Reef Factory saved me some corals.

[Fisherman Joe]

Plucked up and bought the automated tester called Reef Factory. I opted for the PO4 testing kits.

Have to say, I hear they had problems in the past but I’ve had a breeze setting it up. The instructions aren’t super clear but you can work it out eventually.

It’s been working for months now. My PO4 stays around 0.10mg/l.

The last few days it’s crept up to 0.16 then 0.17.

Upon checking, the fluidised reactor had compacted and was just a brick of PO4 removal media. A quick mix and it’s back working again.

I had only just replaced the PO4 media, so I wouldn’t have checked this for weeks, leading to PO4 creeping up further, and corals dying.

 

[tzabor10]

So PO4 kills corals in your system? I never knew that could happen. I know stable parameters are good. And PO4 slows calcification. But never die off. Good to know

 

[Coral Cowboy]

Plucked up and bought the automated tester called Reef Factory. I opted for the PO4 testing kits.

Have to say, I hear they had problems in the past but I’ve had a breeze setting it up. The instructions aren’t super clear but you can work it out eventually.

It’s been working for months now. My PO4 stays around 0.10mg/l.

The last few days it’s crept up to 0.16 then 0.17.

Upon checking, the fluidised reactor had compacted and was just a brick of PO4 removal media. A quick mix and it’s back working again.

I had only just replaced the PO4 media, so I wouldn’t have checked this for weeks, leading to PO4 creeping up further, and corals dying.

I've been looking at the reef factory as a tester to go between my tanks and automatically run my tests on water change day. Is it simple enough to change reagents to go through a full battery of tests, and move on to the next aquarium?

 

[reef350]

Po4 spike will make BJD more likely in some sensitive torch corals has happened to me, after consistently measuring PO4 I haven't had an issue since. I know BJD is bacteria caused but I speculate the spikes stress them out and weaken their immunity.