Reef Aquarium Water Testing: Are You Making These 3 Tank Killing Mistakes?
Water Quality Testing Mistake #1 - Testing your tank's water when you remember to - This is a recipe for disaster, and a sure-fire way to end up with algae problems and unhappy corals.
Out of all the aspects of aquarium keeping, knowing your tank's water quality is paramount and one of the most important.
This is not an area to cut corners.
What to do instead - Be consistent with testing your tank's water.
Weekly testing is ideal, but twice a month is OK.
Be sure to write the results down on your tank chart or log book.
This way you can always go back and reference them when trouble shooting an issue with your tank.
The more frequently you test your tank (weekly vs.
bi-weekly) the quicker you can respond to any issues and thus avoid unwanted consequences.
Water Quality Testing Mistake #2 - Not using a tank chart or log book to record your results.
Why go to all the effort of testing your tank's water quality parameters if you don't record them? What to do instead - Write your test results on a tank chart that you keep with your tank.
It makes finding your results quick and easy and makes problem solving a lot easier too.
A simple excel sheet will do, with columns for date, temperature, salinity, alkalinity, calcium, phosphate, nitrate, and notes.
Keep your tank chart on a clipboard with extra blank copies handy for when you fill up the sheet.
And if you want to make your reef tank even better, you'll want to graph your results.
This makes trouble shooting much easier and faster.
For example, you'll see on the graph a dip in the Calcium when it was consistent for a long while and then dropped.
If you look on your tank chart notes from that same time period, you'd see that you ran out of calcium additive.
Graphing your testing results is hard work that makes your life a lot easier.
It's worth doing - trust me.
Water Quality Testing Mistake #3 - Using an old test kit with expired reagents.
Testing your tank's water with expired reagents will result in inaccurate results.
What to do instead - Keep your test kits current.
Most test kits have an expiration date on them.
And if your test kit is expired the reagents will not give you accurate results if they work at all.
As long as you test your tank frequently, you will use up the test kit before its reagents expire.
Out of all the aspects of aquarium keeping, knowing your tank's water quality is paramount and one of the most important.
This is not an area to cut corners.
What to do instead - Be consistent with testing your tank's water.
Weekly testing is ideal, but twice a month is OK.
Be sure to write the results down on your tank chart or log book.
This way you can always go back and reference them when trouble shooting an issue with your tank.
The more frequently you test your tank (weekly vs.
bi-weekly) the quicker you can respond to any issues and thus avoid unwanted consequences.
Water Quality Testing Mistake #2 - Not using a tank chart or log book to record your results.
Why go to all the effort of testing your tank's water quality parameters if you don't record them? What to do instead - Write your test results on a tank chart that you keep with your tank.
It makes finding your results quick and easy and makes problem solving a lot easier too.
A simple excel sheet will do, with columns for date, temperature, salinity, alkalinity, calcium, phosphate, nitrate, and notes.
Keep your tank chart on a clipboard with extra blank copies handy for when you fill up the sheet.
And if you want to make your reef tank even better, you'll want to graph your results.
This makes trouble shooting much easier and faster.
For example, you'll see on the graph a dip in the Calcium when it was consistent for a long while and then dropped.
If you look on your tank chart notes from that same time period, you'd see that you ran out of calcium additive.
Graphing your testing results is hard work that makes your life a lot easier.
It's worth doing - trust me.
Water Quality Testing Mistake #3 - Using an old test kit with expired reagents.
Testing your tank's water with expired reagents will result in inaccurate results.
What to do instead - Keep your test kits current.
Most test kits have an expiration date on them.
And if your test kit is expired the reagents will not give you accurate results if they work at all.
As long as you test your tank frequently, you will use up the test kit before its reagents expire.
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