Testing water

[gregzz4]

I don't get enough time to stare at my tank on a regular basis. Because of that I can't see when something is happening, so I rely on testing.
I test the Big 3 weekly and adjust my doser accordingly.
I perform WCs every other week and adjust the new water before adding it, then adjust the timers for a week to compensate for the salt I buy.
I'm being cheap with salt, so this is my life ...

It's either this or get out of the hobby

[jason604]

Yep I stopped checking my parameters for about almost a year now. Before I use to check all the time and seems like each time I do I end up adjusting my additives and cause more rtn,stn etc. ever since I cared for my tank less my tank has been thriving. I'm pretty lazy I only do the bare minimum like water changes every 2 weeks or so and mix additives for my dosed every 2 months. Dirty tank? Then get a sea hare and thank yourself later. I drilled a hole through my skimmer cup and attached a tube to it direct the nasty stuff to a 2L pop bottle so now I don't even need to dump it out for over a month. Enjoy your tank, not be a slave to it.

[Ryanerickson]

For the people that can't be bothered testing your tank why even have one? Your all one alk swing away from a full wipe out. This thread makes me laugh people bragging about there lazines or inability to figure out a 3 step test kit. That's all for now

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Ryanerickson

[You're] all one alk swing away from a full wipe out.

My thoughts exactly.

[Reeferluke]

Originally Posted by Ryanerickson

For the people that can't be bothered testing your tank why even have one? Your all one alk swing away from a full wipe out. This thread makes me laugh people bragging about there lazines or inability to figure out a 3 step test kit. That's all for now

Absolutely

[jason604]

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.

[Animal-Chin]

Originally Posted by jason604

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.

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...

[acepumping]

Originally Posted by jason604

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.

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

[Bblinks]

Originally Posted by acepumping

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

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

[Animal-Chin]

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...