Phosphate Meter Options

[atmercure]

Hmm. Not sure about that.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

got my elos kit today. phophates in tank measure almost 0. Just a smidge darker than zero but much less than .008. Red sea phophate pro was reading .06 which it reads on everything. I trust the elos, it matches the terrible state my tank is in.

 

[ralph atl]

outdrsyguy1;899551 wrote: got my elos kit today. phophates in tank measure almost 0. Just a smidge darker than zero but much less than .008. Red sea phophate pro was reading .06 which it reads on everything. I trust the elos, it matches the terrible state my tank is in.

sarcasm I hope? lol

there should be 2 scales to read from....


.008 (is useless) but is actually .024 mg/l phosphate

the number you have is what you want, it's not high, and it's not low it's perfect and less than 0.03!

that's the magic number!

 

[outdrsyguy1]

not sarcasm, tanks not really growing and losing colors on everything. Been trying to figure out the issue for 5 months. I upgrade lights, added gfo/carbon more regularly, more water changes, added 2 part dosers and tested parameters until I got an unofficial chemistry degree.

I wasn't sure which row to read, I guess it's the mg/l PO43- and not the mg/l P

It's still waaaay closer to zero than it is to .024

I'll post a couple pics of before/after corals in another post and you'll see
I keep very constant params (430 calc, 8.2 alk, 1.026, temp 79.5-80.5, ph 8.04-8.14)

Also tested low range nitrates with red sea low range kit (measures 0 to 4) and it came out dead zero for nitrates.

Edit:

Edit: Everything loses color, this is actually my best grower, most everything just encrusts 75% of the frag plug and stops growing. Pictures are almost exactly 9 months apart

current tort

>http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/s614/outdrsyguy1/April2013074_zpsddfaa288.jpg</a>

as purchased

>http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/s614/outdrsyguy1/January2013030_zpsf0937e95.jpg</a>

 

[ralph atl]

oh crap, well, post your parems, and tell me when and how much you change gfo/carbon

what kinda flow goes through reactor on gfo?

what's alk

corals?

what size tank?

ato?

water changes, how often? how how much?

how do you dose alk? calcium? mag?

tank size? flow?

Edit: give me til tomorrow, bud...

 

[outdrsyguy1]

Yea, i'm about to pass out into bed also lol
(430 calc, 8.2 alk, 1.026, temp 79.5-80.5, ph 8.04-8.14)
120 tank (90 footprint but tall)
~12 gallon sump
Regular Cap GFO, 1 cup every 10 days to 2 weeks
.8 rox carbon (brs dual reactor) 10 days to 2 weeks
water changes 10 to 20% every week
flow is 2 Tunze 6105 on wave pattern 12 hours a day and non wave alternating flow at night
Return pumps is fairly good size I think but don't know flow (used)
brs 2 part dosing of alk and calk using Apex controller and brs dosers
ATO on float switch with 8 teaspoons per 5 gallons DI/RO
Corals are mostly SPS but there are a few zoa's and LPS scattered around
2 small bartlets anthias, 3 small OC clowns, 1 melanarus wrasse (smallish), 1 firefish goby, 1 yasha goby

DI/RO, TDS meter (checked calibration last week)
PH Apex meter (checked calibration last week)
Par levels checked with apogee mq-200

I bought a piece of red dragon and blue millie from you 7+ months ago when you dropped your pump on the red dragon. The red dragons grown maybe 1/8" -1/4" and is still really pale (not red)
Millie did grow 2 - 2" branches and still has blue corralites but the base color is not blue but a very light blue hue is still visible.

For the first 6+ months of the tanks life I changed filter socks every 3 days, vacuumed sand once ever 3 weeks and fed fish about half a cube of mysis 3 out of 3 days (less fish then ~5) and blew off rocks every 3 weeks.

I really think the tank is seriously nutrient deficient. I've had like zero algae for 5+ months and every coral I get fades, sps/lps whatever. Zoa's close up for a week every 3 or so weeks and many just shrink up into oblvion and die. I even had gsp die off and xenia not multiply hardly at all.

Feed sps corals maybe once a month at most. Last 6 days i've been dosing red sea reef energy/amino acids/vitamins at 10 ml part A and 10 ml part B and i'd swear i can see a couple spots coloring up a little but it maybe too soon to tell.

 

[ralph atl]

Ok, easy.....


Buy some Selcon from online, soak rinse and drop 2 to 3 per serving


Feed smaller portions, 2/3 times a day

Get some nutramar Ova and feed this once a week (or a pack of Rods)

Increase your food, but don't over do it where that becomes a problem...

Edit: nitrates?

 

[outdrsyguy1]

I've been feeding Larry's once a day and spectrum pellets once a day. I did pick up some rods a few days ago and I'll try it. I like the food particle size more in rods for my small fish.

Nitrates measure at dead zero on my red sea low range nitrate test kit (range is like 0-4 ppm scale)
API also measures dead zero but scale on it was to 160 so I just bought red sea one.

Is the selcon for the fish or corals?

 

[ralph atl]

Ok, don't over do it..Larry's is fine..it's really any amino acids..

Not necessary to be specific on brand, however, nutra ova once a week is great for fish and increases aminos...it's used to get hard to eat fish eating such as mandarins and Leapard wrasses, not necessary for you at all.

Selcon is also an inexpensive (ten bucks online) way to keep fish healthy and add fuel to your tank...no other better supplement except the professional versions of same product.
2 to 3 drops in frozen food daily

Edit: Increase Larry's maybe to twice a day, every other day...

 

[ralph atl]

glxtrix;898342 wrote: Can someone please clarify something for me...I see people always talking about the +/-.04 precision of the egg and how it's so bad....yet I see the same precision on the high dollar phosphate checkers....in fact, every description line is identical. Just trying to see the difference here.

The Hanna meter read 00.00 while the DD Merck kit read less more than 0.00 but less than 0.024

that was a waste of 50 bucks.