Water Testing / Maintaining Parameters

KeystoneMalone · Oct 1, 2020

With the risk of sounding somewhat foolish, I think I am over/under thinking water testing. I have a 20g that has been up and running for about a year now, and im pretty sure im not testing as much as I should be. I do 5g water changes every 2 weeks, really have no big issue with algae (with the exception of bubble algae, which still isnt too too bad), however im not really seeing a ton of growth from most, if not all of my corals, which got me to thinking if I was lacking in any area in my parameters.

When I first started my tank, I was religious with testing every week but then slowly fell off to about once a month because every time I tested I was getting the same results (within reason), which in my mind is telling me things are stable, and stable = good.

I guess what im getting at is I am having a hard time establishing a good testing routine, and more so what I am actually looking for in doing the testing. It felt like I was doing it because It was instilled in my mind that it is what you have to do to have a successful tank. Should I be focusing on one aspect at a time and work on getting that one stable- then move on to the next once I am able to maintain the previous parameter?

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated- Thanks!

nereefpat · Oct 1, 2020

I would start with consistently testing alkalinity.

Get an alk kit, if you don't already have one, and start testing. Since you are just starting regular testing, I would test alk once a day for a week, and then test once a week from there on out.

This will let you know what your tank's consumption is, and if you need to dose, and if your water changes are keeping up with alk and Ca demand.

rmurken · Oct 1, 2020

Agree with @nereefpat.

Further—do you dose Alk and Ca?

Anecdotally I started to see better growth once I figured out my Ca/Alk consumption and set a dosing regime to keep them more or less stable between water changes. That took daily(ish) testing at first, but now I just do it intermittently to monitor and tweak. My alk still falls over the course of the week, but much less.

Nothing fancy. This hobby can push you to test everything constantly. But for Alk, aggressive testing up front helps establish what your initial dosing routine should be. After that I think it becomes whatever you’re comfortable with, as long as you check it once in awhile.