How often to you test your aquarium water?

[diggardens]

Once a week but here lately it has been every other day since I've been in it changing things.

[IBMGeek]

I havent tested for a while but try to add my supplements weekly (calcium etc...) I see my xenia spreading and pulsing so I guess everthing should be doing fine.

[aquaboy]

i dont test at all, only if i have gut feeling that something is wrong.

[Otty]

Originally Posted by aquaboy

i dont test at all, only if i have gut feeling that something is wrong.

Usually it is too late by then.......not good husbandry to be getting into.

[reef_guru]

daily: sps require prestine conditions, my parameters are constant for optimal growth.

[coral reefer]

To be honest with you, I check my water parameters maybe once a month.
Before you fellow reefers start pointing the finger and say wow your nuts, which maybe I am, let me defend my decision as to why.
First of all, I perform a water change once a week to ensure that I am dilluting potential spikes in pollutants etc. I am also adding trace elements and vitamins to my tank in doing so.
Second reason for not testing as much as I should is that I basically have many types of corals and other livestock that are good water parameter indicators such as my Sea Urchins, Euphyllia and Trachyphyllia brain corals. These are usually the first to show signs of less than optimal water parameter issues. By consistently viewing and being aware of the livestock in my tank daily, I guess in essence, that I am testing and monitoring my water!
I must be doing something right as my livestock is flourishing and I have not lost a fish in 6 months or more...knock on wood.!

[coral reefer]

Oh, just to point out one more thing regarding water parameters! IF you allow water parameters variables to change slowly allowing your livestock to adjust and acclimate themselves, often times you can have a successful and thriving tank without constantly altering the possible negative effects that are often associated with what I call human intervention or negligence error.
One good example of this is if your salinity or alkalinity become to low or high, many times we quickly try to change this in attempt to bring it back towards the level that we have been trying to. In so doing this we end up doing it too quickly, or we forget that if say you increase the alkalinity because it is too low, often times we do not check or are aware that this affects the calcium, pH and magnesium levels of our water as well. In calcium, many times I have heard that our calcium level is over 500...is this bad? and How do I bring it down...But the answer to this is if it isn't broke, don't fix it. Often your calcium level will come down by itself and as long as everyhting looks good, why change it.
Now I am not saying that you should neglect your tank by never checking water parameter issue, all I am saying is that many times your best bet is to do weekly small water changes, dose carbon periodically and make sure that your equipment is clean and in fine working order. That is key, if your skimmer hasn't been cleaned in a while you run the risk of the skimmer not performing up to par, or if you don't keep up on salt creep from your lights, you run the risk of reducing necessary light to symbiotic corals and clams that need the light for their single celled dinoflagellates knwon as zooxanthellae to carry out photosynthesis for necessary nutritional needs and requirements!

[djnzlab1]

HI,
I have not had a reason to worry about testing and oddly enough my tank is extremly stable, its almost nerve racking, I stopped adding kalk for a month and the calcium was 450, the mag 1440 and phos -1 .
I had a slight bloom after over- feeding but its stablized again every thing is normal i can see when its time to add carbon, or kalk ..
Even the KH seems to stay up, I do add a little kalk monthly to bind any free phos, it works almost as good as those phos reactors. I don't fuss over the kalk I add 1 tbl spoon of mrs wagners to 1/2 half gallon of water 1 cup of white vinegar, stir till pretty clear let it is 1 hour pour it in the sump leaving any undissolved precip in the container, the skimmer goes nuts for about 1 hour the 2 tanks are a little milky they share the sump. and then it clears. corals are not stressing crabs are crawling, so the two tanks must handle any ph swing very well.
I usally stop adding kalk, when ca reaches over 480,
Haven't lost a fish in 6mos knock on wood and my soft corals are covering everything gradually,. I have gone back to r/o water after fighting that slow greening of the glass..
its a pain to haul water but its a pain to scrape glass too.
I don't really want a r/o sytem yet I have plenty of free water at work that has a resistance of -18 megohms zero silicate and ph of 6.5 I check weekly. My last tank change at work was 1,000 bucks ... geeze Glad I don't pay for that..

[aquaboy]

Its all in the magical water changes

[baugherb]

I check my water bi-weekly. But pray to the ocean gods nightly.........