BIG TROUBLE!! Need advice please.

[dc4]

Originally Posted by doch

What do you see in that picture that I don't? Everything was super happy before the crash. Are you talking about the hair algae? That wouldn't crash a tank would it? Phosphates were a little high (0.2 for a short while), nitrates have always been low (I just checked with my elos kit... clear as can be). At the time of the crash, the phosphates were at about 0.10. The before picture of the display was probably 2 months ago or so... things got WAY better after that, and then BOOM!!

I had a little hair algae before and found out the problem with testing for phostphate/nitrates with a tank full of hair algae is that they would absorb it all and then your tests would be all skewed. I had tests showing 0 ph and 0 nitrates but having hair algae in the tank would mean that the tests are giving a false negative. Having that much hair algae in your tank and having the tests still showing phosphates would mean that there is too much even for the hair algae to feed on. I was over feeding my tank and probably still am but I have added gfo and algae grazers to prevent another outbreak in my new tank.

[Bblinks]

That's so weird, my Hanna tester has been fairly accurate thus far, I use salifert, redsea, and elos. Usually all within 20 ppm difference. Which mag test kit did you get from brs? I only have salifert and red sea to test mag but never does it hit that kind of numbers... See what ever is cheaper, either send a water sample to myka or if it's cheaper and faster you can send it to me in bc and I'll test it for you too. My wife does a lot of the testing for me which I found to be better, she is a lot more careful and accurate than me. are you still dosing probiotic by chance? How long ago did you start that system, was it prior to the crash, maybe the answer to your current issues is related to probiotic system. Did you test the freshly made salt water and see what kind of results it gives you and maybe use it to reference the results from your tank water. Keep in there bud. It will work itself out.