bobstir
Community Member
greetings, please see my test results here:
As you can see, my lithium is high, which I know is normal from reading the other posts, but mine appears to be exceedingly high. I use a 50/50 mix of Instant Ocean and Tropic Marin Pro Reef w/ weekly water changes (~10% on 125g total system volume tank)
Further, my Boron is high as well.
Other than the salt mix, the only other thing I add to the tank that I think could be a cause for the above numbers is what I use for my 2-part dosing: Seachem Laboratories Marine Buffer and Seachem Laboratories Reef Advantage Calcium for alk and calcium respectively.
Could this be the problem? I've been using both of the above for a couple years now and haven't had any issues -- particularly with respect to fish and coral loss. My display is an SPS-dominant mixed-reef. Possible that these levels -- if left unchecked and continue to increase -- could poison / wipe the tank? Detrimental to corals, fish, both?
The other thing I'm curious about is my low phosphate reading. I do not run GFO or any other phosphate remover and I do not run a refugium -- I only have a bunch of live rock in the sump.
Over the past several months, i've been trying to increase my phosphate levels as some of my corals have started to lose their vibrancy. I feed what I think is a lot -- both to the fish and corals. The problem is if I feed too much, the algae starts taking off in my frag tank. It's generally not a problem in the display tank (perhaps because of lawnmower blenny) other than the film on the glass which I have to clean once or twice a week depending on how much I feed.
So now my question is where is the phosphate going? I'm quite certain I'm feeding enough to warrant a higher result: couple cubes of mysis AND pellets daily (5 small fish, 2 medium, 1 large (~7-8")), coral frenzy mixed w/ some frozen mixture like rod's reef or whatever is at the LFS every other day or so (in addition to the daily), oyster feast once a week, dried seaweed strip once a week.
My hanna meter always reads 0 and this was partly why I wanted to send it in to get tested by Triton so they could corroborate my readings. I do have a lot of sponges -- both in the display and in the sump. Could this be a factor? Any suggestions? I have a ton of hermit crabs in the frag tank to eat at the algae when it grows, but they can't get -- or don't feel the need to go -- to the higher racks so I start getting growth on both the egg crate and plugs. This is terribly annoying.
And finally, how do I determine my salinity and alkalinity from the above? I calibrated my refractometer w/ Pinpoint solution, but if i base it off of the sodium content above, it would appear I'm a touch low -- my refractometer read 1.026 when I sent in the sample. Similarly, my hanna meter read a little lower on alkalinity than I normally run (it was 7 and I normally run it around 9), but I have no idea where to look in the triton results to corroborate this. For me, the main purpose to have the triton test done was to be able to establish a base-line for my home test kits. Problem is i'm not sure how to map one reading to another in some cases. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Bob
As you can see, my lithium is high, which I know is normal from reading the other posts, but mine appears to be exceedingly high. I use a 50/50 mix of Instant Ocean and Tropic Marin Pro Reef w/ weekly water changes (~10% on 125g total system volume tank)
Further, my Boron is high as well.
Other than the salt mix, the only other thing I add to the tank that I think could be a cause for the above numbers is what I use for my 2-part dosing: Seachem Laboratories Marine Buffer and Seachem Laboratories Reef Advantage Calcium for alk and calcium respectively.
Could this be the problem? I've been using both of the above for a couple years now and haven't had any issues -- particularly with respect to fish and coral loss. My display is an SPS-dominant mixed-reef. Possible that these levels -- if left unchecked and continue to increase -- could poison / wipe the tank? Detrimental to corals, fish, both?
The other thing I'm curious about is my low phosphate reading. I do not run GFO or any other phosphate remover and I do not run a refugium -- I only have a bunch of live rock in the sump.
Over the past several months, i've been trying to increase my phosphate levels as some of my corals have started to lose their vibrancy. I feed what I think is a lot -- both to the fish and corals. The problem is if I feed too much, the algae starts taking off in my frag tank. It's generally not a problem in the display tank (perhaps because of lawnmower blenny) other than the film on the glass which I have to clean once or twice a week depending on how much I feed.
So now my question is where is the phosphate going? I'm quite certain I'm feeding enough to warrant a higher result: couple cubes of mysis AND pellets daily (5 small fish, 2 medium, 1 large (~7-8")), coral frenzy mixed w/ some frozen mixture like rod's reef or whatever is at the LFS every other day or so (in addition to the daily), oyster feast once a week, dried seaweed strip once a week.
My hanna meter always reads 0 and this was partly why I wanted to send it in to get tested by Triton so they could corroborate my readings. I do have a lot of sponges -- both in the display and in the sump. Could this be a factor? Any suggestions? I have a ton of hermit crabs in the frag tank to eat at the algae when it grows, but they can't get -- or don't feel the need to go -- to the higher racks so I start getting growth on both the egg crate and plugs. This is terribly annoying.
And finally, how do I determine my salinity and alkalinity from the above? I calibrated my refractometer w/ Pinpoint solution, but if i base it off of the sodium content above, it would appear I'm a touch low -- my refractometer read 1.026 when I sent in the sample. Similarly, my hanna meter read a little lower on alkalinity than I normally run (it was 7 and I normally run it around 9), but I have no idea where to look in the triton results to corroborate this. For me, the main purpose to have the triton test done was to be able to establish a base-line for my home test kits. Problem is i'm not sure how to map one reading to another in some cases. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Bob
