naz42
Active member
The past year and half has been really frustrating. Most coral especially SPS but even some softies die within days with all my water parameters seemingly right where they should be. Two days ago I made up a barrel of my tropic marine pro water. I never checked the Alk of my new water but since I just got a Hanna checker for alk and a dosing system I've been on a testing spree. I calibrated my refractometer and tested it at 1.025 and then tested alk and it was 9.7 and TMP should be 7-8dkh so this caught my attention. I recalibrated refractometer and checked again with the same result of 1.025. Didn't make sense so I dug out a couple hydrometers and tested. Both hydros had it at around 1.033sg. I brought it to my LFS and there Refractometer read 1.033. So I bought a new refractometer and new bottle of Brightwell calibration fluid. I checked my old brightwell Calibration fluid and it was around 1.033sg. So for the past year and half I've been using bad calibration fluid. ***. I've killed thousands of dollars worth of corals in that time. I was very upset but also happy to finally figured this out and hopefully get back to some more successful and satisfying reefing. I'm guessing there is no recourse with brightwell for this but they have made me waste a lot of time and money on this. Almost gave up and broke down the tank more than once but I love reefing too much. Going to pull out 2 gallons and add 2 gallons RODI daily until back to 1.025. Did this last night and salinity dropped to 1.031
