time to recalibrate

[daisy]

This is a friendly public service announcement:

When your corals begin to suffer and you cannot figure out why,

When your parameters are spot on,

Your temperature is perfect,

Your pumps, filters and components are all on line and chugging away,

Your fish and clean up crew are all intact

And yet, your corals are STILL suffering (tissue recession from the base of smooth-tissue corals, montipora impacted most severely with loss of color, polyp extension)

.....it is time to check your salinity.

....And if your salinity is spot-on....

It is time to recalibrate your refractometer.

Mine was off by about 4 parts per million, which makes a HUGE difference in the life of many corals.

Thanks to Prattreef, my corals should begin to recover and I won't be ashamed to post pics in a month or two.... I hope everything recovers....

 

[ReeferGirl]

...I am recalibrating tonight.

Hope your coral heals well

 

[dubs]

i had recent issue with my tank still dont know y had a little die off but my tanks is looking good right and still dont know what was off

 

[daisy]

...did you recalibrate and check?....

 

[dubs]

yeah i did and i had some one else check i was in need of a water change but that still was not the issue i lost all my xenia/ my 2 blastos colony/a hammer and few zoas

 

[daisy]

Oh NO! That stinks, man. I'm sorry. I have found that xenia, blastos and zoas are sometimes finicky, but I've never had a problem with hammers.... I wonder what's up? at least you've ruled out salinity. It's lousy to lose corals over a no-brainer like salinity!

 

[dubs]

yeah it stinks for real but my tanks is growing again with no issues this was in june when i had bad spell with the tank chiller broke/heat was like a 100 for like 2 weeks even tho i was able to keep the tank stable as far as temp...and i do know what u mean by finicky the xenia all die in like 24 hour period it crazy how a large colony can just melt away like butter and what crazy too is i have torch and other lps nothing happen to them and the other stuff died

 

[Simon Garratt]

Good post Daisy...

This is something i spend alot of time advising people on to be honest....

When your out of calibration, not only are you running at a salinity different to what you 'think' you are, chances are that if your over reading, then you are also dosing things like Ca,Mg, and bicarbonate to boost things up, then your levels will be completely out of whack as well.... with very very low minor trace element levels offset against the main core elements which youve boosted back up..

It's a very common situation i come across, where people mixing salt up cant get to the levels claimed on the product......9/10 they are over reading salinity rather than under reading.

regards

 

[KathyC]

Tahl...this would be a great place to teach folks HOW to recalibrate properly

 

[Simon Garratt]

Kathy...if you want me to put a calibration guide together with a bit on what it all means i can do.

regards

 

[KathyC]

Kathy...if you want me to put a calibration guide together with a bit on what it all means i can do.

regards

Sure Simon..that would be great! We could sticky it Thx!! :hug:

 

[tlpmyd]

thanks for the reminder, i just recalibrated my refractometer and it was off a wee bit, wondering if that was the reason most of my xenia's and polyps melted hmmmm

 

[Simon Garratt]

Will do Cathy..

send me your email address and Ill put it through in a word doc so you can paste it where you want..

regards

 

[Simon Garratt]

Duh.....

Ive just realised that Daisy is Tahl....

how thick am i at times.......what a moron....

Hi Tahl....hope your doing well honey...when do i get you as my chauffeur again..

Si.

 

[daisy]

At a frag swap about two years ago (fall, I think), badcoffee prepared little bottles of saline solution that was perfectly 35 ppm. We gave them out for free. I don't know if there are any of those bottles left at this point, but perhaps we should have more at the next frag swap? That's what I used to check my refractometer.

 

[daaznmofo]

does the saline solution change salinity over time?

 

[marrone]

No, the solution was in small bottles that were sealed. I still have them from when we first gave them out and they're still usable.

 

[Simon Garratt]

Just remember though that saline solution has a different refractive index to true seawater so you have to allow for the 1.5ppt differential.

regards

 

[daisy]

Simon, darling - If you are brave enough and have enough time to get lost again, I'll be happy to drive you around in Orlando!

 

[House of Laughter]

It was Moderators Tedious thread stopper, not calibration fluid

House