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i have never seen a bristleworm act like that, but it is defenatly weird

The coral you think is a Green Slimer (Acropora yongei) is actually a green Nepthyia. Nepthyia isn't a good choiice for a tank with SPS and especially acropora. I'd give that to someone that has a softy tank.

Can't wait to see that refugium in action!

Your alkalinity is still a little too low. It should be between 2.86 - 3.89 meq/l - buffering up alkalinity will bring up pH as well. Do some reading about using baked Baking Soda, and don't overdose your tank. Using just a little and measuring the results is much safer than dumping in a specific amount only to watch your livestock struggle. You can dose a little bit, wait a while, and dose a little bit more later in the day. Usually, people with small aquariums use a two-part dosing system, like ESV's B-ionic. You simply dose each part every single day and it maintains alk, ca, and pH, as well as a variety of other stuff we don't think about as much.

Phosphate is too high as well, but your tank is young. Try to back off some feeding, do bigger water changes, and clean your skimmer daily. There are chemical solutions you can use as well, but your skimmer may not be good enough for those.

I've never been too impressed with Red Sea test kits. I go with Salifert and Elos myself.

Originally Posted by Alaska_Phil

If your Kh is that high, I think you need to try a different ph test kit. I've always found that if my Ca and Kh are in line, my pH will be too. What time of day are you checking it? In most tanks the pH rises over the course of the photo period. Mine is about 8.2 in the morning and up to 8.5 by the time the lights shut off most days.

Ok, full tank stats from tonight
temp 81
SG 1.026
PH 8.2 (first time it's held that in awhile, but this was tested at the very end of the daily light cycle)
Alkalinity 2.3
Ammonia .25 (This has been 0, but I added a royal gamma and some new corals yesterday, so should be back down quickly)
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
Phosphate .5
KH 19 (I really need to lower this)
Calcium 440

Again this is confusing though, because I've gotten mixed results now on everything in my red sea test kit.

On my api kit, the ph indicator was clearly a dead set match for 8.2, however on the redsea kit, it was kind of a blueish color, which corresponds to really nothing on their chart (theirs goes from green to purple)

Then I even tested the KH twice in the api kit, making sure to hold the bottle perfectly perfectly straight, and it took 19 drops for it to go yellow. The red sea alkalinity test was very clearly a greenish color looking down through it, which indicates a normal level.

Which one do I trust?

That's the thing, I actually have 3 test kits total... and both of them read the same.

I use the api saltwater master kit (high range ph, nitrite, nitrate, ammonia), the reef master kit (calcium, Carbonite hardness, nitrate, phosphates) and a red sea ph and alkalinity test. My calcium was also reading about 540 3 days ago too... so I'm really baffled. I've even looked into the co2 scrubber things for my bak pak skimmer

The 2 ph tests generally read the same, and the alkalinity and dkh tests generally coincide with each other too. I'm checking the ph near the end of the day... and I run my t5's for 12 hours a day, and moonlights for 12 hours. I'm baffled at it honestly myself, and starting to think I may need voodoo or a witch doctor to get it right

If your Kh is that high, I think you need to try a different ph test kit. I've always found that if my Ca and Kh are in line, my pH will be too. What time of day are you checking it? In most tanks the pH rises over the course of the photo period. Mine is about 8.2 in the morning and up to 8.5 by the time the lights shut off most days.

Originally Posted by Alaska_Phil

The Red stuff looks like a type of coraline algae and a good thing.

As for the pH, what is your Alkalinity (Kh)? Kh and pH are directly related, if Kh drops so will pH. I have to dose my 50 gal with 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda nearly every day to keep my alkalinity and pH up at 8.3.

that was all quite on the high side. My alkalinity test kit read it at about the 3.0ml or so (I can't remember exactly how it measures it, but on the card, it was in the high range) and my dkh was actually quite high too at 18 (I'm letting it drop since I read it should be between 8-12dkh)

Reading these It's kind of implied that I should not have ph issues at all, since the buffers are so strong, but I still do. I'm waiting to test it again once I get home (full test, calcium, dkh, alkalinity, ph, nitrite, ammonia, nitrate, phosphates, sg and temp is all what I record on my tests). I'll post them back up on here when I'm done to see what you think. I did add the api 'proper ph 8.2' yesterday as well too... and it seemed to bump me up to about 8.1, I'm just hoping it maintains that with the way I redid my powerheads to keep the surface broken up very well.

The Red stuff looks like a type of coraline algae and a good thing.

As for the pH, what is your Alkalinity (Kh)? Kh and pH are directly related, if Kh drops so will pH. I have to dose my 50 gal with 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda nearly every day to keep my alkalinity and pH up at 8.3.