How often do you test and for what

[foundnemo11]

I was just wondering what others do for testing

I test
alk - 1 or two times a week
cal - 1 per week
mag- 1 a month ( maybe less maybe more basically whenever I decide to)

That's it I stopped testing others because they never change and I do frequent water changes

The only changes I see are calcium and alk really

 

[ShallowPlanet]

I tend to test ALk, CA, and MG once a week just to make sure nothing funky is going on to cause the parameters to change. Nitrates and other things I test randomly or if I notice an algae issue pop up.

 

[thegrun]

Salinity, Alkalinity, Calcium and Magnesium weekly, Phosphates every other week.

 

[Spar]

Alk 2x/week
Calc 1x/week, sometimes less
Mg 1-2x/month
Salinity 1-2x/month
PO4 1x/month or if algae looks like popping up

 

[Kirkwood77]

things change depending on where your confidence level is on your parameters but right now I'm doing
Nitrate, Phosphate weekly (i'm feeding heavier to get NO3 to a detectable level)
Cal, ALk bi weekly
MAG monthly
SAL at water change bi weekly

 

[hkgar]

CA ALK PO4 NO3 weekly
MAG monthly

 

[ThreeMoneyJ]

I used to test constantly. Cal, alk, mag, po4, no3, and salinity. I'll probably get flamed for this, but I think my tank looks great currently and I barely ever test.

Now that my tank has been up and running for a few years I've gotten a feel for the tank. If something looks wrong ill test. If not then I don't. My current testing schedule is alk, ca, mg and salinity about once every 2 months. (Usually when I start on a new bucket of salt) I do check my temp and all equipment daily though.

 

[Reefvet]

Depends on the age of the tank and what's in it.

Established tanks I pretty much know what the demands are for dosing. So I only test every 2 weeks.

I've got a new grow out tank, running just 3 months, and I keep adding frags so I test Alk, Calcium, MG and SG daily. pH is monitored by an Apex. I recently added a number of SPS frags and after they were in for about a week ALK and MG dropped big time. Brought the levels up and those frags are growing beautifully.

 

[Reefsi]

Just started a new tank 3 weeks old. I've been testing Alk, Ca, Mg, NH4, NO3, N02, and PO4 every day since day one. PH, ORP, and SG are monitored constantly with my apex controller. It has really given me an opportunity to learn my and log some of my levels during the cycle, adding GFO, and starting my Ca reactor up. Also I have learned I can test every one of those in 10 minutes.

Once the tank is established I expect to test 1-2 times per week for only PO4, Ca, and alk.

If you go to get Ca reactor up and running I suggest testing it every 24 hours for the first week to insure there is no hickups and so forth with adding other reactors.

 

[Reefvet]

Just started a new tank 3 weeks old. I've been testing Alk, Ca, Mg, NH4, NO3, N02, and PO4 every day since day one. PH, ORP, and SG are monitored constantly...

You were testing for all those while the tank cycles ?

 

[Whiterabbitrage]

Alk, Ca, Mg 3x week
Salinity, nitrate, pH 1 x week
Iodine and phosphate 1 x month
Iron, potassium, silicates couple x a year