Salt water testing

[sg1.025]

I’ve been curious of how often does one test their water?? I’ve been testing once a week before a water change so that the. A compare two days after the water change again.

I do this to ensure my water parameters are headed in the right direction.

What do others say??

 

[purpfish]

I test weekly before water changes

 

[dangles]

Alk, NO3, PO4 every 6 days
Ca/Mg every month

Lots of different ways to do it though :)

 

[sg1.025]

I test weekly before water changes

I suspect few days after water change may be redundant, but I’m looking for drift in my water parameters.. not that I’m chasing numbers but have the desire to maximum coral growth

Alk, NO3, PO4 every 6 days
Ca/Mg every month

Lots of different ways to do it though :)

dangle… couldn’t agree with you more!!

 

[purpfish]

I suspect few days after water change may be redundant, but I’m looking for drift in my water parameters.. not that I’m chasing numbers but have the desire to maximum coral growth

dangle… couldn’t agree with you more!!

My salt mix is really close to my parameters which is why I don’t test after

 

[fishyjoes]

When I was adding corals and figuring out my dosing I was testing alk every day (and testing other stuff once a week).
Now that I've gotten things more dialed in I test alk and calcium every couple of weeks, and other stuff almost never.

 

[FernBluffReef]

I’ve been curious of how often does one test their water?? I’ve been testing once a week before a water change so that the. A compare two days after the water change again.

I do this to ensure my water parameters are headed in the right direction.

What do others say??

I’m following a schedule similar to yours. I test weekly- I only water change ever other week and I’m often testing a few days after the change. Main reason right now is I’m having to dose some neonitro and Neophos to keep the nutrients where I want / from not bottoming out otherwise I would only test weekly

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

Alk 8 times a day and Ca/Mg 4 times a day via Neptune. The neptune is set up to autodose those 3 and keeps them very stable. I test NO3/PO4 2-3 times a week and will dose NeoNitro or NeoPhos as needed. I don't do any type of saltwater changes as I follow the Moonshiners method and get an ICP test every other month or so to check trace levels.

 

[sg1.025]

When I was adding corals and figuring out my dosing I was testing alk every day (and testing other stuff once a week).
Now that I've gotten things more dialed in I test alk and calcium every couple of weeks, and other stuff almost never.

I think that’s where I want to be… one thing I did was measure my saltwater few hours after it’s mixed… this helps me set a preset baseline of what these parameters will be.

 

[sg1.025]

Alk 8 times a day and Ca/Mg 4 times a day via Neptune. The neptune is set up to autodose those 3 and keeps them very stable. I test NO3/PO4 2-3 times a week and will dose NeoNitro or NeoPhos as needed. I don't do any type of saltwater changes as I follow the Moonshiners method and get an ICP test every other month or so to check trace levels.

Wow!!! I guess with an automated system this test frequency is made easy

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Some refers, such as myself, test less and less as time goes by and they learn that some things are just fine as long as the systems are functioning normally.

The only things I tested on a regular basis were salinity, temp, and pH. Together, those told me the tank was functioning as it always had.