Need help with monitoring ideas

bender77

bender77

Member
So tomorrow I'm doing my weekly water change. After this change I and going to start using probiotics in my tanks. I'm trying to figure out a good plan on monitoring the changes in my tank others than observation. I'm thinking test water before the water change, several hrs after the water change, then 24 hrs after the addition of the probiotics, then weekly after that? What do you think?
My main focus will be nitrates and phosphate in my tanks and any obvious visual changes. Is it even worth extra monitoring?
 
snakeblitz33

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
Interesting. I've only once dealt with seahorses, and they have never really been my thing. But! I'm always looking for new information and findings by hobbyists. So, if your tanks water quality improves, or you see rapid growth in anything, then I'll look into it too!
 
snakeblitz33

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
Oh, and is this the only change you are making to your tank? You're not changing your lighting schedules, salt, any of your other routine... just the addition of probiotics?
 
bender77

bender77

Member
I have changed my salt recently, but the tank I'm going to be watching close is my 12 g nano and it has had enough water changed to be fully on the new salt. The other 2 tanks are still in transition. I do know the salt change may have an effect too, but my nitrates and phosphate have remained constant, so I'll be interested to see if they get better and if the hair algae in the tank gets better. I'm not doing anything else to treat those other than water changes.
For the record Ro/Di water with Salinity salt
 
snakeblitz33

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
hair algae eh? That's been the bane of saltwater aquarists for a hundred years. I just got rid of the hair algae in my 20g nano. It took me two weeks, but I finally nipped it in the bud. :D It took me nearly a month to get rid of it out of a 110g tank last month. I didn't use any chemicals, additives or do one water change either. lol
I have my secrets...
 
bender77

bender77

Member
Well, I woul love to do an algae scrubber too
But space isn't my friend with this tank. The algae really doesn't bother me but I want to see if this helps. Now if it starts to take over, then I would consider more drastic options.
 
bender77

bender77

Member
OK, it's water change day and I've done probiotics for 1 week now. Some minor changes noted, but it can take up to 3 week to notice anything. I'm doing all my tanks and monitoring the 12 gallon nano. Just observing, there is not change in hair algae or corals. I do 2 gallon weekly water changes on this tank and always have. I have chemi pure in the back, but it's old and probably needs to be changed, but no doing anything else for now. I'm using API test kits (I know not everyone is impressed by these, but I figure using the same kits for all tests, the results may be off a little, but they should be consistently off and trends should still be noticed)
10-25-11
Pre water change | Post Water Change
pH 7.8 8.0
Nitrate 40 20
Nitrite 0 0
Amm 0 0
Phos 0 0
KH 9 9
Calcium 420 460
11-1-11- One week of getting probiotics.
Pre water change
pH 8
Nitrate 20
Nitrite 0
Amm 0
Phos 0
KH 9
Calcium 460
I'm going to keep monitoring on a weekly basis pre water changes, and from now on I'm not going to do kH and Calcium since they shouldn't be affected. If my nitrates keep decreasing, and I suspect they should. I hope to see hair algae start disappearing in a few weeks.
 
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