5
P04: .12
N03: 15
Cal: 450
Mag: 1550

Frag Tank 3 (30g) (sps): Measured day before yesterday.
Sg: 35 ppt
Ph: 8.1
Alk: 9.0
P04: .03
N03: 5
Cal: 450
Mag: 1400

150g puffer tank: Measured last Sunday.
Sg: 28 ppt
Ph: 8.1
Po4: .03
No3: 20

I will leave the DIY 20 long all in one zoa tank, the 14 biocube, and the 40 breeder zoa colony tank out, as I do not measure them lol. Just make sure the zoas grow and that they look like they should lol.

My goodness this looks like a lot of work. ( not a bad thing as long as you enjoy it) Hope your retired.

 

[marco fish]

It seems like lots of people post parameters and they’re just too perfect. Let’s be honest. Post your true parameters. I don’t see having something not perfect as being a failure. Nor do I think it’s bad to be out of sync with everyone else, so long as your tank is healthy.

Here are mine:

PO4 0.06 — ok for me
NO3 25 — wish to be lower
pH 8 — 8.2 is my goal
Alk 10.2 — nothing wants to eat my alk!
Ca 420 — could be higher
Mg 1500 — could be lower

So here you go @ScottR hopefully I don’t get to many giggles out of my notebook and chicken scratch, LoL :)

For PH-Temp, KH, CA, and PO4 Hanna tester
For Mag and N03 Red Sea test kit (and after N03 Red Sea I now use Nyos test kit)
Salinity (BRS refractometer )
And for potassium or (pot) Elos test kit it’s the new addition to my test kits!
On the last parameter testing 6/29, I also tested the Aquaforest Reef Salt that I made 10 gallons for a small water change. I hope that this helps and if there’s any questions about anything or hand writing, LoL, just hit me up! :) oh yeah something else that I forgot, I don’t test everything all of the time, just if I suspect something is wrong or not looking right!

Y’all have a good day .