Trouble Keeping Coral

[happyfeet]

I had a friend come out with his own tests to see if possibly it was my tests or user error.
Turns out my Salinity was 1.022, I've over the course of the day increased it to 1.025 and the mushroom coral is fully extended and happy.
Glad it was a simple fix, I cleaned my refractometer, just guess i didn't do it well enough.

 

[number1gsxxr]

When's the last time you calibrated your refractometer? Cleaning it is good but you have to make sure it's giving you the right readings. Also, I didn't see anything mentioned about your Cal and Mag levels. Can you/do you test for these?
Basically you want to be close to natural sea water in the following parameters:
Calcium 380-450 ppm
Alkalinity 2.5-4 meq/L, 7-11 dKH
Salinity 35 ppt, sg = 1.026
Temperature 76-83° F
pH 7.8-8.5, 8.1-8.3 is better
Magnesium 1250-1350 ppm
Phosphate < 0.03 ppm
Ammonia <0.1 ppm
Keeping things stable is very important. It's better to be off a little than to have the parameters going up and down. Alk is especially important to keep stable with corals.
I'd get the tank to the proper levels as best you can and wait another few weeks while keeping it stable before adding any coral. It might just need more time.