update: While it was "great" to have discovered that my salinity levels were actually much higher than my hydrometer was reporting, I am afraid that fixing that variable has not fixed my problem - virtually every single frag that I purchased recently is either dead or experiencing the same slow tissue necrosis the others have already experienced.
Now that my salinity is back in line (and being measured with spectrometer instead of swing arm hydrometer), I believe all the chemistry is where it "should" be, so I'm left with exploring more extreme/bizarre possibilities... and I'd love hear your thoughts if you've experienced this yourself (or recall reading about it on other threads)!
1. Though I am now in the process of doing water changes with IO salt, I have discovered that the Red Sea Salt buckets that I had been making my water with for many, many months now have NOTHING printed in the "batch number" box on their label - is there a chance that I bought "counterfeit" salt (with god knows what mixed in with it)? I bought 4 buckets worth last time around, and though I don't know if I subscribe to the "blue bucket = bad" theory, I do know that my problems did start around the same time as I bought that large batch of salt (from Marine Depot, if I remember correctly).
2. There is a bacteria or other microscopic pathogen of some sort in my tank. Possible, but given that it seems to be affecting almost all types of coral, and it seems to hit them quickly, suggests to me that this isn't it, but again, I'm at wit's end right now, so I have to at least consider it, right? (and, fwiw, there are definitely no visible critters attacking the coral).
3. My dosing pumps are either a) pumping too much solution (not likely, given that my test results seem to be in line?), or b) what they're pumping is contaminated (alk and ca solution both purchased from Bulk Reef Supply... and I've never heard anything bad about them in terms of poor quality?).
4. There is some other contaminant in my tank (but how to detect this?!)... possibilities include: something rusting somewhere (would this cause the sort of tissue die-off I'm seeing across the board?), something leeching out of the plumbing in the chiller, the foam filters in the sump leeching a toxin of some sort (same ones I've had for a long time now, so not likely?), or, getting way out there, the fact that my washer and dryer are in the same room is causing some sort of chemical to float through the air and contaminate the water (again, not likely given that they've been in the same room for as long as the tank has been set up, and there wasn't a problem the first four years).
As mentioned in my first post, I have ruled out stray voltage (assuming I was using the meter correctly, which I believe I was after watching several demos online), and aside from the elevated salinity levels that I recently discovered, everything else seems to be where it should be (for the record, here are this morning's readings of what I test - salinity 26, ph 8.1, alk 8.5, ca 420, mag 1380, phosphate 0 (Hannah checker - usually reads between 0 and .04)).
It is driving me CRAZY to not know why I can't keep coral alive in my tank anymore! What could be killing them?!?!
Thanks again for any additional thoughts you may still have regarding this problem!!
calibrated with the calibration fluid that came with it (ATC refractometer, purchased from BRS)
