Testing regime

[scotty333]

Just for record keeping

Po4 .20
No3 5ppm

Tank looks brilliant at this

 

[scotty333]

Po4 ,10
No3 4ppm

Testing stopped for 1 week

 

[scotty333]

Kh 8.9

 

[scotty333]

Kh 8.3
Mag 1350
Need another calcium kit

 

[scotty333]

Po4 .03

 

[scotty333]

Calcium 545 so it’s in line with the small decrease in mag

 

[scotty333]

Today’s results

Salinity 1.026
Ph 8.3
Temp 26
Kh 8.5
Calc 545
Mag 1350
Po4 .03
Nitrate 3

 

[Doctorgori]

As stated your testing regime will alter as time goes by…
With some tolerance from the mods/audience I’ll semi ramble here:

I’d get slightly paranoid about alkalinity at first anyway, personally I test daily via Neptune Trident but don’t even fully trust that and oft re verify with the two hanna DkH testers I own


I test phosphates as needed, it’s a acquired taste and hard to nail down but basically I go by the glass algae, not scientific but I can even usually tell if a snail died or if I over fed just by the dusting on the glass

Just for a baseline I’d test alk 3x/week, phosphate 1x/ week and mg & ca 1x/mo…other opinions and frequencies are probably equally valid

nitrates on occasion/as needed …this is algae based and by eyeball … I got no good input here as I’m not 100% certain any value under 20ppm matters …not versed on the whole phosphate/nitrate ratio either…I defer

Copper: Anymore I just ICP for FE, and other metals

I never have tested for ammonia or nitrites past initial cycle

 

[scotty333]

I agree with everything apart from the calcium because my maxima is settled now after a month of moving around and it’ll probably start sucking it out
In a week it’s dropped 55ppm so this time next week I expect it to go to 500 ish