How often to test water?

[pdiehm]

Since I've added some inverts to the tank, I am wondering how often I should test the parameters, and what parameters should I be testing at this point?

I know during cycling, it was ammonia, nitrites, and nitrate, with some pH tests to make sure it didnt drop low.

My test kit also has kH.

So yeah...what should i be testing for and how often

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Here's my post from another thread that seems to apply here:

Advice #1 : Supplementing in the early stages of a reef aquarium

1. Get an alkalinity test kit.
2. Measure your aquarium.
3. If the alkalinity is not below about 8 dKH (3 meq/L), and you are not already supplementing alkalinity, then you do not need to test for any other chemical (not counting salinity) and you do not need to supplement any chemicals at all.

The reason is that alkalinity will decline before anything else has significantly dropped, and if it has not dropped out of acceptable ranges, then neither will anything else have done so.

Happy Reefing!