Dosing/testing

[bstaton]

I’ve had my 35g for about 6 months now and I haven’t tested the water for anything besides the basic nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, and PH. I also haven’t dosed the tank with anything. I have around 15 corals and a couple fish and haven’t had problems with any of them. Is this bad?

 

[eliaslikesfish]

i wouldn’t necessarily say it’s bad if everything is doing well and showing growth but I would definitely start testing your alkalinity, magnesium, phosphates and calcium asap. Get some good testers too if you can. I always recommend hanna testers at least for alkalinity, nitrates, and phosphates. you do not need to test for nitrites or ammonia at this point if they are both at 0. I haven’t tested my ammonia or nitrite in at least 8 months

 

[lil sumpin]

With smaller tanks, especially those with low consumption, you can get away without dosing by doing consistent water changes. I’m assuming you don’t have many or any SPS and LPS corals as those are more sensitive and require stable parameters. In any case would recommend getting a salifert alkalinity test kit to start

 

[PharmrJohn]

i wouldn’t necessarily say it’s bad if everything is doing well and showing growth but I would definitely start testing your alkalinity, magnesium, phosphates and calcium asap. Get some good testers too if you can. I always recommend hanna testers at least for alkalinity, nitrates, and phosphates. you do not need to test for nitrites or ammonia at this point if they are both at 0. I haven’t tested my ammonia or nitrite in at least 8 months

Big-time +1.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

As mentioned above, the #1 thing to test is alkalinity. :)