In the words of Job from Arrested Development (for those who are fans)...
"I've made a terrible mistake"
Over the past month I have noticed a decline in all my coral even some mushrooms. Most effected were my montis (sunset, mystic, setosa and rainbow) and birds nest. All corals began to fade and bleach, some sooner than others. Could not figure out the sudden change and it became extremely discouraging.
Thought it may have been to an unexplicably high mag level of 1790. Use salifert to test, no supplementing of mag so that was a red flag but from what Ive read a high mag doesn't neccessarrily have a large negative impact.
So I was about to give up when I had a confirmatory test of salinity which was 45! Apparently, my calibration fluid had evaporated skewing calabration. My new calibration fluid arrived (this time I purchased the bottle dropper type) and my refracto was WAY off!:doh:
So I am slowly lowering with 1 gallon replaced DI water twice a day. Now down to 40ppt. BTW, I run a 40 gallon breeder/10 gallon sump
My question may be obvious, but is it likely the salinity of 45 caused all my problems? Is it possible the coral that have faded but not bleached will come back? I've heard coral are pretty flexible in their range of tolerance as long as it doesn't fluctuate. Also is there a relationship between elevated salinity and higher mag concentration? Should the mag level fall with salinity?
Big lesson learned, I thought it odd how much reef crystals I was adding to get 35 on my refracto. I work in the medical field and we always say "treat the symptoms not the number". Lesson learned, maybe others can benefit from my mistake.
"I've made a terrible mistake"
Over the past month I have noticed a decline in all my coral even some mushrooms. Most effected were my montis (sunset, mystic, setosa and rainbow) and birds nest. All corals began to fade and bleach, some sooner than others. Could not figure out the sudden change and it became extremely discouraging.
Thought it may have been to an unexplicably high mag level of 1790. Use salifert to test, no supplementing of mag so that was a red flag but from what Ive read a high mag doesn't neccessarrily have a large negative impact.
So I was about to give up when I had a confirmatory test of salinity which was 45! Apparently, my calibration fluid had evaporated skewing calabration. My new calibration fluid arrived (this time I purchased the bottle dropper type) and my refracto was WAY off!:doh:
So I am slowly lowering with 1 gallon replaced DI water twice a day. Now down to 40ppt. BTW, I run a 40 gallon breeder/10 gallon sump
My question may be obvious, but is it likely the salinity of 45 caused all my problems? Is it possible the coral that have faded but not bleached will come back? I've heard coral are pretty flexible in their range of tolerance as long as it doesn't fluctuate. Also is there a relationship between elevated salinity and higher mag concentration? Should the mag level fall with salinity?
Big lesson learned, I thought it odd how much reef crystals I was adding to get 35 on my refracto. I work in the medical field and we always say "treat the symptoms not the number". Lesson learned, maybe others can benefit from my mistake.
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