Cali Kid Corals

Biocube 32

Looks like the tests come out with a similar result, except for salifert. The ultra low Hanna 900 ppb is 0.9 ppm, so within the range of other tests, and I just recalled I tested your water previously and it was above 1 ppm. Just wanted to make sure the tests are correct before you use GFO. Still curious what feeds your phosphate levels.

I like to keep magnesium higher, target 1350, and calcium too, target 420.
Yes, I just got more all for reef I had to go down from everyday to 3 times a day cause I was running low the last two weeks. So in some ways I kinda expected numbers to be lower. So will go back to 7mil per day aft and 5 mil daily mag. For a week to see what numbers reflect and maybe increase dosing amount if needed.
 
I'm not sure of parts per million what that means. Neptunes uses spin test. I use hanna low range shows anywhere between .6- 1.4 avg, I also have the ultra low range hanna it always reads 900, salifert tests always shows .02-.03
So I don't know why the numbers are different from each test, but for each different test they are just about always the same respectivley.
I get rodi water from aqua plus as its 2 blocks from home. I maybe aquiring a rodi setup in near future if all goes to plan and i'm able to get it hooked up. I have a cheap tdo meter from Amazon,I honestly never thought to test the water I get from aqua plus till you asked this question, I will definitely test it next time I get water from them. Yes you are correct I use chemipure blue always, and Rotate between puregion and carbon. With filter pads. My skimmer in the cube definitely needs some tweaking to make it run better. I have never been able to get phosphates lower. Even with running the stuff above. I have no desires to try to run them extremely low. I just want them at acceptable levels. I will probably add that rowa phos in the next day or two after I learn more about it.

I also have zero visible algae anywhere in the tank or cyano etc. So no clue why I can't lower po4
I've gotten RODI from 3 different LFS's and Neptunes was the only one that tested 0 TDS for me (checked with Amazon TDS meter).

Sounds like you don't have any issues with algae or unhappy corals with the phosphates that high which is nice. Get a RODI unit if you can or at least a TDS meter so you can eliminate as many variables as possible.
 
I've gotten RODI from 3 different LFS's and Neptunes was the only one that tested 0 TDS for me (checked with Amazon TDS meter).

Sounds like you don't have any issues with algae or unhappy corals with the phosphates that high which is nice. Get a RODI unit if you can or at least a TDS meter so you can eliminate as many variables as possible.
Sps was doing great last month, yet not so well the past 2 weeks. I mentioned the recent issues with sps it may have gotten lost above but I talked about it in my last update
 
Sps was doing great last month, yet not so well the past 2 weeks. I mentioned the recent issues with sps it may have gotten lost above but I talked about it in my last update
Oh I missed that, TDS in the RODI could be a contributing factor maybe? Aqua Plus RODI didn't test at 0 TDS when I got some from them last year.
 
Oh I missed that, TDS in the RODI could be a contributing factor maybe? Aqua Plus RODI didn't test at 0 TDS when I got some from them last year.
Yes, I use to get it from Neptunes but thats 6 miles away aqua plus is 2 blocks and their water is cheaper. But I will definitely test it, if its a issue i'll just stick to Neptunes for the time being. I'd rather pay more than deal with issues.
 
Yes, I use to get it from Neptunes but thats 6 miles away aqua plus is 2 blocks and their water is cheaper. But I will definitely test it, if its a issue i'll just stick to Neptunes for the time being. I'd rather pay more than deal with issues.
There's going to be a raffle item for an RODI unit at the frag swap. Should prioritize your tickets there ;)
 
I took 2 new sterile specimen cups as a control ensuring i didn't contaminate or skew the results with residuals from somthing previously used. The mission was to test the tds in the rodi water at both aqua plus, and Neptunes aquatics.

Aqua plus read as 97
Neptunes read zero.

I was shocked by the finding as I've been using aqua plus rodi water the last 3 months do to it being closer to me and less than half the cost of Neptunes rodi water.

Before 3 months ago, I was getting all my water from Neptunes.

I've had the tds meter over a year, I just honestly never thought to test the water I was adding the last few months assuming rodi was the same.

A few members pointed out tds being a potential issue with my phosphates always being high.

Common sense tells me zero tds has to be better than 97 tds.

Can anyone give feed back about how bad is 97 tdos?

Could that be bad enough to cause my higher phosphates ?
 

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How bad TDS is depends on what the TDS is. Think 90ppm of calcium, versus phosphate, versus copper. The TDS just indicates the amount of “stuff” in the water, and not whether that “stuff” is good or bad. That falls into other tests.

On 4/11 is the first sharp climb of many in PO4 (disregarding the first water test you ever did, and an outlier test on 5/5 - which i suspect might be a bad test since your Hanna read 1.42), rising an order of magnitude from 0.03 to 0.3. Is that when you began using Aqua Plus water?

Use your phosphate test and test the Aqua Plus RODI water to see if there is any. I believe there very well might be, due to the sharp and uncontrolled rise of phosphate we’ve been seeing.
 
How bad TDS is depends on what the TDS is. Think 90ppm of calcium, versus phosphate, versus copper. The TDS just indicates the amount of “stuff” in the water, and not whether that “stuff” is good or bad. That falls into other tests.

On 4/11 is the first sharp climb of many in PO4 (disregarding the first water test you ever did, and an outlier test on 5/5 - which i suspect might be a bad test since your Hanna read 1.42), rising an order of magnitude from 0.03 to 0.3. Is that when you began using Aqua Plus water?

Use your phosphate test and test the Aqua Plus RODI water to see if there is any. I believe there very well might be, due to the sharp and uncontrolled rise of phosphate we’ve been seeing.
I can't give. Exact date, j know it was roughly 3 months ago. Before I just went to Neptunes. I didn't actually get water from them today, I was going to but after j saw that I just decided to go to Neptunes instead for water.

So I thought any tds wasn't good?
I've honestly never tested their water for phosphates. I have some of their old water that I made salt water with I could test for po4? (But no rodi from them)
 
I can't give. Exact date, j know it was roughly 3 months ago. Before I just went to Neptunes. I didn't actually get water from them today, I was going to but after j saw that I just decided to go to Neptunes instead for water.

So I thought any tds wasn't good?
I've honestly never tested their water for phosphates. I have some of their old water that I made salt water with I could test for po4? (But no rodi from them)
As a general rule, any TDS isn’t good because say you’re reading 20 TDS, you don’t know what it is. When the TDS meter on my RODI starts climbing up from 0, that’s when I start changing the filters. 97 TDS is honestly bad. I wouldn’t use that water if it was what my RODI unit was making, much less buy it. TDS meters sometimes aren’t the most accurate but at 97, not sure if Aqua Plus isn’t testing/changing their filters but they should not be selling that.
 
What makes TDS bad is that you don’t know what it is. You should test the RO for phosphates, and even if 0, stop using it. Go to Neptune or get an RODI filter - the RO Buddie on Amazon isn’t great, but it’s good - it gives me low tds water. Speaking of, I should check TDS soon
 
I took 2 new sterile specimen cups as a control ensuring i didn't contaminate or skew the results with residuals from somthing previously used. The mission was to test the tds in the rodi water at both aqua plus, and Neptunes aquatics.

Aqua plus read as 97
Neptunes read zero.

I was shocked by the finding as I've been using aqua plus rodi water the last 3 months do to it being closer to me and less than half the cost of Neptunes rodi water.

Before 3 months ago, I was getting all my water from Neptunes.

I've had the tds meter over a year, I just honestly never thought to test the water I was adding the last few months assuming rodi was the same.

A few members pointed out tds being a potential issue with my phosphates always being high.

Common sense tells me zero tds has to be better than 97 tds.

Can anyone give feed back about how bad is 97 tdos?

Could that be bad enough to cause my higher phosphates ?
Yikes 97! I don't remember the exact number but is was more in the teens when I checked the RODI I got from them last year.

Gotta trust but verify.
 
I'm not sure of parts per million what that means. Neptunes uses spin test. I use hanna low range shows anywhere between .6- 1.4 avg, I also have the ultra low range hanna it always reads 900, salifert tests always shows .02-.03
So I don't know why the numbers are different from each test, but for each different test they are just about always the same respectivley.
I get rodi water from aqua plus as its 2 blocks from home. I maybe aquiring a rodi setup in near future if all goes to plan and i'm able to get it hooked up. I have a cheap tdo meter from Amazon,I honestly never thought to test the water I get from aqua plus till you asked this question, I will definitely test it next time I get water from them. Yes you are correct I use chemipure blue always, and Rotate between puregion and carbon. With filter pads. My skimmer in the cube definitely needs some tweaking to make it run better. I have never been able to get phosphates lower. Even with running the stuff above. I have no desires to try to run them extremely low. I just want them at acceptable levels. I will probably add that rowa phos in the next day or two after I learn more about it.

I also have zero visible algae anywhere in the tank or cyano etc. So no clue why I can't lower po4

I am glad that you seem to have found potentially your source for the high phosphate. It sounded very strange to me that you had high phosphate while doing regular water changes and without adding any meaningful phosphate source. Still shocking that someone would sell RODI which is in fact not RODI.
 
I am glad that you seem to have found potentially your source for the high phosphate. It sounded very strange to me that you had high phosphate while doing regular water changes and without adding any meaningful phosphate source. Still shocking that someone would sell RODI which is in fact not RODI.
Yea the sps issue wasn't created over night, so i'm sure it will take a little bit of time to color them up again. Just really gald I figured it out before it was too late for them. Just sucks cause they were growing and coloring well. So far the cali cali, and green slimmer are still looking good.

Thanks for mentioning the water possibility to me. It never even crossed my mind in the slightest.
 
Did I read correctly, that after the CFM, you poured the entire bottles of Tigger pods and Apex pods into your tank? Was it their live pods or their feast bottles?! I don't remember if Chad had the live pods with him or not. Because if you poured in an entire feast bottle, that would also explain the elevated phosphates.
 
Did I read correctly, that after the CFM, you poured the entire bottles of Tigger pods and Apex pods into your tank? Was it their live pods or their feast bottles?! I don't remember if Chad had the live pods with him or not. Because if you poured in an entire feast bottle, that would also explain the elevated phosphates.
His phosphates sharply rose by an order of magnitude (0.03 -> 0.3) on 4/11, but his Hanna also read 1.42ppm on 5/05 (day after CFM) so.......
 
Did I read correctly, that after the CFM, you poured the entire bottles of Tigger pods and Apex pods into your tank? Was it their live pods or their feast bottles?! I don't remember if Chad had the live pods with him or not. Because if you poured in an entire feast bottle, that would also explain the elevated phosphates.
Lol definitely live pods. I think a bottle of the feast would have nuked the tank. I got 3 bottles of live pods, phytoplanton, and the mysiss feast.
 

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