Here it is, Wednesday!

Good morning TRT Friends, and.....HAPPY WEDNESDAY! A little rain passing by for a few hours then a cloudy mid 50's day here at the Jersey shore. Lots of Thanksgiving meal prep tonight when I get home from work. Part of the 'tradition'. Thomas's English muffins to go with our coffee this morning to help get our day started. The boss may or may not be back today....he gets a kick out of keeping us guessing. Hope all have a great day ahead, and hope things are falling into place for your tomorrows,
Hack

Shocking find using new Hanna Checker

Hey guys!

This is a completely shocking find that I just discovered a couple minutes ago. But before I dive in, lets get a little background info. I have a 40gal Breeder mixed reef. I have semi-struggled with some difficult SPS but managed to keep a rather flourishing system. This 40 has been up since mid July 2016 after most of what is in it transferred from my 20gal long that I had running for 2 years prior to the upgrade.

So I've been fairly focused on keeping my parameters stable..as everyone does when they have SPS in their tank. with a 10gal water change weekly.
Temp controlled with a ReefKeeper @ 77-78F
Salinity @ 35ppt

Red Sea Test Kits:
Calc @ 460
Alk @ 10-11dKh

Here is where I became "lazy" so to speak. After a while I stopped checking my Mag levels because I never had to dose Mag all to often and definitely haven't dosed Mag since I upgraded. But a couple of days ago I decided to measure my Mag be the last time I checked about 2 or 3 months ago it was sitting kinda high at 1400. THIS TIME IT WAS AT 1600!!! I was like WTF?!! HOW??? I never dose Mag. So I've been looking into these Hanna Checkers and wanting to get them. So I went to the fish store today to buy their Calc and Alk checker but they don't make a Mag checker. I talk to the guys at the store about why they might think my Mag is so high or if my test kit is bad. Talks to me about the chemical relationship of the 3 major elements. So to make sure I'm titrating correctly with Red Sea's kit, I now try out the new checkers I just bought. I've always been getting a Calc reading of 440ish after a day or 2 of dosing calc using the Red Sea kit. This Hanna Checker Read a 579!! AGAIN WTF!?! I must have done this wrong. So I redo the test, 580....ok ok, lets compare ALK. Checker said 9.7...Red Sea kit 9.7 (or 0.69ml of titrant used). I must have been incorrectly measuring calc this whole time! I guess as Im titrating I stop too early so I get a lower reading than what the water parameter is! I feel sooo Stupid! So I'm assuming my Mag is so high because my Calc is ungodly high! Corals are still good though which is an interesting find.

Needless to say I will be closely monitoring the calc as it naturally subsides by uptake from the corals so that it is a slowly and steady decline. I'll be using both the remaining amount of my Red Sea kit and the Hanna Checker.

There you have it folks, either I'm stupid and can't titrate Calc correctly or maybe my calc kit is bad idk. I've been using these kits for 3 years..

Green BTA sick or stressed?

I have a new BTA and he appears to be sick suddenly. He was blown up really nice last night and this morning, he's shriveled up pretty badly and in a different spot, all water tests are good, 1.025sg and temp steady at 78, any ideas, I hope he's not dying

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New Tank.

Just set up my new tank. Was finally able to get a new/used tank with a sump. No more canister filters or anything hanging off the back of the tank. Still have to aqua scape it.

Welcome to Tuesday!

Top of the morning to all our TRT Friends, and....HAPPY TUESDAY! Sunshine and 60 to deal with today at the shore......yeh, I can do that! Got some fresh, warm Cherry pie to go with our coffee this morning. Sounds sorta 'healthy'. Continues as anticipated to be a slow work week at the boatyard......BUT come next week look out! Our tradition is BIG home cooked holiday dinners here, and Nate is well on his way of carrying on the tradition. He looks forward to being out in the kitchen the night before helping us out, and learning the 'secrete' Family recipes handed down. Aren't expecting a huge crowd, probably only like 10-12 Folks, and for the most part just Family. Hope all are doing really, REALLY good, and all the best,
Hack

SC50 Starfire, Nuvo Fusion 40 AIO...opinions?

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone could share experiences they have had with the SC50 or Nuvo Fusion 40 AIO tanks?

My previous tank was a 55gal with a CSL, power compacts and a Aqua Remora protein skimmer. I have heard/read good and bad things about AIO systems however I figured I'd reach out and see what people's experiences are with them.

I'm interested in building a 30-50 gal mixed reef tank..inverts, softies and fish.

Thanks
Rashade