How often do you test?

[chuckularone]

I was looking around the threads and could not find any real guidlines on how often to test my water.
My tank has finished it's cycle. (About a week of stable 0's) And I was just wondering how often people test thier own tanks.

 

[chuckularone]

I'm planning on testing weekly for a while at least.
I'll be (FINALLY!) putting fish in the tank next week, and will probably test every day for a couple of days after that.
Then go to weekly.

 

[reefnut]

I'm testing weekly for alk, cal & nitrates. Occasionally for everything else.

 

[the claw]

I guess it depends what you are testing. Almost daily for salinity, but weekly to monthly on everything else. I have a digital ph probe that moniters continuously.

 

[tlk]

weekly for now, but slowly backing off as things seem very stable right now.

 

[beaslbob]

Originally posted by chuckularone
I'm planning on testing weekly for a while at least.
I'll be (FINALLY!) putting fish in the tank next week, and will probably test every day for a couple of days after that.
Then go to weekly.
sounds like an excellent plan. My fav test during cycle is the nitrIte test. I use it to control feeding. If it bumps up, stop feeding, and resume when it goes down again.

 

[jauringer]

I test dkh and Ph daily, and am,trite , trate And calcium weekly.

 

[sinner's girl]

I also test before adding anything (like kalk water)...
during cycle we test every week...then we test when ever we make it to a lfs (which used to be at least once a month...now, not so often).
we have the test kits in case we need them, but i'd rather us lfs for free.
I check temp daily during the summer...i've been checking sg about weekly now (due to more evaportion and salt creep).
we tested more in the beginning.
oh and we test before we add a fish/invert.
mostly I just watch the fish, they tell me more than a test.

 

[cb]

I test bi- weekly on cal and alk and weekly on nitrates and nitrite and ph

 

[dburr]

I can't really say never. Amm, nitrite, nitrate, has been 0 for so long that I don't test. Unless I see something that doesn't look right.
Cal, alk, bimonthly.
SG, since I setup the auto-topoff, only during water changes.

 

[chuckularone]

^^^ Bah-da-bump ^^^

 

[chuckularone]

Thanks Kip, I think I've got the info I need from this poll, I just wanted to give it one more day near the top to see what else I can learn from it.
After today I'll just let it roll down the list and venture off into the old message event horizon

 

[daniel411]

Claw
Unless you have a ridiculous amount of evaportation or salt creep. Have you seen any real change within a days time on the salinity reading?

 

[chuckularone]

Yeah, Kip. I'm testing in a manner that makes sense to me. It seems it makes sense to most people too. That's comforting.

 

[nacl-man]

Originally posted by Kipass4130
it is very nice when you see Ca stay 420-440 for about 4-5 months straight
still waiting for that

 

[nacl-man]

Yeah i'm starting to build a 'container' (which will prob be a wet bar for the living room... ah beer and fish!) for a sump so I can do all the 'wet work' down there (including a kalk drip). My current setup does not have enough room directly under the tank for a sump so I am building something off to the side that I can put the sump equipment in.
For some reason my wife wants it to 'look nice'... what's up with that?
But hey it gives me an excuse to setup a bar in the living room... right next to the fish tank!
Cheers!

 

[chuckularone]

Well, I'm off! Everyone have a good weekend I'll be back on board on Tuesday when I get back from Georgia.
I excited, because I'll be adding fish next week!
Thanks to all who participated in the poll, it let me know I was on target with my testing plans.
-Chuck

 

[saltwaterdave]

I test whenever my Xenia does'nt look quite right.