Testing & Dosing

[JAKos]

So i'm just getting into the world of testing and dosing, how often should i be testing for alkalinity calcium and magnesium as i'm starting to dose. should i be testing weekly? any info would be helpful

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Honestly, I would test alk daily for a good week or 2 so you know how much you need to be adding each day. depending on tank size, or coral load, you could have wild swings each day so daily testing until you get it stable is recommended.

For Ca, and Mg, every week is fine. they generally are stable as long as Alk is stable. Before I got my trident, I would test alk often, and Ca maybe monthly, and Mg only if Ca and Alk concentrations didn't make sense.

 

[Kryptonian]

Agreed with Nburg, dosing all three and test alkalinity every two days and the other two about once a week.

 

[mike550]

I’ve been at it about a year. Every three days (usually around the same time) I test salinity, Alk, nitrate, phosphate, magnesium, and calcium. I like every three days because if anything increases or decreases it’s noticeable but gives me enough time to react.

Also for setting dosing I can divide my measurements by 3 to get daily consumption amounts. Here again, I figure three days helps to average things out a bit.

 

[BlennyTime]

The above is all good advice, I would just add that if you are doing fish only, the testing/dosing is less important than LPS or softies. If you are doing SPS, it may need to be daily depending on your tank’s needs.

Many people invest in an automated doser to help make maintenance simpler. Lots of corals like stability in parameters too, and having a doser that can dose throughout the day achieves that.

 

[JAKos]

Thanks for the tips, will start testing alk daily.