Struggling For No Apparent Reason

[hotdrop]

I'm pretty sure. I dip everything and have seen no signs of bugs.

I actually think I found out why my corals are struggling. Twice now my tanks done this weird thing were alk raises without dosing and it's happening again and my Alk is far higher than I realized.

My hannah checker showed my alk at 8.7 when I sent my sample to ATI, they tested it at 9.4. And today I took a sample to a LFS just for confirmation and it tested at 10.9 when my hannah showed 9.2

So whie I have no clue as to what's causing it to raise on its own(no3 as stayed at 25ppm or so) I do know now that my testing hasnt been accurate and instable/high all is likely what's killing my corals.

If your Hanna isn’t showing daily swings you should be fine. The lfs probably uses a crude testing method the Hanna is more accurate and the ati is even more so but unless samples were taken the same day and time the accuracy + daily drift would be expected.
Are you dosing daily? Are you doing large water changes without matching parameters. Those could be the cause of large swing but all should be detectable on the Hanna.
If it’s none of those then seriously start looking for pests. Dipping is actually not that effective pest control unless you do tank transfer method. Many pests eggs survive dip and if you use the wrong dip for your pest type they will survive as well. If you don’t throw frag plugs away before introducing corals that’s another disease vector.

 

[ReefHomieJon]

Temps a lil high...but nothing else jumps out at me.

Yea I say keep mine consistently at 78 never any higher....
Nitrates should prolly stay at like 5-10

 

[ReefHomieJon]

What kind of carbon did u start using recently?

 

[Nano10]

No3 above 10 isnt going to harm corals and neither are temps above 78.

As for my alk, I do 15% water changes with water that matches my tanks alk. My alk is definitely rising somehow and according to ATI its higher than my hannah suggests. The LFS(they use salifert)reading higher as well just confirmed things.

I use red sea carbon. The issues started before I decided to run carbon just as a precaution.

 

[ReefHomieJon]

No3 above 10 isnt going to harm corals and neither are temps above 78.

As for my alk, I do 15% water changes with water that matches my tanks alk. My alk is definitely rising somehow and according to ATI its higher than my hannah suggests. The LFS(they use salifert)reading higher as well just confirmed things.

I use red sea carbon. The issues started before I decided to run carbon just as a precaution.

Well then you’re right back where you started lol.

 

[Nano10]

Well, this is weird. I just tested alk in my display and my mix water using both my hannah and red sea tests.

My tank tested 9.4 with the hannah but 11.2 with red sea.

Mix water tested 8.0 hannah and 8.4 red sea.

Yesterday my display tested 9.2 with hannah at 10.9 at the LFS using salifert so the raise to 9.4 hannah and an 11.2 red sea result would suggest the red sea is accurate.

But it's odd that the hannah is so off testing my display and not as off testing my mix water.

And I still dont know how my display alk is rising. The only thing I can think of is that both times this has happened I added a frag with an unbelievably hard plug that I couldn't cut even with bone cutters. Maybe these plugs leech something?