Testing water

[tang daddy]

Originally Posted by Dearth

Well since I started this conversation and the resulting chaos falls on my shoulders I guess I should explain my tank first off I live alone secondly this is a long winded story

95 gallon wave tank
Made the decision to make my tank a softie tank because I know I don't have the equipment or space for said equipment.
Have 14 fish all under 4 inches several snails, crab, shrimp and 8 sea cucumbers ATM
My tank is as simple as it comes skimmer one end return pump on the other no other equipment at all
Manually dose vinegar once per day when I remember to

I don't have the standard 9-5 job and I work shift work (4 days on 4 off 12 hrs per shift 2 days 2 nights rinse repeat)so a maintenance schedule is spotty at best for me and there are times I am too physically exhausted to do anything but I feed my fish once per day

So down to testing my water just before my heart attack I was testing every week with 2 different test kits (API and Salifert) for all the usual stuff and could not trust either test so usually went down the middle of the road. Then my heart attack happened after that it was all I could do for 2 months after just to fill my top up water. After I recovered enough to go back to work I had other medical issues that took precedence over my tank all I did was feed my fish and top up my ATO. Enter 4 and a half months after my heart attack I did my first water change in 5 months I had red cyano everywhere and sick coral I was on vacation so I did 4 water changes in 9 days started cleaning up the cyano and by July my tank was healthy again. I did lose a few coral as would be expected but no fish, shrimp, snails or crab and had 3 sea cucumber at the time.

In all this time never did a water test and by the time I realized I hadn't done one in almost 7 months and as I got busy again with work and dealing with my medical issues I just kept up with my water change monthly and vinegar dosing and before you know it was a new year and if you care to look on 2017 full tank shots in pictures you will see what my tank looked like in January 2016 to January 2017 and not one water test.

You need not agree with my methods or maintenance schedule but I think I have done well for myself and it works for me and I have a happy thriving tank to boot. It may bite me in the asss one day and I will deal with it then but for now I have a healthy happy thriving tank which I will continue to enjoy

I am happy you have recovered from the illness and same with your tank dearth. I think Rich said it best which was if you are keeping a system with softies and small amount of Lps then testing is not that important, but if you keep a tank with lots of sps then stuff like alk can deplete fast, most of my friends keep sps dominated tanks and basically alk drops at 1-2 points a day if they haven't dosed or ran out of alk. This can be detrimental to a system that depends on ca and alk.

Why did you have 8 sea cucumbers in your tank?

I think we've all been on the same boat with feeding once a day and that's it, I had family members to take care of and my son born a few years ago I only fed once a week and watched my tank literally melt down, sold some of the remaining corals and then shut down. I've been in the hobby for over 14 years and can say I know what it feels to be a lazy reefer, sometimes life can be hard and a hobby is the last thing on your mind, seen lots of good friends get out because of different things happening.

In the end we all want what's best for our reefs and some go through more time than others to take care of their inhabitants.

We all know the big 3 to test (for the people that do)
For me I like salifert as it is easy to use...
I use salifert for alk, ca, mg and no3
Hanna for alk and po4

The salifert for alk only gives you a reading of .05 but the Hanna will give you point to point so I usually do Hanna first for alk then recheck with salifert.
As I stayed in my previous post my alk jumped all over before I had the doser it was as low as 5.5 and as high as 11. Since the addition of the doser it's been stable at 8 to 8.5. My tank will consume less Ca and Alk when phosphates are higher at .24 but when phosphates are at .05 it consumes a lot more hence the swings of .05 to .24, big difference I know.

Looking at your tank can tell you a lot like when you have cyano it's mostly caused by elevated po4 and no3 but also when there is an imbalance in either one like too much po4 and no no3 or vice versa.

I think new reefers usually start with easier to keep softies like mushrooms and GSP and easier montis that are a lot more forgiving. With that said the start up cost for a new reefer can be a lot so test kits are not that important.

I have read people that have been in the hobby for over 25 years and don't do water changes and still have fully packed tanks but they supplement important additives into the tanks i.e. Strontium, potassium and also the big 3.

If you have a balanced tank with corals growing it will consume the big 3 and so one must adjust accordingly. The changes in consumption can be slow but eventually it will consume more and more. My sps are still small but never the less growing day by day and I keep adding more ca and alk bit by bit to keep levels where they need to be.

I have friends that keep rock flowers Zoas and flower pots they do water changes once a month and their tank thrives with heavy feedings.

I have gone without doing water changes for 4 months at a time in the past without any problems either. But now at this time I've spent too much on corals and even feel guilty missing my 5g water changes every 3-4 days.