What causes sps flesh to be puffy?

[ChrisKirkland]

Several of my acros and montis flesh have become puffy. What causes this?

The coral that is puffy in my 300:

298261

The same coral in my 60 cube

298262

My params are:

300:

Ca: 450
Alk: 8.6dkh
Mag: 1520
PO4: .18
NO3: 4
PH: 8.1
Temp: 78.8
SG: 35ppt

60:
Ca: 430
Alk: 8.2dkh
Mag: 1480
NO3: 8
PO4: .03
Ph: 8.0
Temp: 78.4
SG: 35ppt

[ChrisKirkland]

EcoTech Radion G2's for lighting in both tanks.

[ChrisKirkland]

Anyone?

[Reefer07]

Looks normal to me.....

[markalot]

I noticed the same thing the other day but in the same tank, so I'm not sure. It might be elevated phosphates? I know mine were elevated and I ended up installing a GFO reactor. It's no longer puffy but I have no idea if it's a coincidence or what it means.

[ChrisKirkland]

I just brought my PO4 reactor online today. Before PO4 stayed low when I was dosing my full dose of vodka, now that I am on my maintenance dose it has been creeping up. Actually I started noticing some green on the glass (which I hadnt seen for months) and thats what prompted me check PO4.

[stevedola]

flow?

[ChrisKirkland]

So here is an update for you, and a bit of a story.

So I have been using just a digital refractometer (Hanna) which I must say has been dead on accurate. Recently (within the last few months) I have calibrated it as the manual instructs. It has to be calibrated with RO/DI water at a 0 TDS.

I got a regular refractometer from a member on here recently and calibrated it with pin point salinity calibration fluid. I tested the tank water and noticed it low (33PPT) so I figured I would top off with saltwater instead of just RODI. I did my water changes today (like I do once a week) and I always test my salinity. My refractometer read 35PPT which was perfect, my digital refractometer read... 38PPT!

So I calibrated it again and it still read 38PPT even when testing the salinity calibration fluid. So I check the TDS of my RODI unit and it is at 0, then I test it in the storage tank where I draw all my RODI water, 8PPM TDS. Bingo! this is why my digital refractometer was off by so much.

A while back I kind of stopped testing salinity for a while and I tested it after I calibrated the digital unit and it read 33PPT. I am pretty confident now that my cause here has to do with salinity being too low. I will be correcting this slowly, RODI unit is getting new filters (precaution) water storage bin is being sanitized and cleaned out.

Lesson here is to have multiple devices that perform the same test differently, if they are available.