Why test the water?

[Roks-Sharky]

I haven't been keeping up with testing the water.

But I've been making water changes.

What's going to happen if I continue doing this?

What problems happen that a good water change can't fix?

 

[BigAl07]

Water TESTING is your only way to know of a problem before it becomes an ISSUE! If you don't test and keep track of your tank how do you know if things are slowly slipping out of whack? that's like driving your car without any gauges. You don't know something is out of whack until it stops running and by then it's usually to late and VERY expensive to fix. Take over heating.. with no TEMP gauge you just drive and drive until #1 Steam comes pouring out and you pull over or #2 The motor totally locks up due to over heating and you get to purchase and install a totally new engine. The gauge is MUCH cheaper and easier than the new engine.

 

[Woodstock]

Things change. Some reef tanks use up alkalnity an/or calcium, and/or magnesium more than the water changes can replace. Regularly testing your reef's salinity, calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium (and supplementing as needed) are critical to keeping it healthy.

Problems that could occur? declining corals/fish health and possible death

 

[kyrie_eleison]

Roks,

I partially agree with you. I don't test my water enough anymore. I'm so disciplined at changing my water and doing routine maintenance that I haven't really felt the neccessity. However, Al is somewhat right but may be OVER-EXAGGERATING the circumstances a bit.

Testing your water is important and keeping a journal of your tank parameters will help you along the way. The reasons is by keeping a record of the water quality/tests as well as any maintenance you can always track what you need to do routinely or when problems occurred and how you treated the issue.

By keeping up your water tests, you will most likely know what the water quality is prior to normal changes.

 

[Dentoid]

Reef tanks are like snowflakes, no two are alike. A reef heavily stocked with SPS corals will need much more monitoring of the water chemistry than a fish only tank, FOWLR tank or a tank heavily populated with softies. If WC's are all that is necessary for your particular situation then that's your method of operation. For me, monitoring the ALK/Ca/Mg is critical for my live stock. For another it may not be.

Everything that has been written previously is 100% correct. Ultimately though, only you know what is good for your particular and unique situation, we can only list the obvious.

 

[BigAl07]

...However, Al is somewhat right but may be OVER-EXAGGERATING the circumstances a bit.

I don't see that in the least. I was trying to give an example of WHY testing is important but I didn't by any stretch of the imagination over-exaggerate. If you don't routinely test your water you're flying blind and at some point you WILL hit the wall. There are just way too many variances in this hobby to "assume" you're on the good just because I'm doing periodic water changes. Your source water can change (yes even city water can change.. EVERYONE makes mistakes), your salt mix could change (has happened) or worse yet you could make a mistake in mixing your water. If you're NOT testing your water how in the WORLD are you assuring your freshly mixed water in ANY way resembles what you're replacing? I mean how are you matching temp, salinity, alk, ph or anything else? All I can say is that I wouldn't want the person who is taking care of the water I live and breathe in to just randomly mix up and add some water without testing and matching it precisely. It's a little more than just a "game" where you can Hit & miss. This is a responsibility to the critters your keeping to provide them with the best possible environment to live in. Maybe I am taking it a little to far but that's how I feel.. it's a MORAL obligation you've taken on to give your best... that means a LOT to me.

Just my 2 cents

Allen *climbs down from soap-box*

 

[kyrie_eleison]

I don't see that in the least. I was trying to give an example of WHY testing is important but I didn't by any stretch of the imagination over-exaggerate. If you don't routinely test your water you're flying blind and at some point you WILL hit the wall. There are just way too many variances in this hobby to "assume" you're on the good just because I'm doing periodic water changes. Your source water can change (yes even city water can change.. EVERYONE makes mistakes), your salt mix could change (has happened) or worse yet you could make a mistake in mixing your water. If you're NOT testing your water how in the WORLD are you assuring your freshly mixed water in ANY way resembles what you're replacing? I mean how are you matching temp, salinity, alk, ph or anything else? All I can say is that I wouldn't want the person who is taking care of the water I live and breathe in to just randomly mix up and add some water without testing and matching it precisely. It's a little more than just a "game" where you can Hit & miss. This is a responsibility to the critters your keeping to provide them with the best possible environment to live in. Maybe I am taking it a little to far but that's how I feel.. it's a MORAL obligation you've taken on to give your best... that means a LOT to me.

Just my 2 cents

Allen *climbs down from soap-box*

Al,

Not all of us do this for a living. Most of us who keep a saltwater aquarium do it not out of obsession but rather a way of stress relief; not a stress inducer. I only test my tanks twice a month (every other week) and everything seems to be doing fine. Lighten up.

Roks,

I'm sure if you test at least once a week, you should be fine. It's true that all aquariums are not the same but testing is unfortunately a neccessary evil. At the same time, don't turn the hobby into an obsession either. That sort of takes the fun out of it.

 

[BigAl07]

Nahh I don't do this for a living... I'm in the Building Industry.. I just have a strong passion (some can call obsession) for it.

It's all good.

Allen

 

[Roks-Sharky]

Driving a car without gauges is a bad analogy.
Who looks at them anyway!
I know when my signal is on or when I'm speeding!
Unless it's the engine light. And that's useless.
It means TOO many different problems for a diagnosis.

A regular oil (water) change is all you need.

I only have star polyps and a leather. I have one xenia for a long time it died when we went on vacation. I bought another it died right away.

I cyano-bacteria now, but that's solved with water changes, no?

 

[Melanie]

Water TESTING is your only way to know of a problem before it becomes an ISSUE! If you don't test and keep track of your tank how do you know if things are slowly slipping out of whack? that's like driving your car without any gauges. You don't know something is out of whack until it stops running and by then it's usually to late and VERY expensive to fix. Take over heating.. with no TEMP gauge you just drive and drive until #1 Steam comes pouring out and you pull over or #2 The motor totally locks up due to over heating and you get to purchase and install a totally new engine. The gauge is MUCH cheaper and easier than the new engine.

GREAT analogy!

 

[CATALYST]

What if you aren't changing enough water? How would you know if you didn't actually need to change it more often? What if something died and you didn't see it? At least once in awhile, you really should test your water. Bring it to the LFS or something if you can't afford the tests.
You're supposed to change your oil every 3000 miles or 3 months. If you don't check the oil or have gauges and you change your oil every 3 months...what if your car was leaking or you let your friend borrow it. They could have gone on a joy ride and driven to Vegas and put a substantial amount of miles in your 3 months with an oil leak. Then your engine blows up and you don't know why. You changed the oil every 3 months right? You could have checked...
You're flying blind if you don't check once in awhile.

 

[sasquatch]

Driving a car without gauges is a bad analogy.
Who looks at them anyway!
I know when my signal is on or when I'm speeding!
Unless it's the engine light. And that's useless.
It means TOO many different problems for a diagnosis.

A regular oil (water) change is all you need.

I only have star polyps and a leather. I have one xenia for a long time it died when we went on vacation. I bought another it died right away.

I cyano-bacteria now, but that's solved with water changes, no?

:LOL: I plead the fifth. Sasquatch

 

[Melanie]

Driving a car without gauges is a bad analogy.
Who looks at them anyway!
I know when my signal is on or when I'm speeding!
Unless it's the engine light. And that's useless.
It means TOO many different problems for a diagnosis.

A regular oil (water) change is all you need.

I only have star polyps and a leather. I have one xenia for a long time it died when we went on vacation. I bought another it died right away.

I cyano-bacteria now, but that's solved with water changes, no?

It kind of sounds like you have already made up your mind.

 

[BigAl07]

Driving a car without gauges is a bad analogy.
Who looks at them anyway!
I know when my signal is on or when I'm speeding!
Unless it's the engine light. And that's useless.
It means TOO many different problems for a diagnosis.

A regular oil (water) change is all you need.

I only have star polyps and a leather. I have one xenia for a long time it died when we went on vacation. I bought another it died right away.

I cyano-bacteria now, but that's solved with water changes, no?

Well since that's such a "Bad analogy" and you have it all figured out you should be just fine in this hobby.

Allen

 

[Rcpilot]

How about this--in the name of science, of course?

Let's see how long you can actually go without ever testing anything. All problems can be fixed by changing some water. Be sure and document everything as you travel in this uncharted territory. We're all dieing (no pun intended) to know how long you can keep this tank "alive" without a test kit.

NO CHEATING!! If you start killing livestock and water changes don't cure the problem--you gotta stand fast. No cheating to find out if you have a nitrate spike on your hands. Just keep changing water. And document all of it in a journal with pics, or we'll never believe you.

My work here is done .............. :whstlr:

 

[Dentoid]

I have one xenia for a long time it died when we went on vacation. I bought another it died right away.

I cyano-bacteria now, but that's solved with water changes, no?

There you go, probably a result of instability and shot gun WCs. One thing that hasn't been mentioned here is STABILITY. The animals that we place in our tanks come from an ecological niche where water parameters rarely if ever change. If they do, organism die and others take their place that can survive in the new conditions. This is evident in areas of high human population and run off into the ocean.

Most dedicated reefers test their water to insure that they are providing a stable closed environment. Furthermore, with the use of Ca reactors, kalk reactors and other specialized equipment, that are designed to help maintain stability, require that water chemistry be monitored.

For you reef chemistry may not be important. What should be important to you and anyone accepting the responsibility of taking these animals into their care is ensuring that the animals captive environment is as close to their natural environment as possible. If nothing else for the animals continued success and health.

Many times, on these boards, we often recommend WCs to help people regain stability in a system that has gone astray. So your comment, "What problems happen that a good water change can't fix?" Really is not valid to a reefer that tries to maintain stability at all times.

For some, reefing is an art, for others it is a science. The best overall plan is a blending of art and science to create a captive reef environment that is stable, beautiful and thriving. IMO, that requires testing.

 

[kyrie_eleison]

roks,

How big is your tank anyway? Lighting? Filtration? inverts? I'm assuming it's a reef tank judging by what you've mentioned. Being conscientious of your tank is important but it's no fun if something dies due to ammonia spikes. If you're sticking with the whole "reef" direction then you should keep few inverts and fish. It's like they said, "in a reef tank, corals the main focus...fish are just an afterthought." This way, you don't necessarily have to go overboard with the testing.

 

[cioutlaw]

Test kits are somewhat cheap insurance & dont take a lot of time to use. Although I can say I am bad about testing now that my tank has been set up for awhile(1-1/2 years) & on cruise control, I test everything about every 2 months, temp & PH daily(digital monitors) salinity at least weekly. But I do have a very small bio load...150 gal total water & about 10" of fish combined. 1st 6mo. I tested a lot

 

[BigAl07]

That's the beauty of our obsession. Once it's up and established (read STABLE) we can cut back on "Total Testing" but as you've indicated you still do daily and weekly tests of the "biggies" even though you have a light bio-load on an established tank. You've hit the nail on the head. It gets better but it takes work and dedication to get there.

Allen

 

[kyrie_eleison]

Test kits are somewhat cheap insurance & dont take a lot of time to use. Although I can say I am bad about testing now that my tank has been set up for awhile(1-1/2 years) & on cruise control, I test everything about every 2 months, temp & PH daily(digital monitors) salinity at least weekly. But I do have a very small bio load...150 gal total water & about 10" of fish combined. 1st 6mo. I tested a lot

ciout,

Don't feel bad. My 55 gallon reef and my 55 gallon FOWLR tanks? I do the same thing but worst now. I only test my FOWLR once a month and my reef, I haven't tested in almost 3. It's bad but my bioload for both tanks is pretty much the same as yours; minimal.