Should I work on any of my parms?

[thewarbrd]

So I've been at this 6 months and I've logged tests from the beginning. I test usually at the end of the photo period (10pm) once per week usually the night after a 10% WC... Parm and test kit list below... Should I work on anything? Coral is zoos/palys, rics, shrooms, a rapidly growing piece of birdsnest, and a few heads of frogspawn.

PH (Seachem) - 8.15 (never been outside of 8.1-8.2 range)
Alk (Seachem) - 3 (Been as high as 4.5 back around xmas been 3-3.5 since Jan)
Calcium (API) - 520 (Highest I've ever read since changing from IO to seachem salt about 4 weeks ago, typically I was in the low 400s, but I've read that API reads high, I plan to change to another kit soon)
KH - (API) - 9 (been slowly dropping from around 11-12 in Jan..)
Phosphates (Seachem) - .07 (I just added a phosphate reactor last week, was as high as 1.5-2 last month and the algae bloom proves it, ugh.)
Mag (Salifert) - 1185 (was in the 1300s a couple of weeks ago but I fell off the dosing wagon after a business trip)
Salinity - 1.026 via refractometer calibrated to zero with ro/di
Ammonia/nitrites/nitrates (Seachem) - all zero

My RO/DI tests 000 (tap is 065) using hanna tester.

Iodine (Seachem) is the bane of my existence. It's either way low or off the chart using aquavitro to dose. I don't know what uses it up in my tank but it'll drop to zero within a couple of days if I don't dose it daily with some amount. I'm still trying to find the magic amount that doesn't send it sky high or still lets it drop to zero after a week. I hate this test kit with the pre-mix of the reagent with ro/di every use, is there a better brand that's more straight forward?

 

[derek_s]

I dont really have much input (I will leave that to others) but I would say that I recommend getting a backup kit to verify the API on KH. I use API KH kit on the regular, but have been verifying them against a salifert occasionally after finding the API kits to have wondered off track twice now. Just today I found my API testing at 12 when Salifert was at 8.5, and they were the same only a few months ago. I had a suspicion since my corals seemed to have just stope growing the last couple weeks. I am starting to think the API KH kits need to be replaced every 3 months, regardless of use for some reason. Mine couldnt even be 6 months old at this point. THis might be especially important since it looks like you, as I do, run on the low end of the recommended KH range. THat gives us less room for a bad reading, as if my API had been readin 7-8 (as I tend to keep my KH) my true KH could have been as low as 4-5 dKH.

AS a matter of fact, I would recommend having someone occasionally check all of your parameters occasionally just to make sure no kits are off track. I think I may start doing that with my LFS.