I just grabbed this Kent marine set up for.my 30g biocube. I have a nice assortment of corals and 5 fish amongst other things like urchin, inverts, shrimp, starfish and tiger conch. I've noticed some of my corals look a bit shrunk, nothing to severe, I do a 5 gallon water change every week like clock work, I have a protein skimmer which seems to suck and cant really get it dialed in, and I have the biocube filter retro fit where I has the stack containing floss up top, purigen in the second rack, and a bag of chemipure elite. 90% of my corals are thriving, I'm just worried about my magnesium and calcium levels. I dont have a test to kit and I'm sure in the last year this tank has been up and running that these 15 corals have stripped my water of essential nutrients. What do you guys think of this kit? Any suggestions for a different brand or something in addition to this kit? I'm hoping some of you guys can steer my inexperienced butt to a healthy thriving reef tank.
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So what is your opinion on these chemicals
- Thread starter Bricknick1127
- Start date
I have never used that brand but let me walk you thru a little reality. Yes some kits are better then others for different reasons. Possibly more accurate, cheaper, easier to read, simpler to use and so on. But one thing is consistent in all of them. They are hobby grade. Fact is there is a reasonable and accepted inaccuracy. The reason for the inaccuracy includes human interpretation of the result. Many use color comparison charts or color changing chemicals. You can take the same result and show five people and you will not have five people that agree with the result. However this is not to say they are useless. It’s just a matter of understanding there limitations and how best to use them. There is only one thing that you need to look for when you test your water REPEATABLE RESULTS If you can run the same test three times and your results are reasonably the same Then you are good to go. In reefing it’s less to do with extreme accuracy and much more to do with consistency. Let’s say your calcium test says your running at 420ppm As long as it’s consistent your fine. The ideal range between 400 and 440 is likely being met given the acceptable inaccuracy of hobby test kits you are likely still in that range. But if your not getting consistent results. Then dump the kit and use one you find repeatable. In time. You will learn to see that your tank seems to run better and growth and color is pronounced at a higher or lower reading than what science considers ideal. In reality your test kits inaccuracy had you leaning one way or the other and your time spent watching and caring for the animals in the tank helped you to dial in what you learned from the results. It’s all part of the ride. Enjoy. And reef on.
Thank you for the good advice sponge, I'm not usually a numbers chaser guy and I am a reefer who tries to maintain consistency, I have noticed my lighting regime works great for my coral growth, my weekly water changes are working great, my switch to polyp lab reef roids is making a huge difference. So I strive to see consistancy in growth and color and focus less on water testing and numbers chasing. I know the lack of water testing is a huge taboo and no-no to most people in this hobby. I suppose what ever works for each individual.
I agree. Sounds like you have things well under control. However. I do think testing helps us to dial in our understanding of what’s going on. You should post some pics. Would love to see your work.
Will do bud, thanks
Where on this forum do we share pics of our tanks or systems?
