[MikeyZO]

UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, heres the situation. I've noticed over the past couple days that my hammers look a bit stressed, the polyps not extending fully out, and even a few heads not really coming out at all. Even a frag that I have that is totally away from the mother colony looks stressed. But everything else looked fine.

Today I noticed that some of my zoas now arent opening fully and one of my frogspawn heads that was open this morning is now closed up. So, time to do a water test. Heres my results:

Temp - 77 F
Salinity - 34ppm via refractometer
pH - 8.3 using AP test kit
amonia - 0 using AP test kit
nitrite - 0 using AP test kit
nitrate - 15 - 20 using AP test kit (yes, I know I need a better test kit, and I know 20 seems a bit high but thats where its always been since it cycled and I've never had a problem)
PO4 - .05 - ELOS test kit (also recently tested via a Hanna Meter)
Ca - 490 - Salifert kit
Mg - 1200 - Salifert kit (a little low, I can dose some)

But here's what threw me totally off. I recently picked up an ELOS KH test kit and I used it for the first time today. I got a dKH of 16!!! "Well," I thought. "Heres my problem... but let me double check it as it has never been that high."
So a second test via the ELOS kit yeilded a result of dKH of 15. Hmm... lets tripple check it. So I pulled out my AP dKH test kit and got a reading of... 10!!! Could they both really be off that much? Ok... so I started digging through my stuff and came up with a (albeit old) Salifert dKH test kit and retested it again... and got a reading of 8!!!!!!!!!!

WTF!!!!!

Now I dont know which to believe, I dont know if I should raise, lower, or keep steady my hardness, and on top of, I'm not sure if this is the cause of my stressed corals!!

Any advice???

[ecvernon]

wow what a situation. i would find a friend with a test kit to verify again. and also what i do if i ever have a doubt about any thing is do a water change. ..water changes solve a lot of my problems.

[MikeyZO]

Quote: Originally Posted by ecvernon wow what a situation. i would find a friend with a test kit to verify again. and also what i do if i ever have a doubt about any thing is do a water change. ..water changes solve a lot of my problems.

Agreed, but I actually did one 2 days ago, right after all this started. I figured the same thing.

[meschaefer]

you said that the Salifert test kit is old, how old?

[grundig5]

You know the new Elos reagents for kH are 1/2 as concentrated? IE each drop is .5 dkH...just a quick thought.

[MikeyZO]

wiat... what?
Ok... ya know... I was wondering... The directions said each drop is 1 dKH but then there was some little insert that LOOKED like it said each drop was 0,5 which I assume means .5 but I figured that had to be a mistake if the full directions guide said 1 dKH

So then that would mean my dKH is around 8ish and all the test kits then pretty much coincide. Ok so that makes sense. And 8 isnt that bad, so why are my corals all stressed!? Damn it!!!

And Im not sure how old the salifert kit is.

[grundig5]

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...readid=1420318

Sorry about your corals...has anything changed recently in the tank (new equipment or livestock additions or losses)? Any nuisance algae? I almost always consider some type of bug when nothing else stands out...

[MikeyZO]

Nothing new since before it started. No algae. I added a couple frags but that was after I noticed it cuz I had already committed to buying them.

[jackson6745]

Mikey just do a large water change. If you can't figure out what the problem is, dilute it.

[fernandokng]

Yup. Elos goofed with their instructions. I was having the same issues with the dKH before.