High Tide Aquatics

Jake’s 90 gallon mixed reef

MarcosDelgado0 said:
I got mine in a raffle giveaway from Eric a long time ago and it’s the only reason I have one but I wouldn’t recommend it. I’m going to buy a salifert test kit. The other three and the salinity checker I love though.
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I like how accurate they all are, but the phosphate test is a tad annoying. Have to swirl the reagents in the vial for 2 minutes, but then the checker times out and turns off, and you have to get a second vial with water to re zero it
 
Fish Boss said:
I like how accurate they all are, but the phosphate test is a tad annoying. Have to swirl the reagents in the vial for 2 minutes, but then the checker times out and turns off, and you have to get a second vial with water to re zero it
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They autoshutoff after 3min of inactivity but you should only be shaking for 2min. That gives you a minute to wipe it down and insert it into the checker and press the button. I think it makes sense they don’t give you more time because you’re not supposed to let the vial sit or it’ll affect accuracy
 
Fish Boss said:
I like how accurate they all are, but the phosphate test is a tad annoying. Have to swirl the reagents in the vial for 2 minutes, but then the checker times out and turns off, and you have to get a second vial with water to re zero it
Click to expand...
If you long press/ hold button down (instead of just pressing it) it after it says it does initial reading it gives a 3 min count down before taking the reading giving you a good idea of when 2 mins are up. It should also stay on long enough that way verse using your phone or a clock to track the time.
 
MarcosDelgado0 said:
They autoshutoff after 3min of inactivity but you should only be shaking for 2min. That gives you a minute to wipe it down and insert it into the checker and press the button. I think it makes sense they don’t give you more time because you’re not supposed to let the vial sit or it’ll affect accuracy
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I’ve been getting faster and prepping everything before I zero it. The first couple of times I did it, it auto shut off right when I was putting the vial in after shaking for 2 mins.
MichaelB said:
If you long press/ hold button down (instead of just pressing it) it after it says it does initial reading it gives a 3 min count down before taking the reading giving you a good idea of when 2 mins are up. It should also stay on long enough that way verse using your phone or a clock to track the time.
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Yeah, that took me a while to figure out lol
 
MichaelB said:
If you long press/ hold button down (instead of just pressing it) it after it says it does initial reading it gives a 3 min count down before taking the reading giving you a good idea of when 2 mins are up. It should also stay on long enough that way verse using your phone or a clock to track the time.
Click to expand...
I could be misreading this but I don’t think that’s how it’s supposed to go. Supposed to swirl for 2 min then let sit for 3 min before reading I think
 
Coral reefer said:
I could be misreading this but I don’t think that’s how it’s supposed to go. Supposed to swirl for 2 min then let sit for 3 min before reading I think
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If you hold the button it’ll display a 3min countdown on the screen and then give a reading after the countdown. I think he was trying to say that’s easier than putting a 3min timer on a phone and then pressing the button to give the reading. Basically just make the checker do the work
 
tested my params today, nitrate looked a bit darker than last time, but always a pain to accurately determine what it is. Right around 10. CA was 461, alk 10.4, phos 2.28. Nutrients seem to be rising a bit since I cleaned out a majority of the algae. Going to really start monitoring my alk, will probably start dosing soon. Need to find an alk only solution, I feel like dosing all for reef will bring my ca too high, since its not really moving
 
Fish Boss said:
tested my params today, nitrate looked a bit darker than last time, but always a pain to accurately determine what it is. Right around 10. CA was 461, alk 10.4, phos 2.28. Nutrients seem to be rising a bit since I cleaned out a majority of the algae. Going to really start monitoring my alk, will probably start dosing soon. Need to find an alk only solution, I feel like dosing all for reef will bring my ca too high, since its not really moving
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I find esv easy to use. I use it for adjustments. I mainly use afr but it’s not effective at adjustments to just 1 thing. So maybe every 2-3 months something drifts outta range and I use esv b ionic 2 part and esv mag when needed to return specific things to where I want them.
There are online calcaulators that make using them simple.
 
Fish Boss said:
tested my params today, nitrate looked a bit darker than last time, but always a pain to accurately determine what it is. Right around 10. CA was 461, alk 10.4, phos 2.28. Nutrients seem to be rising a bit since I cleaned out a majority of the algae. Going to really start monitoring my alk, will probably start dosing soon. Need to find an alk only solution, I feel like dosing all for reef will bring my ca too high, since its not really moving
Click to expand...
What unit is that phosphate value, ppm? And which model of checker are you using?
 
Fish Boss said:
Definitely. Just feel like my alk is slowly dropping, more so now, but ca is pretty much staying the same, so think I will need to dose a bit of alk before everything else levels out and I can start dosing afr
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I would check the Mag level just for refrence (not anything you need to do often) it's harder to level off alk and Calc when is mag is way off. I don't have to do it often, but every few months I have to adjust mag slightly.

Salifert works well for mag testing.
 
Little update, got the par meter from darkxerox at the miniswap/Rich Ross seminar the other day, still have to check my PAR, but I noticed I’m having some issues with my acro that I got from the free table at the oct swap.

I never really planned on having acros in this tank, but it was on the free table and there were a LOT left towards the end, so I grabbed one. Growth started off great, growth has slowed a ton now, but the new growth colored up significantly lately, and I’m not sure if its a reflection from my lights, but seems like it’s taking on a slight blue hue now, which is cool. Since my nem finally stopped moving around, I put the acro in a semi permanent spot, but it is sticking out of the rock work horizontally, probably 80 degree angle or so. The bottom is naturally shaded, with the top side getting all of the light. I noticed the bottom side of the base was looking pale, assumed it was due to the shading, but now it looks like it is progressing to STN. I have a strong feeling it is attributed to my elevated phos.

Trying to think of a game plan to proceed, I have a feeling if I just let it stay as is, I will probably lose the whole thing, so I’m thinking about fragging it, and mounting the frags so they arent shaded at all. Thoughts?

Edit: also, I still dont plan on having any acros, at least not in the near future, but it would be nice to still save some as a bit of a meter for how my tank is doing, which is why I’m leaning on fragging it. Just have almost 0 experience on acros, so wanted to hear some more input
 
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