water testing frequency

[crage34]

as most probably know from the thousands of questions that i ask that my tank is freshly cycled and i have added a cleanup crew and a cleaner shrimp...i was just wondering how often u all test your water? what do u test more than others(ammonia, ph, nitrites, nitrates)? and how do u know it is time to change your water...besides your scheduled water changes?

 

[SABOB]

My tank has been running for almost a year.I check ammonia,nitrites,nitrates and ph before any addition to tank and usually every 2weeks or so otherwise.Once your tank is established, the need to check reduces.By the way, go slow adding livestock,I like many others learned the hard way of trying to do too much too fast.I had an outbreak of ick that killed all my fish.Let tank go fallow for 6 weeks, then introduced fish slowly after quarantine and current population includes a Coral Beauty,aFoxface Lo,a mated pair of Saddleback Clowns,a Royal Gramma,Fire Shrimp,Chocolate Chip Starfish,numerous snails and hermits.
Use this site for any question no matter how stupid it seems.You will get wonderful advice.Good luck with your new hobby!!!!

 

[crage34]

thank u very much ...so far so good...getting a lil algae on the back glass now...i think im on my way to a bloom

 

[Gauge]

I agree with SABOB about the testing for the most part. I test when I'm going to add a fish, and I don't test often beyond that. Once your cycle is complete and you're not making any additions, you don't need to check ammonia or nitrites. There's no reason for them to rise above 0 if you haven't changed the system any, and even if they did, the fish would probably tell you before a test did. I test nitrates (which go up at a pretty steady rate) and ph every few days.