Best place to order comprehensive water test?

[ryanjiang]

I remember reading before someone ordered comprehensive water test, what is the best place (and cost effective) to do it? I mainly want to get the reading of potassium & trace elements, plus as confirmation of my reading of CA/ALK/MG/NO3/PO4/SG etc...

Issues with my acros are: 1) coloration is on light side 2) Does not have enough glowing look & clarity (this part might has to do my lighting being T5+LED, my upgrade will be MH for sure) 3) Acro grow steady but certainly not fast enough.

I want to do the full water test to rule out the water chemistry factor, if so I can focus on nutrient factor and improve from there.

I have raised low (heater on) temp from 70 to 75 (I am raising it to 78) & started to dose ZEOVIT coral food, these certainly helped but not too much of improvement, here are some example of Acros:

 

[ryanjiang]

Sorry for the double post, could we delete the other one?

 

[Thales]

I remember reading before someone ordered comprehensive water test, what is the best place (and cost effective) to do it? I mainly want to get the reading of potassium & trace elements, plus as confirmation of my reading of CA/ALK/MG/NO3/PO4/SG etc...

Thats a tough one. Aquariumwatertesting.com does tests but many find there are problems with their testing methods. A place like ENC labs will test for you, but its expensive and takes a while (months) to get the results.

What readings are you getting and with what test kits? Do you get similar readings if you test twice? I think water tests are good for trending, but really only give you a general idea of what the concentrations actually are. Don't get caught up in chasing numbers!

Issues with my acros are: 1) coloration is on light side 2) Does not have enough glowing look & clarity (this part might has to do my lighting being T5+LED, my upgrade will be MH for sure) 3) Acro grow steady but certainly not fast enough.

They look fine to me from your pics.

I want to do the full water test to rule out the water chemistry factor, if so I can focus on nutrient factor and improve from there.

It won't. You then have to question the testing results and would need to run at least two panels.

I have raised low (heater on) temp from 70 to 75 (I am raising it to 78) & started to dose ZEOVIT coral food, these certainly helped but not too much of improvement, here are some example of Acros:

70? There's your problem! (at least part of it).

 

[tuberider]

I agree with Rich, your corals look healthy.

 

[Qwiv]

Yah, your not going to get good growth @ 70 degrees, or 75. 77 degrees is my low end during winter and 80 high in summer.
Corals are like cold blooded animals, the warmer they are the faster they grow and perform other functions, just like a lizard and snake. Corals would probably grow incredibly fast at 100 degrees if it wasn't for the problem with hotter water not being able to carry as much O2 as cooler water. (among other things) You run into a limit where higher temps increase metabolism and growth, but the higher temp water cannot carry enough dissolved O2 to support the higher metabolic rate. Its like running at altitude in a sense. The sweet spot is not currently identified and varies among species I am sure. Newer data has water up in the 90s at some locations in the ocean. 80s look to be common. High 70s has been the goal of reefers for ages as it supports the widest range of animals and is easier. When I raise my water temp, my PH drops too low, which is a good indication of decreased dissolved oxygen. I don't have a O2 probe. My open top and frag tanks can run hotter due to better gas exchange with the air.

Of course, CA, Alk and Mg need to be at acceptable levels as well.

As far as color, that is another topic. But I start with Stability, correct range of parameters, Removing any "nutrient sink", water clarity/enough light, then I attack PO4. Never made it to amino acids and such as I am typically happy before I see the need.

Special testing is a waste in my opinion unless you are trying to do a study of some sort using regular testing.
Want to make sure your trace minerals are where they should be, do some water changes.

How old is you tank and what are you expecting for growth. Tank doesn't look to old to me and the stocking density is very high, all of which inhibits growth. All the frags to look nice though. I would guess they are a year old +.
My last tank had pretty poor water quality and aging equipment, but was seasoned and very stable + stocking density very low. Corals grew out of the tank.

My newer tank has perfect parameters, water changes, better flow, lights etc etc. but it is mostly frags. No great growth yet.

 

[ryanjiang]

Thank you all for the input!

Low temp was definitely an issue, I went back to read my maintenance log and found that when summer past, I had to reduce the amount of two part dosing couple of time, to the extent of about 1/2 of the amount in summer . It prove what you guys said, the growth is extremely slow under such low temp, even corals are still alive.

The tank is 2 years old, about 1 years ago I was addicted to acropora & took out most of softies & planted lot of frags as you have seen in pictures, frags are between 1 month to 1 year old.

Yeah I see my current tank as a 75G frag tank, it is certainly too crowded, but this is just temporary. I am slowly taking out some corals and will upgrade to a 120G display with a small frag/grow out tank.

 

[ryanjiang]

What readings are you getting and with what test kits? Do you get similar readings if you test twice? I think water tests are good for trending, but really only give you a general idea of what the concentrations actually are. Don't get caught up in chasing numbers!

CA 450 ALK 8 - I use Salifert & API alternatively for these two, readings were consistent
MG 1500 Salifert, do not test often as long as CA number is good.
SG 1.025 - 1.026 refractometer
NO3 0.2 - 0.5 Salifert
PO4 0 hanna checker

[quote =Thales]

I want to do the full water test to rule out the water chemistry factor, if so I can focus on nutrient factor and improve from there.

It won't. You then have to question the testing results and would need to run at least two panels. [/quote]

That is what I am afraid of.