Make sure you are doing your tests!

Just a PSA for everyone make sure you are doing your tests on your schedule. I have gotten off my schedule in the last three weeks, partly out of frustration and partly out of laziness, pure and simple. Well to make a long story short my number were WAY out of whack for what I keep my system at.

These were my specs;
Alkalinity-7Dkh
Calcium-370
Magnesium-1230
Ph-8.2
NO3-5ppm

These are where things normally are-
Alk-9dkh
Cal-425
Mag-1400
Ph-was ok stays between 8.2-8.3
NO3-Cant get it lower than 2.5ppm but Im not really worried about it.

Another thing to remember is when you are on a dosing regime remember to boost your new water to your goal numbers! I also forgot to do that for last weeks water change.:frustrat:

Just hoping that you all can learn from my mistakes.

 

thanks for the reminder

 

Yeah, I slacked with my 45 because the fuge keeps my nitrates at 0, so I didn't do a water change in a month (aware of the need for trace elements). At least I don't have corals, like you guys do.

 

Thanks Ryan.

 

yeah...guilty, all I regularly check is pH (the once a week salinity when I do water changes)
In my defense, no2/3 and amm are always 0, and my calcium demand is pretty low. I've got a low bioload..

 

I did my first tests in about a year today! Anyone care to venture a guess as to what they were (I tested only pH and nitrate)???

Hint: I have not done any water changes in approximately a year also.

 

no water changes in a year, Biff!?!? Good skimmer!

 

Hahaha, pH was 8.00 exactly (I used a digital meter that I got from work) and nitrates were ~50. I am mixing a batch of new water as we speak

 

How about salinity biff? Wouldn't that have dropped a bit without water changes?

 

No, salinity has always been spot on at 1.025.

 

Nice. I think you have a secret elf maintaining your tank.

 

Well after retesting today and redosing my numbers are spot on.

Alk-9.0Dkh
Cal-425
Mag-1450

Sarah I though you would have learned from the last time your system went wacko and you had the 150+NO3?

 

Like the rest of us!

 

Okay... I must confess I haven't done any tests or water changes in about 6 months! The last time I did test my PH was too low so I added a buffer to bring it up. The system went into shock and I lost a lot of things. I decided at that time to leave it alone and not test it all the time and not to keep adding crap into the water trying to get everything perfect. I add calcium but that's it. I am feeling guilty about not doing a water change though. It's just such a pain with a large system, but I gotta do it soon. So Biff, is it because you (we) have larger systems that it's easier to keep the water quality right?

 

I think that's definitely part of it. My system is a 240 gallon tank + 55 gallon sump + 35 gallon fuge. That's a lot of water volume. I also have a big skimmer and a 10-inch deep sand bed. Even though nitrates at 50 is not by any means great, I would have expected it to be A LOT worse after a year of no water changes.

But it's a double edged sword. Our larger systems may make the water more stable, but it's also the reason why I find it so hard to do regular water changes! A 10% water change in my system is like 50 gallons!! I tried to follow the "traditional" advice and change 10% a week, but that got old really fast when I had to change SO MUCH DAMN WATER.