OK, so I have a 28gal one of a kind rectangle tank. It is about 18" tall and has a 24" fixture with 4 t5s, metal halide, and moon leds. The water is great and things are growing well, except my GSP. Never had much luck with it. Waving hand is like a weed in there. The lights used are 1- 10k white and 3- actinic Blue. No Halide as some of the corals hate it.
I have large devil's hand, dragon soul favia, pavona, GSP, 6" frog spawn, leather unknown, waving hand groups, zoos randomly all over, various frags, a yellow pagoda, a damsel, and a dragonet.
The problem, all though things are all growing well, Some corals have changed in the last 2 months. The frogspawn is starting grow new heads, but the others have gone translucent green rather than dark. The unknown leather, similar to a Solomon type went from green hue to a white with pink tips and polyps. GSP never really did put out many polyps. after a few months.
So could it be a lighting issue? too bright? I run the lights from 10am-9pm.
Params good. ph~8.2, ~0s on NH3, and Nits. good on others and trace dosing here and there. Temps are at 79-81. Salinity i keep around 0.025. I plan to rotate a few corals out as soon as my fragging tank is more stable. I want to try pectinia and Lobo, but don't want to toss away money. Chalice never seem to last for me either. They seem to waste away. The favia and pavona thrive along with almost all softies.
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this is the kit. I will check with another kit i have. I don't really test those. I just know our water is very hard. I have tried using RO water and purple bag of instant ocean salt mix.
opps..link doesn't work. nutrafin master test kit. I just got the whole kit since I wanted both when doing freshwater and was planning on getting more involved in marine systems.
I will be trying my API kit I got from a friend.....do the kits expire?
The API kit for Ca & Alk are pretty accurate. Do they expire, yes. I wouldn't use nor depend on one that's more then a year old.
Is it possible to take a water sample to your LFS and have them test it?
Here's a reference chart for parameters. Reef Aquarium Water Parameters by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com