Absolutely

To each their own I guess. Some ppl like to slave over their tank and some like to actually spend that time to look and enjoy their tank if they have a busy schedule. I like to just stare the at front of my tank n enjoys it's beauty and not in the back room staring at changing colors of my test vials.

Alk constantly, Cal once a week, Nitrate and Phosphate couple times a week maybe?

I'm biopellet carbon dosing so if my alk swings I get burnt tips or acro loss real quick. Like in January (I think) we got a snow storm and my power kept going out for like 1 second. Everytime it did my controller would re set and my dosers would come back on. My alk went from 7 where I keep it to almost 10 while I was at work. Only way I knew this is because of monitoring. Got home, turned down my dosing schedule to drop the alk back to where it should be for my system.

I know its a pain but if you're going sps and even LPS I couldn't imagine not monitoring parameters unless you only had like 2 fish in a 125 gallon tank and not a lot of stony corals...

I do all my testing from the couch in front of my tank. Just take a cup of water out and do them all there. But ya, I enjoy the activity of my tank more than just looking at it. I see ever coral as a challenge, I see the entire system as a challenge, how to get my echo system to thrive in a totally un natural environment.

That and I've had crazy things happen by not testing. Once I over dosed alk or cal, cant remember which and I had crazy calcification in the tank. Seized every pump and my glass was white and no longer transparent. Was nuts! I've had enough weird mistakes happen to know testing is important for me...

Really? Testing takes a lousy 10 minutes once a week for your hard earned money to stay alive! Plus!! I enjoy testing and starring at the tank at the same time..

But then again, it's better to have a crash and look for cheap coral again vs. (Me) testing once a week to save my expensive pieces..
SMH

Whoa Ryan, woke up on the wrong side of the bed? You're entitled to your own opinion but what differs from your tank to mine is that you keep exotic and expensive corals, and for that reason I believe it's an investment that I would too, check my parameters often.

When I got into this hobby, I was fascinated on the look and peace it brings me after 12-14 hour work shift. Coming home to do extra work on the tank is on the less side of my worries. I have had my tank up for over 6 months after moving into my new house. And before that, it was in an establish tank for 2 years.

If I ever do acquire half of the nice corals you got, then maybe you can give me pointers of dosing and checking parameter. :wink:

I am lazy too and I don't ever test.....however, my wife does :redface: lol suckers.

I think you hit the nail on the head when you define "cheap" corals but I think the proper term is EASY. If you had a tank of crappy softies (I don't like them so they are crappy to me, others might think my sps's are crappy, I don't really care. lol) or even some nice LPS one can argue for lack of testing. Most of them are pretty tough and will not die even if you tried. On the other hand, if you got a tank full of 4-5 hundo cadillac frags then you best be checking your parameters and check them often. Also, if you check your parameter once a month and decided that $hit has hit the fan that you need to make drastic adjustments, please don't! You need to go slow and make minor changes or else you might experience more issues than you set out to correct.

This is why I don't agree with some of the replies here, put your money where your mouth is. You don't do certain thing for your tank then tell the newbies that could be reading your advice why you don't and most importantly POST A PICTURE OF YOUR TANK so they will know what to expect if they neglect certain things.

Ryan is very passionate about keeping good husbandry just like most of us on here. I am sure it's not directed at anyone. As my previous post states every tank is different, people needs to be more accountable when they give advice. Experience reefers can differentiate between "good" and "bad" advice but to a newbie, someones "bad" advice might end their reefing hobby. Let's provide the whole story of your tank and why you offer your opinions on certain matters which might just alleviate a whole lot of confusion and the possibilities of costly mistakes.

Oh absolutely, I hope no reefer would read my post without considering how different my tank could be compared to theirs. I was simply stating what I do for my tank. Jeez, I give terrible advice, so I hope no one would take my words literal. :lol:

In my tank, It's 90g mixed reef with the majority of it being LPS. I consider, personally, my corals to be inexpensive or very common. If my tank (knock on wood) ever crash, and I lost my corals, It would not be the end of the world. It would be easy to achieve the same inexpensive corals off the reefing community.

In the future, if I do plan to keep SPS, I would expect crazy swings of the "major 3" once I start dosing and moving up on the ladder, that's when I would decide to check parameters :)

I got a biocube with lps and nems, I don't test nothing on it. Just sit back and enjoy.

Sps on the other hand is a total different story. If you even look at it wrong it will peel. lol If you are gluten for punishment and like pain and suffering then please join me on this sps journey of angrish. :biggrin: