Water Chemistry

[VaranusPanoptes]

I'm a little overwhlemed with how often I should be testing my nitrates, nitrites and ammonia. Right now I test every other day but it feels like I'm doing it too often so how often should I test the water parameters? Thank you in advance!

 

[Leeatl]

Depends....Are you cycling a tank? Change something that might affect an established cycle? In a tank that is well established and cycled I just test nitrates once a week for the plants sake more than anything . I test other things if there is a problem or I do something that may affect ammonia amounts , but normally just nitrates . I would test pH more often if my tap was way off from my tanks .

 

[VaranusPanoptes]

Yeah, my tank is cycled and has fish in it. The articles for cycling a tank never stated how often after cycling one should test their tank. I suppose I will test for nitrates weekly then.

 

[BBradbury]

Water Testing

I'm a little overwhlemed with how often I should be testing my nitrates, nitrites and ammonia. Right now I test every other day but it feels like I'm doing it too often so how often should I test the water parameters? Thank you in advance!

Hello Var...

You don't need to test the tank water as long as you're following a sound water change routine and choose to keep fish available at the local pet stores. Keeping and breeding rare species is a different matter. I remove and replace half the water in my tanks every week. I know as long as do this, the water chemistry is steady and perfect for the fish and plants I keep. I haven't tested the water for several years.

B

 

[VaranusPanoptes]

"Just change the tank water" I will great teacher.

 

[Caliban07]

‘Changing water’ and ‘steady and stable are four words that can’t possibly go together. When you perform the action of changing water (particularly half the tank volume) you are doing the exact opposite of keeping things steady and stable.

 

[ZxC]

Changing lots of water means the tank water will more closely match tap water parameters = stable water chemistry.

NO3 will remain low, you'll remove organic material before it even has a change to break down etc.


Preventative maintenance will always trump reactive maintenance.


Just test NO3, pH / gH / kH a few times a month to ensure nothing weird is happening.

Hobby grade test kits are for reference only... by no means a definitive, accurate test.

 

[Caliban07]

I would be in agreement if tap water was predictable or consistent.

Tap water values from your local facilities website are averaged out over the year across a handful of tests using thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of analytical equipment. They are only a snapshot at one specific time and you can never really be sure what is coming out of it.

 

[ZxC]

I would be in agreement if tap water was predictable or consistent.

Yes, I completely agree with that.