How often do you test your water?

[AydenLincoln]

When I first started in the hobby I tested my water constantly and the numbers would always frustrate me no matter what I tried to do and I almost crashed my entire tank with NOPOX so I stopped testing completely except for salinity during my weekly maintenance. I know it can be important especially during cycling or if you are trying to keep difficult coral or super sensitive fish/inverts or are dosing medication! I want to hear your thoughts. My philosophy now is if everything looks fine once the tank is cycled/established and all is well then that’s good…it’s also why I won’t get SPS they are too demanding and needy for me haha. I now believe there’s no perfect number just ideal ones and I was trying to achieve that perfect numbers and it did more harm than good.

 

[Gtinnel]

When my tank was new I would test nitrate and phosphate every other day then when I started adding stony corals I would test alk/cal/mag every other day also.
Now that my tank is more mature and I have a trident I only manually test anything maybe once or twice a month.

 

[AydenLincoln]

When my tank was new I would test nitrate and phosphate every other day then when I started adding stony corals I would test alk/cal/mag every other day also.
Now that my tank is more mature and I have a trident I only manually test anything maybe once or twice a month.

It makes sense! I definitely want a trident. Partially because I love Apex and the automation/ease of it even if it’s known to be off a little.

 

[MooreReefing]

I think it’s important at the beginning to test weekly. Especially for newer reefers so that they can develop good maintenance habits. However, I typically only test once every few weeks or so. My parameters are always spot on where they need to be and my nitrate and phosphate haven’t moved in forever so I stopped testing as frequently. Plus your corals will be the first to tell you if something is out of wack and I stare at them constantly.

 

[AydenLincoln]

I think it’s important at the beginning to test weekly. Especially for newer reefers so that they can develop good maintenance habits. However, I typically only test once every few weeks or so. My parameters are always spot on where they need to be and my nitrate and phosphate haven’t moved in forever so I stopped testing as frequently. Plus your corals will be the first to tell you if something is out of wack and I stare at them constantly.

Absolutely! That’s what I did for the first few months.

 

[Gtinnel]

It makes sense! I definitely want a trident. Partially because I love Apex and the automation/ease of it even if it’s known to be off a little.

Honestly if not for the trident and controlled dosing I probably would be disappointed with my apex. I absolutely love controlled dosing though.

 

[Charlie G]

Honestly if not for the trident and controlled dosing I probably would be disappointed with my apex. I absolutely love controlled dosing though.

Hi. I’m fairly new to reefing. Have had a SW tank for about 11-12 months.
I do weekly water changes. I have always wondered when is the best time to check your parameters (salinity, nitrate, phos. Alk, Ca, Mg) with regard to when water changes are done? What are your thoughts?

 

[blaxsun]

Less and less as time goes on (even dialed back the Trident with a reduced schedule).

 

[Gtinnel]

Hi. I’m fairly new to reefing. Have had a SW tank for about 11-12 months.
I do weekly water changes. I have always wondered when is the best time to check your parameters (salinity, nitrate, phos. Alk, Ca, Mg) with regard to when water changes are done? What are your thoughts?

The best practice would be both before and after the water change to be able to see how much the water change has effected your parameters. However most people aren’t actually going to do that, I know I wouldn’t.
Unless you are doing a huge water change it probably doesn’t make much of a difference either way. Assuming you’ve properly mixed your new water to the correct salinity it shouldn’t make a huge difference to your parameters anyway.

 

[Gtinnel]

I hadn’t really thought about it but I setup a second tank about 6 months ago and I’ve still not checked anything other than temp and salinity. One of these days I’ll get around to checking it’s parameters, lol.

I guess I may need there to also be a yearly option on the poll.

 

[GillMeister]

I test for alkalinity on a daily basis and adjust dosing with 2 part until it stabilizes. I generally assume calcium is stable if my alk is dialed in so I only test that weekly. I don't test magnesium. I have an awful time stabilizing nitrate and phosphate. It drops so quickly throughout the day that I don't really know when to test.

I have a Trident. It has not successfully performed any tests yet but our friends at Neptune will be helping me fix this in the coming week.

 

[besskurz]

Salinity weekly and ph/kh because of kalk.
Nothing else. Once I find out the pattern in kh I don't plan to be even checking weekly.

I think the industry suports making tests very intensively due to a rea$$$$on.

I understand the benefits they sell.. but let's do a parallel:

Would you scale your weight everyday?

I would say yes, if I have a reason, symptoms, if I'm trying to check effectiveness of measures...

But if I'm stable, doing healthy routines, not overfeeding, without symptoms... you can stay away from going to the doc for months.. maybe years.

For some ppl this parallel could make sense... for some others don't, and this is definitely fine.
Some people like more numbers and feel better having indicators and controlling everything with 2 decimals, and that's absolutely fine.

For me that's no right or wrong. If you see benefits of doing it. Just go for it.

 

[Kathy Floyd]

I cut back to once a week unless I know there is something going on. I tested today and Alk was 9.3, calc 450. I cleaned the canister filter and tested again. Alk dropped to 8.6 and calc to 430. I dosed up some alk as to not get a huge swing. I will test again tomorrow just to see if I stabled out.

 

[AydenLincoln]

I do test salinity pretty frequently I should note but I think that’s one parameter 99% of us check and an important one especially during water changes but I don’t test for anything else and I don’t dose anything either. Occasionally out of curiosity I may take a sample to the fish store to get tested but unless I’m dosing or changing anything I don’t feel there’s a need unless something looks off and I do keep up with maintenance.

 

[Gtinnel]

Other than my apex which has a very unreliable salinity meter I don’t even usually test my salinity but maybe once a month. My assumption is that if my ATO is working properly the only way for my salinity to change is for me to mess up my AWC salinity or having a leak, minus the small changes from my skimmer and 2 part dosing.
I do check and double check the salinity of the water in my mixing station that my AWC pulls from everytime I make a new batch of water though.

 

[AydenLincoln]

Other than my apex which has a very unreliable salinity meter I don’t even usually test my salinity but maybe once a month. My assumption is that if my ATO is working properly the only way for my salinity to change is for me to mess up my AWC salinity or having a leak, minus the small changes from my skimmer and 2 part dosing.
I do check and double check the salinity of the water in my mixing station that my AWC pulls from everytime I make a new batch of water though.

I also have a nano tank I should note. My Apex has pretty accurate salinity ever since I add the salinity stabilizer.

 

[Gtinnel]

I also have a nano tank I should note. My Apex has pretty accurate salinity ever since I add the salinity stabilizer.

I’ve looked at getting one of the stabilizers but still haven’t done it. I even went as far as buying a pmup to use with it.
yeah on a nano it’s way more important to stay on top of it. In my largish system it would take several gallons of fresh water being added to my system before I could even notice a difference in salinity. I guess in this case a larger tank allows the hobbyists to be lazier.

 

[Shevlin77]

Absolutely! That’s what I did for the first few months.

I did this for many years with few issues outside of some algae blooms while only really keeping softies. leathers, zoas and schrooms all doing well. then I finally added a bunch of sps that took off few months later. when they did it quickly stripped my nitrates and phosphates down to zero which I discovered after the start of a soon to be nasty dino outbreak. I now test, my nitrates and phosphates 2-3x a week because that was a painful experience.

Guess my point is the testing regiment might differ, depending on what you’re trying to keep and accomplish.

 

[homer1475]

Salinity maybe once a month, everything else anywhere from once a week, to once every 10 days(depends on how lazy I'm feeling).

I am SPS dominate, but my tank is very mature.

 

[AydenLincoln]

I did this for many years with few issues outside of some algae blooms while only really keeping softies. leathers, zoas and schrooms all doing well. then I finally added a bunch of sps that took off few months later. when they did it quickly stripped my nitrates and phosphates down to zero which I discovered after the start of a soon to be nasty dino outbreak. I now test, my nitrates and phosphates 2-3x a week because that was a painful experience.

Guess my point is the testing regiment might differ, depending on what you’re trying to keep and accomplish.

Very true and why I won’t get any SPS lol!