How ofter do you test your parameters?

[ZapataInc]

So as the title says How often do you test your parameters? What would you suggests for beginners? (I know if you are starting out brand new that you should test your water constantly to see that it is properly cycling and when it is fully cycled.) Or do you just base it on how your tank is acting. Like if everything looks good and growing do you still test? And Im really going for beginner stuff, more specifically nitrates and phosphates. I understand testing for alk, mag, and calc if you have a lot of corals like sps and lps because of those eating up those elements. What are your thoughts?

Im asking this because I am fairly new and right now I have gotten in the habit of not testing because all of the stuff I have in my tank a few zoa colonies, a hammer head, a birds nest and a couple more corals all look healthy and to me seem to be thriving because they are growing and having babies. I also dont have an issue with any algae outbreaks. And I do about a 15-30% water change on average every week and a half.

Another reason is I have seen a fairly good rise in what seems to be new hobbyists in ARC and they might have the same question.

 

[Tanster2]

I test about every other day because I get paranoid. It takes me 5 minutes so it's not that big a deal

 

[Dmitri]

With new systems I do alkalinity daily, cal and mag weekly. Nitrates / phosphates weekly but I get lazy and sometime skip

 

[civics14]

Alkalinity - bi-weekly
Daily for alk right now as I am trying to correct after taking my reactor offline for cleaning. But as I stabilize, I only test alk every other week.

Nitrates & phosphates - monthly

Magnesium & calcium - every 3-4 months

 

[ActiveAngel]

Good question! Let’s assume that your tank is cycled and has been running for a couple months already, but less than 1 year.

My recommendations:
Temperature: Daily
Goal - Stable and between 76°F-78°F
*Also, feel the water with your finger. Over a year or two, you’ll notice the 1-2 degree difference of hot and cool tank.

Salinity: If you have an ATO, once or twice a week. If you don’t, test daily.
Goal - Stable and between 1.024 and 1.026 specific gravity
*Use a refractometer, not a hydrometer and ensure it’s calibrated.

Nitrates: Weekly
Goal - Controversial, but low, preferably close to 0. Under 20ppm, I wouldn’t worry.
*If you want to go the extra effort, you can also test Ammonia and Nitrites at this time. 99% of the time, they will and should be 0. If they’re not 0, then something big just happened and a small alarm should be going off (did a big fish just die?, did your auto feeder just dump everything?). Over time, you won’t hardly ever test these. But it’s not a bad time to practice.

If you have LPS or SPS; then you also want to test for Alk, Calc, Mag,... and maybe phosphate. Otherwise you can stick with just the above rests until you’re ready.

Alk: If you have a doser and it’s been stable for a while, test 1-2 times per week. If you dose manually or the doser is still new, test daily until you can be confident that it’s stable.
Goal - Stable, 8.4dkH (+/- 1.0 dkH)
*Keep an eye for trends. If you Alk was 9.0 on one day, 8.8 the next, 8.6 the next, 8.4 the next.... you gotta increase your dosing immediately to stop this change.

Calc: 1-2 times per week if auto-dosing. If manual, test daily along with Alk.
Goal - 435ppm (or slightly higher)
*You can test more often, but high calc usually only hurts corals indirectly, if at all. Alk is much more important

Mag: between weekly and monthly.
Goal - 1360ppm (1280ppm or higher)
*Still important, but even less so than calc. Mostly this is important due to its relationship with Alkalinity.

Phosphate: between weekly and monthly
Goal - Low, as close to zero as possible
*Likely not a big deal unless your nitrates are also high. Low priority for testing this at this point in your journey. But it doesn’t hurt to get started early.

Other trace elements (K, I, Fe,...): You likely don’t need to be testing these at this stage in your journey. Many large successful reef tanks never test these; it’s just not necessary for many systems based on most standard maintenance.

It’s late; so hopefully there’s no glaring mistakes here. Plus people all have slightly different goals/experiences. Have a good night everybody.

 

[Rickdareefa]

I test nitrates and phosphates once a week right before I do a water change. Alk and calc every other day cuz I dose by hand and don't like to dose without testing. I've never even tested magnesium I just rely on water changes.

 

[Mom2Many]

With a new system very often until I get to know my tank well. Once established...never. I only test water salinity when I do a water change.