How many of you really test your water on a regular basis???

[Alex1]

How many of you really test your water regular basis?

I really don't test mine that often once every month or 2 or 3.... and if I do it is pH and Nitrate most of the time unless there is a problem in the tank.

Alex

 

[Anonymous]

I do

 

[fishfarmer]

After a year and a half of operation, all I test on a regular basis is pH, calcium, and alk which I may do once a week. I'll do amm, nitrite, nitrate, and phos once a month just to see if I can get a reading

 

[monkeyboy]

I test CA and alk randomly, salinity when i do a w/c monthly, and i have a pH monitor. It would be a waste to test ammonia and nitrite and i have never tested higher than 0 on nitrate so i test like every 6 months.

 

[Neal358]

after a tank is set up for a year or 2 most people i think dont test but 1 time a month. also most who have hade a tank for a year or 2 can tell the second their is any kind of problem just by looking at it. and the bigger the tank the less you will have to test because the slower things will change

 

[MIKE NY1]

I test Cal and Alk weekly and Phos,Nitrate, PH randomly. I haven't tested anything else in along time. The tank has been up and running for years and I can ussally tell if something is amiss by the animals, then I will do further testing.

Mike

 

[BReefCase]

The answer varies with the age of a tank and what I'm doing with it.

For established tanks with a mature sandbed and a fairly constant bioload, I do little routine testing beyond salinity once I'm on a routine for what I am adding regularly to the tank -- food, makeup water, Calcium, and etc.

On the other hand, newer tanks for which the DSB critters are just growing out, and to which new livestock is being added, get daily checks of pH, and at least weekly monitoring of Alkalinity, Calcium, and Magnesium, plus as-required monitoring of Nitrogen (Ammonia/Nitrate/Nitrite).

I'll test more often than weekly in these newer tanks if I find parameters are varying from test-to-test. Once the results settle down and stay put for a few weeks you can safely start to relax and stretch out the period between testing.

 

[Dewey]

When something changes, I start measuring everyday. Like when I add something to the tank or adjust my equipment. After that I usually just look and see how everything looks. If something looks wrong, I measure again. I am currently measuring almost everyday because my reactor broke and I switched to Kalk temporarily.

 

[suckair]

The only things I test for on a regular basis is ca levels to test the operation of my reactor and salinity levels.

I use a Aquacontroler so I see PH and ORPs on a regular basis. I don't test for the basic three amonia, nitrite, and nitrate

 

[gazpep]

My tank has been established for quite a while now, and I rely upon the appearance of the animals as an indicator of potential problems. I may test pH or nitrate every couple of months though.

 

[danmhippo]

PH, Ca, Kh, I2, NO3, PO4, weekly, if I remembered.

Mg, Sr Monthly....or, if I remembered to do it

 

[Anonymous]

Unless a problem occurs, I only test Ca, alk, SG and pH once a week.

If my animals indicate there's a problem, then I'll test for everything else.

Peace,

Chip

 

[Anonymous]

I do.

 

[Bob Gardner]

I check Nitrate, Calcium, kH, Mg, every month as a minimum now. I got complacent and didn't bother for many months until I lost two SPS corals. On checking I found that Ca,kH, and Mg were all low and No3 was very high. It was I believe caused by my over feeding Bangii fry in the sump. I had to work hard to get parameters back to nearer normal. I read temperature,pH and ORP straight off of my Neptune computer daily.
I make the point that until the two corals started dying I thought that the tank and it's inhabitants looked fine. The good thing is that I was able to take live frags from both corals prior to thier demise.

 

[toptank]

I try not to get to rapped up in numbers as I look at my animals to see what is going on. I test Alka and ca every few weeks but nitrates and others maybe once every few months. I think the real test is how your corals and fish look.

Barry

 

[Anonymous]

I have a 37 gallon tank that's been up for 8 months now. I check SG, pH, NH3, NO2, NO3 and Alk weekly, and Ca++ every other week.

With a smaller tank, I just like to keep on top of things a little more

Not much water=Not much dilution of problems.

Ty

 

[Psyduck]

I never check anything and really dont even own the test kits to check with. Of course if something starts to look odd I will pick up a basic test kit. All I have recently tested was Calcium and Alk because I was setting up my Ca reactor.