couple questions

[Lytehouse]

Wondering if you would answer couple questions about change water....

Do you test paramaters of change water before adding it to your system?

Do you add supplements to your change water before adding it to the system or just add supplements straight to your system?

I am getting lots of differing thoughts/opinions and would like to hear from folks from different parts of the country.

thanks in advance for your time.....

 

[FateX8]

depends on what i feel like
sometimes ill test the first batch of sw from a bucket to make sure its good but most of the time i dont, just test for salinity and thats it
if something happens to the tank i will test fresh sw but thats usually the only time
shouldnt need to add supplements to the new water

 

[Rivers]

I agree with FateX8. However if you are just topping off with fw it doesn't hurt to add supplements. I will alternate between calcium, iodine, vitamin C, and many other things depending on how I feel (and what I have the most of in the cabinet).

 

[ahayes13]

i usually test the new water for mag. just because their mag is always lower and i think its better to add to the jugs before hand to bring it up to my liking. easier and then im putting the appropriate mag. parameter into my tank. so my mag doesnt go up and down and up and down.

 

[fly guy]

Yes, I test every batch I make up for calcium and mag. I make 50 gallons at a time.

Mag is always needed and sometimes Ca

I use RC. I didnt used to test for anything but SG but last year I got 4 or 5 bad buckets so I just kind of got into the habit. the salt was fine, just super low in calcium. Low enough that a decent sized water change would drop me enough to matter

 

[AlexStinson]

alot of people add supplements to their top-off water, but I find it easier to adjust levels in the tank as needed. My tank is relativly young, so I don't have an equation of how fast I use different ions in the water, so I would hate to slowly skew my water chemistry