Do I need to test with weekly water changes?

[Digimes]

That’s good if it works for you. My tank is only 5, almost 6 months old, so I assume it needs weekly water change. And I’m also a beginner in this hobby even if I spent a year or 2 in research. I don’t have calcium, mag or po4 test kits, so the only thing that I can test is my ph, my salinity, nitrates, nitrites, alk, and ammonia.

Alk, salinity and Ph are probably the biggest things to test. Biggest thing is don't chase the numbers. The tank will somewhat balance itself, add about half of what you think you need at first until you get it all down good. My most current tank is just over 4 months old and already growing massive coraline. I personally don't think water changes are a super big deal, at least not weekly. Do you have any pics of your current setup?

 

[Oiseaufeu]

Water changes cannot maintain alk in any high demand tank unless the changes are daily and large and the new salt water has a higher alk than your tank.

As folks have suggested, measuring alk is the way to know if you are succeeding with the water change plan in terms of the major ions.

Trace elements may or may not be met.

That’s good to know.

Alk, salinity and Ph are probably the biggest things to test. Biggest thing is don't chase the numbers. The tank will somewhat balance itself, add about half of what you think you need at first until you get it all down good. My most current tank is just over 4 months old and already growing massive coraline. I personally don't think water changes are a super big deal, at least not weekly. Do you have any pics of your current setup?

This is my tank set up. Don’t mind my freshwater tank on top. My light was on the white mode, but my iphone 14 picked it up blue for some reason.

 

[Digimes]

13 gallons is hard to keep stable. Do you have an auto top off? If you don't you gotta test salinity a couple times a day (which is super easy and you get to feel very important looking through a refractometer). I still test salinity even with an auto top off to be safe, but only a couple times a week.

You can get test strips that will test a bunch of the other things at once, nitrates, alkalinity, copper, ph, ect, ammonia is always a separate strip and these test strip bundles are cheap. Unless you are doing some acros, test strips should be fine for now, just make sure they say they can be used for saltwater.

And, don't be afraid to break up a 4 gallon water change into a few 1-2 gallon water changes over the course of a week. Frequent smaller water changes are more stable than big swings caused by weekly water changes. I change a gallon sometimes 2 on my 20g almost every day and I find it to be much better than when I was doing 5 gallons all at once each week. I also don't worry about calcium or magnesium because the water change replenishes those substances.

While testing is important, as long as you are diligent in water changes, you should do fine. Good luck.

On my 5g, I adjust the salinity monthly and then maintain topoff by adding RO to a specific point in the sump. As it evaporates, the salinity increases slightly but adding fresh every other day brings ot back down to correct levels. I find that within 30 days I can keep it between 1.025 and 1.026 easily.

 

[Digimes]

That’s good to know.


This is my tank set up. Don’t mind my freshwater tank on top. My light was on the white mode, but my iphone 14 picked it up blue for some reason.

Is that green hair algea?

 

[Oiseaufeu]

On my 5g, I adjust the salinity monthly and then maintain topoff by adding RO to a specific point in the sump. As it evaporates, the salinity increases slightly but adding fresh every other day brings ot back down to correct levels. I find that within 30 days I can keep it between 1.025 and 1.026 easily.

I always add fresh ro water in my tank after evaporation. And I don’t have a sump because I lack the space for it.

 

[Oiseaufeu]

Is that green hair algea?

Yes. It’s been there for at least a couple weeks, but it doesn’t spread quickly. It all started with white string on the glass and then transformed into this algae.

 

[Digimes]

Yes. It’s been there for at least a couple weeks, but it doesn’t spread quickly. It all started with white string on the glass and then transformed into this algae.

I would turn off all the flow, scrap it off and collect it manually. But that's just me.

 

[Digimes]

I always add fresh ro water in my tank after evaporation. And I don’t have a sump because I lack the space for it.

You can still choose a reference point in your tank and just refill to that point every few days.

 

[Oiseaufeu]

I would turn off all the flow, scrap it off and collect it manually. But that's just me.

I started doing it, but some bristleworms are in there and I don’t wanna be stung by it. I also cleanned the wavemakers, but some algae floating around got stuck in.

 

[Oiseaufeu]

You can still choose a reference point in your tank and just refill to that point every few days.

I’ve traced 2 lines with a black marker on my tank and my top off shouldn’t go beyond the second line. I once flooded my floor for not paying attention to my ro and that’s something I don’t want to deal with again.