I’ve never owned a test kit....

[James M]

Am I the only one who doesn’t own a test kit and has a reef tank ? I just do waterchanges 2x a month and Only had one loss, which was a galaxea coral .

 

[reef lover]

For now youll be fine...i dont test for nitrate or phosphate...the tank does a good job telling me...but once you start consuming more alk and calcium than your wc can keep up with youll have to get a tester for alk...

 

[Waters]

Yes.....you are the only one :)

 

[Gareth elliott]

I dont test constantly much more than alkalinity. But if there is algae, a coral looks unhappy i test everything so have a better place to start.

 

[Ron Reefman]

You don't need to test. You do a large percentage of water change and that can work well for you for a long time. The only things I test for is salinity (I'm always pulling water out of the tank to go with corals I sell), alk and Ca. I need to bump alk and Ca every week. So to do that by water changes would mean I'd need to do a substantial water change every week.

But let me try an analogy on you. You not testing your water is like driving a car without any gauges, you are moving forward blindly. Oh you fill the gas tank every week, and change the oil every 3 months and just drive as fast as the rest of the traffic. You can do that for years and be perfectly OK. But someday something will go wrong and being blind (not having data) will cause you a huge problem like a crashed tank or an engine melt down.

Enjoy the ride.

 

[Erica-Renee]

My Question is HOW Big is your tank and at what percentage of that water do you change out. I think in very small tanks as long as you top off properly and use rodi water you are good. BUT With larger Systems even a water change is NOT CHEAP. Testing, Managing nutrients and keeping the water clean is much more reasonably reliable then massive water changes..

If it works for you well who are we to judge ..

 

[norfolkgarden]

It is unlikely you will ever have long term successful acros in your tank.
[emoji6]
But I have been doing softies, fish and frogspawn for years with minimal LFS testing and only using a refractometer consistantly.
Occasion will use of a Hana phosphate checker and just watching the corals in addition to a maintenance schedule that is ahead of deteriorating parameters is sufficient for softies.

Lol, but you do have to keep up with the maintenance and you have to know from the beginning what level of maintenance is required.
[emoji4]

 

[rmoore311]

You don't need to test. You do a large percentage of water change and that can work well for you for a long time. The only things I test for is salinity (I'm always pulling water out of the tank to go with corals I sell), alk and Ca. I need to bump alk and Ca every week. So to do that by water changes would mean I'd need to do a substantial water change every week.

But let me try an analogy on you. You not testing your water is like driving a car without any gauges, you are moving forward blindly. Oh you fill the gas tank every week, and change the oil every 3 months and just drive as fast as the rest of the traffic. You can do that for years and be perfectly OK. But someday something will go wrong and being blind (not having data) will cause you a huge problem like a crashed tank or an engine melt down.

Enjoy the ride.

Well put!