This my be a silly question, but when is the best time to test your water parameters? I'm trying to establish a baseline in my tank, which is almost 3 years old at this point. We moved last year and I have lost several corals after the move and my others just don't seem to be fully recovered yet. I know some additives say to dose in the morning but as the day goes on, parameters will obviously change as corals use nutrients and grow. I would assume it doesnt necessarily matter when you test a long as its consistently the same time? Looking to get my tank back in shape! Thanks
General testing
- Thread starter himantas
- Start date
- Tagged users None
First up; welcome to R2R! Glad you found us - happy to have you. 
There are some things that have a day/night cycle (pH, for example) that you may be interested in knowing the variation your tank goes through, but that's something you can either get a probe for (if you have a controller) or else do a couple of tests throughout the day every so often to establish and check your swing.
It's generally a good idea to wait around 10-20min (or shorter in smaller tanks and longer in bigger ones) after dosing something into the tank before checking the new level. That way you get a better reading. This is where knowing your flow turn-over (how much water is moving from your DT to your sump and back) can come in handy; you can wait enough time to have 1x, 2x, or more total tank turn-over depending upon what and how much you've dosed in.
For most things, yeah - as long as you are testing around the same time of day, you're going to be able to see the trends of your tank.
There are some things that have a day/night cycle (pH, for example) that you may be interested in knowing the variation your tank goes through, but that's something you can either get a probe for (if you have a controller) or else do a couple of tests throughout the day every so often to establish and check your swing.
It's generally a good idea to wait around 10-20min (or shorter in smaller tanks and longer in bigger ones) after dosing something into the tank before checking the new level. That way you get a better reading. This is where knowing your flow turn-over (how much water is moving from your DT to your sump and back) can come in handy; you can wait enough time to have 1x, 2x, or more total tank turn-over depending upon what and how much you've dosed in.
