how often are you testing?

[nate21887]

How often is everyone testing their tank? Do you keep a schedule for testing with your maintenance routine?
Ive been battling a small cycle since adding this new sand bed and have been testing almost daily.

[ghurlag]

I'm extremely bad about testing. The two things I hit on a regular basis are temp and salinity of the saltwater I add back into the tank. Other than that, I subscribe to the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) and good ol' consistency. The return on investment for the enormous amount of time spent testing everything under the sun, and recalibrating this that and the other, not to mention the added stress to me when I am alerted of a "problem", coupled with the added stress to the corals and fish when I start messing around with things to "correct" - it's just not worth it to me.

And with that statement I have alienated much of the reefing community :D

I believe test kits have their place, but I don't see the need to arbitrarily test when I am consistent with water changes and other maintenance, and all my fish and corals are happy. Just my two cents!

[marinelife]

Not even sure what you mean by testing :)
I have not tested in years other than Salinity after a water change

[nate21887]

Thanks Brian, kinda my ways as well just trying to improve my tank and wasn't sure how particular I should be about it. The more I mess with stuff the more I wanna correct things and am concerned with stressing the tank.

Eric with the volume you have I would imagine it wouldn't be much of a concern...and I seen that one coming lol

[marinelife]

I really should be testing more. I should get some test kits just have not made the purchase.

[ghurlag]

Knowing what's going on in your tank is a good thing. Knowing when to leave things alone is even better ;)

Just remember that if parameters are off, it's best to correct things.slowly.

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[Sunshine]

After my other tank became established, I hardly tested. Unless something was going on .... fish dying, corals looking weird, I left it alone. With the new tank now, I test about once a month. After it's established, I'll go back to being lazy about testing. I still test the salinity of the water change water.

[ghurlag]

After my other tank became established, I hardly tested. Unless something was going on .... fish dying, corals looking weird, I left it alone. With the new tank now, I test about once a month. After it's established, I'll go back to being lazy about testing. I still test the salinity of the water change water.

Yup, that's what I mean. And to elaborate on my last comment, consistency is key, UNLESS you are consistently doing something wrong :)

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[nate21887]

I did ride almost 8 months without a test and few water changes before the sand bed change. I'm just trying to improve my tank and keep it stable for becoming a full on reef. My time in this hobby I have yet to make all the way past just being a fowlr. Just trying to step my game up with this thing, wanna keep the strong points key and know what not to overly sweat.

[aquatic mouse]

Every week.............................................. .is what I'd like to say. :)

Nope. I check salinity and that's about it. I plan on getting Salifert test kits and testing more. I know I should.