heavy metals found in my triton test- again but corals looking good

[codydemmel4]

Dowflake is a calcium carbonate that is sold as ice melter. It is the same stuff that people spend 10x the money for at BRS, or the like. You can get like a lifetime supply of it for cheap. It is pure and great stuff.

As a two-part guy, you really need to get 50lb bag of DowFlake... and the huge thing of Baking Soda at Costco or Sams.

i will check these out and thanks for that equation

 

[lynchmob3000]

What did the triton test come back with for potassium and strontium?


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[lynchmob3000]

I do know that low po4 causes weaker branching for sure. I listened to Richard Ross do a talk about po4 and he was saying at a high levels acros seem to have thicker stronger branching. So if your suffering from too low then I would supplement. At this point they are dying so no love lost.


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[jda]

There is almost no PO4 in the ocean. I don't ever remember seeing thin branched SPS in nature. I have never observed this phenomenon personally in my reef and I keep the PO4 under .01 most of the time.

 

[Piper27]

Yea I don't get why he said that. I saw one of his speeches before and was half in and half out. I had problems when I had high phosphates and had softer branches... Mine always reads 0 on Hanna checker constantly and I have no issues. As do a ton of other reefers.
Cody I would just put in a metal filter and maybe something else to help if your worried. No need to do water changes if you can fix what's wrong without them, although they won't hurt as long as they are not too big and too often. I would not change much if things look ok that way you can tell exactly what's making improvements. Alk does not matter, just keep it stable. Feeding more is going to raise nitrate and phosphates, and nutrients should be stable as well. I would leave the phosphates where they are since your corals are not starving. Good luck, I think with time the tank will settle in real nice as long as corals are clean and healthy and your system is stable.

 

[lynchmob3000]

Just his observation in guessing. He was showing pictures of how his acros formed at a po4 of 2.5 and they definitely seemed denser as a whole. Could be high flow but he definitely had deep rich color with thick thick acros branching. Not so much that they weren't brittle just seemed larger in size.


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[jda]

Nobody who has PO4 of 2.5 should be giving any advice on SPS. Even fewer people should be listening to them. Whatever is happing in that tank might be unreplicatable in any other.

 

[lynchmob3000]

Meh


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[swnoob]

Best advice I can give is stop reading into everyone's advice and look for that sweet spot in YOUR tank. No one knows it better than you. Do not change more than a couple things at a time so you know what works and what doesn't. I make note of water parameters, feedings, husbandry and any changes i make when my tank is doing bad but also when it looks great that way i can go back and undo the change or fix water parameters.

What may work in other tanks may not necessarily work in yours. I believe that is the number one thing people tend to ignore when giving advice.

 

[Stolireef]

Best advice I can give is stop reading into everyone's advice and look for that sweet spot in YOUR tank. No one knows it better than you. Do not change more than a couple things at a time so you know what works and what doesn't. I make note of water parameters, feedings, husbandry and any changes i make when my tank is doing bad but also when it looks great that way i can go back and undo the change or fix water parameters.

What may work in other tanks may not necessarily work in yours. I believe that is the number one thing people tend to ignore when giving advice.

I really think this is the best advice you've received on this thread. IMHO, by far the best test kits you have are your eyes and what some call your 'reef thumb'. When dialing in a new tank, it's good to know your parameters but the goal isn't to chase a number but rather to find a number that seems to work in your tank and then maintain its stability.

By way of example, I consider cyano to be my canary. If I see it, I know my nutrients are rising. If I see a little bit that isn't getting worse, I usually just ignore it. If it seems to be getting worse, I either increase nutrient export (run skimmer a little wetter) or decrease import (feed a little less).

This isn't to say testing is bad, just that there are very few certainties in this hobby. We neither know enough nor do we have sufficiently accurate test kits to operate with true precision. I do four tests each week (nitrate, ca, alk, mg). So long as the numbers don't change, I really don't worry about what they actually are unless something looks wrong in the tank.