is Ph, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite good enough to test?

Celbrise · Jan 6, 2016

so i just bought a salt water kit for api it only test Ph, ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite and i was wondering is this good enough to test for a FOWLR tank or will i absolutely have to test for other things such as alkalinity, strontium, iodine, calcium, etc..

currently just trying to fix my parameters nitrates are screwed and ammonia i believe is 0.25ppm so it is not that bad but everything else is fine. salinity is also high but i will be changing that by simply adding fresh ro/di water. i can't keep corals in this tank and i eventually want to introduce and grow coraline algae on my rocks

melypr1985 · Jan 6, 2016

Most of those extras are tested when dealing with corals. For what it's worth, coraline algae will make it's way into your tank on snails, hermits and live rock. So it will start growing all on it's own

twilliard · Jan 6, 2016

Im sorry I am a little confused.
Is this a FO tank or is this a tank you want to add coral too?

Two different worlds in tank keeping

Celbrise · Jan 6, 2016

it's a FOWLR tank i can't keep corals they are illegal in my state only thing i can keep are fish, some inverts, zoanthids, and feather dusters. but i only have FOWLR. i wont be adding zoa's and inverts and feather dusters in for a good 10-15 years or so when i am more experienced

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 7, 2016

Testing for nitrite is never necessary. Maybe fun during cycling, but it is not toxic in seawater so is never needed.

I would not get a strontium kit. I do not think its value matters either. Especially not in a FOWLR.

In a FOWLR, I would measure salinity, alkalinity and calcium, and maybe nothing else.