Test Kits

[brian313313]

I just got a magnesium test kit that you titrate a drop at a time and it rapidly turns color at the end. I have trouble identifying the vague color differences on most of my test kits so this is nice. Does anyone know of similar test kits for phosphate and low-range nitrate? I'm reading 0 on both of these but have algae growth so maybe I'm not reading them right. It would be nice to have a test kit with a more definitive color change like the magnesium one.

Thanks.

-Brian

 

[mikesmith34]

For nitrate I really like the Red Sea pro nitrate kit. The colors are very easy to distinguish down to .25 ppm. I've had the same problem as you with some of the others. The elos test was very hard for me to read. I wa never sure.

For PO4 the Hanna checker is about as easy to read as you can get. It's a digital number reading! I like mine.

 

[camellia]

Red Sea has a Algae control pro test kit that has both NO3 and PO4. Its cheaper to buy this kit and its excellent.

 

[brian313313]

Thanks for the advice. On the Hanna checker, how hard is the maintenance? I had trouble with a pH meter keeping the probe wet. It seemed that anytime I want to use it the solution was gone from the cap. It didn't last very long considering the price.

 

[jennm]

Just an aside - just because the kits aren't registering phosphate or nitrate doesn't mean it's not there. If there's algae growing, they have taken it up.

Now, algae AND the presence of high phosphate/nitrate, just indicate a bigger problem that has been brewing longer

If you're not getting readings of phosphate or nitrate, that's good - that limits the 'additional' food for the algae, but they already have what they've taken up.

Export the algae (read: scrub it) and keep an eye on the phosphate and nitrate to make sure they stay very low to undetectable and that will help prevent the algae from coming back.

Jenn

 

[brian313313]

I had a fish get lost in there a while back and that's when the trouble started. At first I though it may have gone in the overflow because I pulled all the top rock out and couldn't find it. Once the algae started I knew it must have been hidden in there somewhere. I did a 90% water change over a few days. The algae has got hold now though. Not sure if I should do another big water change change. Basically, what I did was take 80% out and slowly brought it back to 60% out. Then dropped and then slowly filled it back up at about 5 gallons / hour.

 

[jennm]

What size tank? How long established? What fish vanished?

A small fish in a big tank, if it's fairly mature, usually doesn't mess up the balance that much. Worms and things eat the body and life for everything else goes on.

Did you experience an ammonia/nitrite spike when the fish vanished?

 

[mikesmith34]

There is no maintenance on a Hanna. Just rinse a vial out.

 

[brian313313]

It's a 60 gallon cube, established for 6 months, and it was about a 2" clown that disappeared. I also had some travel obligations at the time which left me 3 weeks without a water change. I'm about 2 months past that now though. The tank does not have a sump and lightly stocked so it could have been a hit still. That came right before the algae breakout. I do run a dual reactor with carbon/GFO plus the live rock.

I also changed the lighting and have wondered if that may have contributed too. I've never had anything in the tank look unhappy and once I change the lighting I saw a spurt of coral growth. The bright light is only on 4 hours/day.