Testing or no testing?

[smabbott94]

So been in the hobby 3 weeks now, got 31 fish now, all doing great. The coral is popping
So I’ve done nothing but check salinity, and keep at 1.025ish I’ve not had any issues, everything is thriving. I’ve saved on buying test kits and ordered myself a Achilles tang how oftern and what do you guys test

 

[amazongb]

Dang, what size tank you have there?

 

[Hydrored]

Long term success IMO equates to having a schedule that includes some testing. I personally would not run my tank without testing.

What size tank are we talking about here with that fish load and total age off tank?

Alkalinity is tested daily for me and salinity, nitrate, phosphates I test every Saturday along with a quarterly Triton test or sooner if needed

 

[ZoWhat]

And then.... all of a sudden.....

.

 

[brandon429]

how is disease management being applied here, we have an 8 month 80% loss rate thread study going on this looks to be perfect for tracking.

 

[brandon429]

please post full tank pic

this is reefcentral messing with us right

 

[Garf]

please post full tank pic

this is reefcentral messing with us right

13 fish according to his “hello” thread.

Build Thread - Hello all! Happy to join you all

Hello, I’ve been in the hobby for 2 weeks. Got a 4x2x2 Plenty of corals, Fish stocking: X2 clowns Pistol strimp and gobie pair Cleaner wrasse Peacock wrasse Brown mimic tang Regal tang Moorish idol Copper band butterfly X3 bangai cardinals Purple fire fish Loads clean up crew, Orange star fish...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[brandon429]

that is indeed a nice reef. it w be neat to see if the same fish loading persists largely unchanged by Augustish

 

[ZoWhat]

that is indeed a nice reef. it w be neat to see if the same fish loading persists largely unchanged by Augustish

Yeah.... neat to see

 

[smabbott94]

Dang, what size tank you have there?

450 litre bud

 

[smabbott94]

Yeah.... neat to see

Jealousy pal

 

[smabbott94]

13 fish according to his “hello” thread.

Build Thread - Hello all! Happy to join you all

Hello, I’ve been in the hobby for 2 weeks. Got a 4x2x2 Plenty of corals, Fish stocking: X2 clowns Pistol strimp and gobie pair Cleaner wrasse Peacock wrasse Brown mimic tang Regal tang Moorish idol Copper band butterfly X3 bangai cardinals Purple fire fish Loads clean up crew, Orange star fish...

www.reef2reef.com

I’ve added more since mate

 

[dvgyfresh]

everything is thriving until it isn’t, I would get some test kits otherwise you throwing knives in the dark, forgot to add I test all parameters just once a week on Sunday

 

[brandon429]

It really is a nice tank and truthfully lots of folks add new fish at once. A tank that big can support their waste. What is the disease prevention approach legit curious

 

[Garf]

I’ve added more since mate

Testing requirements general depend on what corals you’ve got apart from temp, salinity and nitrate. Is that an Acropora stick in the top right? Post a better picture and you’ll get a list of stuff to test for.

 

[Uncle99]

Wow.
That’s a super challenging fish.
Good luck.
Packed and fuse lit.
Otta be a great show.

 

[CMMorgan]

There is a golden expression in reefing that nothing good happens fast in a reef tank. @zoa what is making the point based on experience that things can get away from you very quickly and your system can crash overnight. @dvgyfresh is right... the easy part of this hobby is spending money. The hard part is planning, monitoring and adjusting on a regular basis.
How long did you cycle the tank before adding in your bioload?
If you are not testing, how did you determine it was safe for inhabitation?
The big tests initially are ammonia and nitrite / nitrate. As you move through the uglies, you will be paying closer attention to your phosphate (in addition to the previous nitrate, ammonia and nitrite). You should always be watching specific gravity and PH. As you add corals, you need to start almost daily monitoring of alkalinity and calcium.
There are a lot of very smart, experienced folks on this forum that are happy to help if you want it.

 

[Dkmoo]

For a tank that size, 3 weeks is really really short compared to the time scale that we have to think about in this hobby. meaning, because how big it is, any one "wrong" thing that's happening in your tank may take a couple of months to rear its ugly head, this is true especially for new tanks. in this regard, saying that "everything's been fine and thriving for 3 weeks" isn't really giving you any real useful information on if your inhabitants are on a positive trend or slowly decline.

Most organisms have internal mechanism to maintain homeostasis as much as it can, so outword appearance will not change much, until it can't and you have sudden crashes. That's what @zoa what and others are saying.

Thats why testing is important, b/c otherwise you really have no handle on what's really happening in your tank and the "eye test" is notoriously inaccurate.

To further the "complication", if your rocks and substrate are new, a tank that young wouldn't even give you a complete picture b/c a portion of the nutrients and other things you are testing may be absorbed in the rock and substrates so they dno't show up in water tests, until the rocks are saturated and suddenly you get a second round of "things go out of control" 8 - 10 months later. This is often why we recommend to take things slow in newer tanks.

The above are all generalizations obviously so there's going to be tanks that maintain success by doing something different. but again, generally speaking, doing the above will give you a greater chance of long term success.

 

[vabben]

3 weeks in with 31 fish in a 4x2x2? And adding an Achilles Tang to the mix? To top it off you're not testing?

Have you done any sort of QT for the fish? How did you determine your tank was ready for this bioload?

Testing is much cheaper than buying more fish and coral. Most importantly it is imperative to test for the health and care of the animals you are putting into your tank. I'd suggest you slow down and do more research into reef keeping so you do not kill your current inhabitants.

 

[fryman]

Obvious troll attempt but I'm adding a couple points because people are taking the bait

3/10