water testing?

[dirtydrew]

im pretty new to reefing and have been told a lot of different things about water testing parameters.now what should i be testing in all and what are all of there parameters? i have been testing PH, nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, and salinity. i plan on keeping mainly softies ,but a little of everyting. thanks

 

[Bifferwine]

The ones that you are testing are the ones you should be testing for now. In addition, you should be testing alkalinity. That's about all you need to care about right now. Down the road, you can start testing for calcium and magnesium, but that's not important until you get a few corals in the tank.

 

[dirtydrew]

well i do have a couple of corals in there now. So should i start testing for those? where can i find what the test results should be at for a reef system? i have always went and had my water tested at a shop and they just tell me what to do and left me pretty blind on what was going on.

 

[sen5241b]

If you have corals in there now you should also test for phosphates. Corals have a very low threshold or tolerance (0.3 ppm) for phosphates.

 

[daugherty]

unless you want to pend 200 bucks on a hanna meter than i would not worry about testing phospahates the normal test kits test for the wrong kind of phosphate 90% of the time.

 

[ndepratt]

on a simple softy tank i wouldn't worry about testing alk and calcium on a regular basis. watch your ph, if something starts get a little off with that... then you can start testing for it. really you're going to have a minimal draw on the calcium/alkalinity, which you'll be more than able to replace with regular water changes.

for now: ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph. in the future: nitrate and ph, and do some staring at the tank.

that's just my opinion... and this is only if you're doing regular WC's, and are sticking with softies. LPS/SPS tanks are another story.

(don't want to retype, but obviously test for salinity)

 

[mike surtees]

Hi, Iff you have corals in your tank, you need to maintain Cal & Mag, with an eye on alk [kh] and sg. Ph will follow sg, Your mag will reduce very slowly [ maybe 100ppm over 1-2mth] Your Cal will reduce as per the amount of cal using absorbitants you have in the tank. Example [ 200ltr tank, 20corals,3 fish[9inc] cleanup crew and a crushed coral substrate ] will use approx 10-20ppm,standard stock /week. Possibly 2-4days depending on water paramaters.. This will vary as per tank, But iether way, start thinking like this, get a better understanding of it all, and you will soon be on top of it and have a lovely tank. Also remember 10-20%water changes [per 2wks or so] but remember this will not bring your Cal up to the level you need, it will just refresh and bring back your trace minerals. Regards.

 

[dcantucson]

+1 Nathan

 

[alittlesalty]

If you have corals in there now you should also test for phosphates. Corals have a very low threshold or tolerance (0.3 ppm) for phosphates.

Yes you should have your water tested for phosphates, just found out today my is high and my corals are showing signs of unhappyness. I had my checked a local LFS.-Pirate-