Cali Kid Corals

I NEED HELP FIGURING OUT WHY I CANT KEEP SPS

L/B Block said:
It is relatively accurate if you calibrate accordingly. The bright red thing you see in the pic is the actual optic tester -it gets dirty over time-suppose to clean it every 6 months with a cotton swab. Of course on the refurbished one I have I can’t get the screws
Off-should be ok though if you calibrate every two months as you switch out the B|C reagents.
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i was told by neptune people not to take the cover off ( your cover was off in front of the shaker ), it will affect the readout by external lights. unless you have a sump cover that covers it... then again, like you, i ignored them and went ahead used mine without the cover mainly i want to see if the pump was bringing any fluid into the shaker.
 
Alexander1312 said:
I do not believe anyone with success does very little. They say they do not, and then they start explaining all the things they do and it sounds like a long list. Automating testing is not doing very little. In fact I find it more complicated. IMO the difference between successful reefers vs unsuccessful is that they invest a ton of time on things that matter vs less impactful tasks or concerns. Identifying these seems often like learning dark magic.
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There are a lot of successful reefers that do very little, but perhaps I should clarify that point. I mean to say that they have a very simple and straightforward approach to reefkeeping. Jason Fox, for example, basically does almost nothing but water changes! The Reefbum interview left them virtually nothing to talk about because he doesnt do anything! Our very own Kenny and Rich Ross also have very simple and straightforward approaches to reefkeeping. Sanjay Joshi, Jake Adams, Mark Van der Wal - more examples.

L/B Block said:
I think you are leaving out a lot of confounders -years in hobby, size of tank, knowledge of biology and chemistry, use of live vs dead rock, etc etc -
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I'm not saying these folks don't do a lot of work or have incredibly deep knowledge. I'm not implying, by any means, that the hobby is easy. But I think water changes, high quality light and flow, reliable equipment that's well maintained, live rock - these things, applied with knowledge and intention, get you about 90% of the way there most of the time.
 
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Turkeysammich said:
They are two different things. Alkatronic has good reviews when I researched it. Mastertronic sucks. Bad programming.
Other companies are coming out with auto testers. Hopefully it will get better and cheaper. They aren’t very complicated. Just a drop counter and electronic eye.
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I love my Alkatronic, and it's dead accurate compared to my Hanna. I like testing alk frequently because it teaches me a lot about how my tank consumes alk. Also I'm lazy. Probably my favorite piece of equipment!

Not necessary to be successful, by any means. I don't think manually testing vs auto-testing has anything to do with husbandry - just your capacity to test and/or spend money to avoid testing.
 
I for one have a trident. I am so reliant on it I bought myself a back up in case my main ever goes down. When I had tanks in the past I would gets burnt tips on my sps every couple of months because of an alk issue. My tank currently can consume about 1.5 dkh with in 4 hours of the lights turning on. There is absolutely no way I would be able to keep my alk as stable as it is with out the trident.
 
iani said:
I for one have a trident. I am so reliant on it I bought myself a back up in case my main ever goes down. When I had tanks in the past I would gets burnt tips on my sps every couple of months because of an alk issue. My tank currently can consume about 1.5 dkh with in 4 hours of the lights turning on. There is absolutely no way I would be able to keep my alk as stable as it is with out the trident.
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That’s some serious Nom, Nom. Mongo hungry.
 
Love the passion for these devices. Makes me want to buy one now too :) (if I did not get the BRS vibe from them, but hey, I have three Versas and four MPs, so I should not judge). But if the alternative would be to test Alk, CA, and MG daily, I can see the need to have them regardless.
 
derek_SR said:
There are a lot of successful reefers that do very little, but perhaps I should clarify that point. I mean to say that they have a very simple and straightforward approach to reefkeeping. Jason Fox, for example, basically does almost nothing but water changes! The Reefbum interview left them virtually nothing to talk about because he doesnt do anything! Our very own Kenny and Rich Ross also have very simple and straightforward approaches to reefkeeping. Sanjay Joshi, Jake Adams, Mark Van der Wal - more examples.



I'm not saying these folks don't do a lot of work or have incredibly deep knowledge. I'm not implying, by any means, that the hobby is easy. But I think water changes, high quality light and flow, reliable equipment that's well maintained, live rock - these things, applied with knowledge and intention, get you about 90% of the way there most of the time.
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I like you clarified your previous statement of ‘very little’ with simple and straightforward. I think there is a lot of stuff we do which could be considered simple and straightforward over time (not in the beginning), but certainly not little. I think this is the stuff that new folks significantly underestimate and videos seem to imply the same. I think many of the folks you referenced invest a huge amount of time in their tanks which a lot of part time reefers are not able to commit.
 
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Alexander1312 said:
Love the passion for these devices. Makes me want to buy one now too :) (if I did not get the BRS vibe from them, but hey, I have three Versas and four MPs, so I should not judge). But if the alternative would be to test Alk, CA, and MG daily, I can see the need to have them regardless.
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Alk daily. Cal and mag weekly. You can hack the program. No need to test so much. It’s a scam to use up reagents unless you got a super high demand aquarium.
 
Turkeysammich said:
Alk daily. Cal and mag weekly. You can hack the program. No need to test so much. It’s a scam to use up reagents unless you got a super high demand aquarium.
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I think this thinking misses what the point of the trident (or any automated tester for that matter) is in relation to your reef. Sure, it mostly replaces testing that you don’t have to do manually anymore, but the greater benefit is the failure case.

Maybe a pump gets stuck on or off and your Mg, Alk or Ca shoots up like rocket or takes a nose dive. Maybe your CO2 tank runs out and your calcium reactor isn’t dissolving media anymore or maybe your effluent line is clogged. To me, that really is the real reason these testers should exist. They allow me to correct problems before they get too out of hand.

And while some test kits may be accurate and some not so accurate, let’s not kid ourselves; these are ALL hobby grade testers, the automated ones and the manual ones and have a significant amount of error in them. Trends are what really matter once you get a reasonably calibrated device.
 
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^ Yup. 1000% agree. I was just saying that treads are what I watch. But since I’m not in high demand of alk ,cal and mag. Like your aquarium. I can test less.
 
Turkeysammich said:
^ Yup. 1000% agree. I was just saying that treads are what I watch. But since I’m not in high demand of alk ,cal and mag. Like your aquarium. I can test less.
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But a tank’s demand isn’t the point. An alk, Ca or Mg swing for any tank regardless of what a tank’s demands are is bad thing that has the potential to be detrimental to any coral. It’s much like a temp swing is bad because of a wonky heater that could kill things. In this case your temp probe will tell you it’s going too high or too low. Except in this case, real time testing doesn’t cost you anything except initial cost. You should want to be notified if any of the big three elements are outta wack sooner than later regardless of what your tank demands are, but most are less willingly to do so because reagents to test for Alk, Ca and Mg cost additional money plus the initial investment. But that is also why we don’t test “real time” like a temp probe.
 
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RandyC said:
But a tank’s demand isn’t the point. An alk, Ca or Mg swing for any tank regardless of what a tank’s demands are is bad thing that has the potential to be detrimental to any coral. It’s much like a temp swing is bad because of a wonky heater that could kill things. In this case your temp probe will tell you it’s going too high or too low. Except in this case, real time testing doesn’t cost you anything except initial cost. You should want to be notified if any of the big three elements are outta wack sooner than later regardless of what your tank demands are, but most are less willingly to do so because reagents to test for Alk, Ca and Mg cost additional money plus the initial investment. But that also why we don’t test “real time” like a temp probe.
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I agree with you. My cal and mag barely move. Thus testing once a week.
 
ashburn2k said:
i was told by neptune people not to take the cover off ( your cover was off in front of the shaker ), it will affect the readout by external lights. unless you have a sump cover that covers it... then again, like you, i ignored them and went ahead used mine without the cover mainly i want to see if the pump was bringing any fluid into the shaker.
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The sump is entirely encased-that being said the refuge light is on at night-but it doesn’t seem to affect it. But I will put it on for good measure
 
RandyC said:
But a tank’s demand isn’t the point. An alk, Ca or Mg swing for any tank regardless of what a tank’s demands are is bad thing that has the potential to be detrimental to any coral. It’s much like a temp swing is bad because of a wonky heater that could kill things. In this case your temp probe will tell you it’s going too high or too low. Except in this case, real time testing doesn’t cost you anything except initial cost. You should want to be notified if any of the big three elements are outta wack sooner than later regardless of what your tank demands are, but most are less willingly to do so because reagents to test for Alk, Ca and Mg cost additional money plus the initial investment. But that also why we don’t test “real time” like a temp probe.
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Are Alk swings really that bad? Or is it more the PH consistency that matters? I am asking because the Chris Meckley method seems to produce significant Alk swings but he seems to be rather successful with his farm?
 
Alexander1312 said:
Are Alk swings really that bad? Or is it more the PH consistency that matters? I am asking because the Chris Meckley method seems to produce significant Alk swings but he seems to be rather successful with his farm?
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They’re just dosing kalk to keep pH up. As long as you have enough evaporation and enough coral to use up the alk and calcium, there really shouldn’t be much of a swing in alk doing what they’re doing. Initially, maybe there will be a swing, but once things are settled, it won’t change by much. I read somewhere that epic aquaculture dumps 10 gallons of saturated kalk slurry a day and that’s their only supplementation.
 
Alexander1312 said:
Are Alk swings really that bad? Or is it more the PH consistency that matters? I am asking because the Chris Meckley method seems to produce significant Alk swings but he seems to be rather successful with his farm?
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Alk swings IMO matter much more than pH. Although Alk does play a role in pH.
 
L/B Block said:
Curious- what is the acceptable range of alk in any given day? As in yesterday my alk was 6.9 to 7.11 so a .2 range. Same range for PH-.2
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My Alk swings by as much as 2.0 dkh (water changes) and I’ve never noticed an issue. Usually it’s an upswing - dunno if that makes a difference and a downswing of that size would be worse.
 
L/B Block said:
Curious- what is the acceptable range of alk in any given day? As in yesterday my alk was 6.9 to 7.11 so a .2 range. Same range for PH-.2
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My alk swings can also be in the range of 2dkh a day. Depending on when the calcium reactor turns on. I have it controlled by my trident.
 
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