Before I get on with the agenda item I want to give a big shout out to @bhodges82 for his help last night with the test to confirm what’s happening in my tank. It’s always good to have a reefer who just lives down the street and willing to help especially in the middle of the thanksgiving night.
Toward the end of October I ran out of co2 in the tank for a week or so, so once the calrx was back online I tried to raise the alk and other parameters to what it was before. At this moment, I knew all of my parameters should be lower than expected and didn’t pay much attention to it other than slowly change my pH values in the carbon doser and kamoer peristaltic pump.
So for a month I have been struggling to raise the tank alk beyond 8dKH and my effluent was giving a reading of 13dKH via Hanna.
Today, on thanksgiving, I did another alk test using Hanna checker and the reading got even lower than before, 134ppm or 7.5dKH. So I took out my Red Sea and the new salifer alk tests. In both tests, I used more than the 1mL reagent as stated in the instruction. Therefore my tank alk should be north of 15dKH. Something is fishie here.
So I took my water to Bobby and lo and behold, my new alk reading, using the same water, is 300ppm!!!!! We verified using both his Hanna checker and salifer.
Today, right before the massive water change, I used the newly arrived Hanna reagent and tested water. The reading is the same as what I found out at Bobbys house.The old Hanna reagent is definitely the culprit and I have been chasing the wrong number for a month! I have lost some valuable corals in the process thinking that their demise is due to something else.
I don’t know what caused the issue with the Hanna reagent but the lesson learned here is definitely not to count on a single test kit for crucial parameter.
Toward the end of October I ran out of co2 in the tank for a week or so, so once the calrx was back online I tried to raise the alk and other parameters to what it was before. At this moment, I knew all of my parameters should be lower than expected and didn’t pay much attention to it other than slowly change my pH values in the carbon doser and kamoer peristaltic pump.
So for a month I have been struggling to raise the tank alk beyond 8dKH and my effluent was giving a reading of 13dKH via Hanna.
Today, on thanksgiving, I did another alk test using Hanna checker and the reading got even lower than before, 134ppm or 7.5dKH. So I took out my Red Sea and the new salifer alk tests. In both tests, I used more than the 1mL reagent as stated in the instruction. Therefore my tank alk should be north of 15dKH. Something is fishie here.
So I took my water to Bobby and lo and behold, my new alk reading, using the same water, is 300ppm!!!!! We verified using both his Hanna checker and salifer.
Today, right before the massive water change, I used the newly arrived Hanna reagent and tested water. The reading is the same as what I found out at Bobbys house.The old Hanna reagent is definitely the culprit and I have been chasing the wrong number for a month! I have lost some valuable corals in the process thinking that their demise is due to something else.
I don’t know what caused the issue with the Hanna reagent but the lesson learned here is definitely not to count on a single test kit for crucial parameter.
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