# How often do you test your water ? (F/W)



## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

Time for a new poll. Since I posted this in FW chat (cause I don't have s/w lol) lets keep it for the f/w taks in general. It's an anonymous poll so pick the one that fits you best. Just wondering how often people test their water, whether you do it yourself or take it elsewhere.


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

No poll? 

I use to test once a week, but I don't test at all now as I do enough frequent water changes. Tank is at a good balance at the moment. Though I do miss matching test tube colours to the chart.


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

lol haven't you started enough polls to know it post the thread and then has you set up the poll 
lol at missing matching the colors :lol:


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

Nice to see a hobby related poll. A new breath of fresh air...in this hobby's context, "a new gulp of clean water"
I haven't started that many polls..compared to.....trouble ;P


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## kacairns (Apr 10, 2012)

Every couple of days I test the PH and TDS with digital testers I got from Pat, I only check other things like ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phos, iron, calcium when I see plants not going properly or algae and so on and maybe once a week check GH/KH but even then I usually only test GH/KH before water change so I can buffer the new water to whats in the tank.

When I see the TDS starting to hit certain point after my water change, which is usually 2-4 weeks later I do another water change. Although my TDS is through the roof in the tank and has been slowly going down over the past 2 months finally (through the roof meaning 1140 is what I was reading from start of tank until a couple of months ago and now it is finally down to around 830 before the water change I'm draining for right now)


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

I test TDS once a week on every tank since it's a pen. I test nitrates once a week on my fully stocked tanks or if I have fry, but currently I am not testing since I ran out of reagent and my Boxing Day purchases have not been delivered yet from J&L. 

Oh I usually test nitrates just before a water change and TDS just after a water change to check my buffering capacity. The nitrate test after is because with a 50%+ wc I'll know how long it take to accumulate nitrates between water changes. When I'm feeding heavily with veggies in the pleco tank I often will accumulate 40 ppm waste per week.


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

I test my water once a week. Sometimes a bit more often on my discus tank.


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## Reptiles&Fish (Apr 22, 2012)

I use to test my water every week and do the recommended water changes all the time, when I first started. And through that time I had nice stable tanks with few loses but nothing exciting either. But for a while now, I have been doing zero testing, no water changes (Just top offs as my house is warm and the water level goes down fast) and only cleaning my filters out every month or two. Tank may be dirtier(Not visibly but compared to how others keep it), but I also think it's way more natural. And since keeping my tanks like this, my fish have been the healthiest I've ever seen them. Have not had one death since, or break out of disease or parasites, and they have ALL been breeding like crazy and none stop and over all they are much more active. Only time I'll ever use testing and do anything major will be if I see the fish are not looking so well or something serious, which has yet to happen since looking after my tanks this way. But happened lots when I was obsessed with looking after the tank.


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## kacairns (Apr 10, 2012)

Fish rookie said:


> I test my water once a week. Sometimes a bit more often on my discus tank.


Just wondering what the point of testing your Discus tank is since you do 90% water changes twice a day. Afraid the tank will imbalance so much in 12 hours that you'll kill your fish?


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## josephl (Apr 21, 2010)

kacairns said:


> Just wondering what the point of testing your Discus tank is since you do 90% water changes twice a day. Afraid the tank will imbalance so much in 12 hours that you'll kill your fish?


That's actually precisely why I never bother testing my water. I do 2 X 50 percent water changes daily and only add prime and one heaping tablespoon of equilibrum per change. With the volume of water changed each day, my ph should be what the ph of Vancouver tap water is. The discus will tell me when there is a problem with the water. My theory is the less I treat, the better as there is less stress to the fish


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

Water testing for me is more a learning experience and opportunity for me to understand water chemistry in my tank,as i am new to all these.

I like to know what happens to my water and my fish--and hopefully why--after I do certain things. 

It allows me to learn more about how to better look after my fish. Some people do not really know what is happening in their fish tanks; they just keep doing the same thing becasue it has worked. But the routine may not be the best way as there might be a better way plus when things go wrong if you do not know the whys it could be much more difficult to find the correct course of action to address the issue most effectively.

Some people believe the less they do they better their fish look--but testing your water has nothing to do with doing more or less to your fish tank. 

In my opinion, water testing is not about treating your water but about knowing what you need and what you do not need to do in terms of treating your water. Why put all these stuff in your water when they are not needed? How do you know whether they are needed or not if you do not actually test your water and find out? I actually do less to my discus water now than most people (no prime, no filter, no stability, no equilibrium, no medicine...etc) but I am only doing this because after many tests I know what my discus need and do not need, and I know some stuff are not useful in my tank at all. 

I am not saying testing water more frequently is better or anything like that. I like to monitor my tanks even when they seem very fine because I just do not like to wait till something is wrong before I try to find a solution plus the test result also gives me a great oppotunity to learn more regarding fish keeping. The knowledge is part of the reason why I enjoy fish or discus keeping so much.


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## kacairns (Apr 10, 2012)

Fish rookie said:


> Water testing for me is more a learning experience and opportunity for me to understand water chemistry in my tank
> 
> I like to know what happens to my water and my fish--and hopefully why--after I do certain things.
> 
> ...


Still whats the point of testing your discus tank water since now you say you don't do anything to the water and we know you change 2x daily. Unless your tap water contains something other peoples don't, you aren't adding anything, the only thing that will build up in the tank is what the discus and your food are doing. If you're feeding your discus proper food, and they are eating it, you have nothing to worry about and any levels of anything that could be harmful have no time to build up in 24 hours let alone 12 in your tank.


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

i only test my freshwater tanks if something doesn't look right, which is very rarely. If i slack off on water changes, i will atleast pop in my tds pen to see if its building up or if the plants are keeping up with the waste. Generally i only test nitrates when i am fine tuning my ei dosing, otherwise i don't bother. I also will test tap water ph every few months out of curiousity and nothing more.

imo as long as you change water regularily and use the same amount of buffers per water volume you change out, you will have tank stability. so PH, kh and GH shouldn't physically need to be tested since a tank wont fluctuate much in a week.


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## Sploosh (Nov 19, 2012)

On my "established" tanks I tend to test pH/Nitrates weekly, gh/kh once a month, ammonia/nitrites once a month.
If a tank is going through a mini cycle (due to a move or filter failure etc) or I am concerned/interested in fluctuations, I test pH/ammonia/nitrites/nitrates every 2-3 days, gh/kh once every 2-3 tests. 
Also depends on water change cycles too, I'm starting to confuse myself now thinking about it all....
Lately have been missing tests due to all tanks (except 1) playing musical stands


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## Smallermouse (Jan 28, 2012)

next poll should be. who has drank their fresh water tank water. lol
i like how the water changes color while testing for ph, ammonia . nitrite, and nitrate


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## Nicole (Nov 21, 2011)

Who has tasted their salt water tank water..ughh..it is very salty if anyone was curious..



Smallermouse said:


> next poll should be. who has drank their fresh water tank water. lol
> i like how the water changes color while testing for ph, ammonia . nitrite, and nitrate


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

I read that in the old days a discus owner would proudly drink water from his tank to show how clean his water was. LOL


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