Just a Lil OCD on water parameters

Anthony christian · Jan 10, 2016

Hey everyone just wanted to share this with everyone I keep and am very obessive about water quality my parameters are

Po4 0
No2 0
No3 0
Nh3\nh4 0
PH 8.0 I test after lights go out I assume pH is low cause of that but not sure I'm researching this.
Can 420
Aklinity 7
Mag 1280

Now today I tested water parameters and I normally have a droplet just for testing water and one just for feeding well I got a hold of the wrong one and I always test nitrate first as you can see in the nitrate graph for today I logged 5.0ppm for that parameter now I test once a week after lights go out so I seen 5.0 for nitrate and I was like no way that big of jump from 0 to 5.0 in week so of course I started freaking out cause I just signed of for coral dudes frag club did not need crap parameters right now so I finished test all the other parameters all came out perfect I was cool with all that then it got to me about my nitrates so I got to looking and thinking did I do the test wrong did I over feed did something die Inside the tank I got down under the stand looking over everything then I seen it my designated droplet for water test sitting there stareing at me perfectly dry oops I used the dirty droplet I used to feed my tank and corals I just laughed just for the fun of it like I said I am ocd on water parameters I re-tested three times to be sure it was indeed a dirty droplet causing this concern. My droplets are now labeled. Well that's my story hope you all enjoy.

CodyRVA · Jan 11, 2016

Do you use API for all of your testing?

Anthony christian · Jan 11, 2016

Yea unfortunately that's all my lfs has. I'm thinking of ordering some different one just not sure which one to get.

CodyRVA · Jan 11, 2016

Anthony christian said:
Yea unfortunately that's all my lfs has. I'm thinking of ordering some different one just not sure which one to get.

I highly suggest you go with a better quality test kit. I changed from API to Salifert and was blown away, my PH tests went from 8.3 to 7.7, MG and CA were both a hundred or so PPM off, ALK with API tested around 7-8, in reality it was 9-10 dkh. All test kits were new. There are other options besides Salifert, but they seem to be decently priced for the accuracy vs Hanna, Red Sea Kits, etc. I ordred mine off Amazon.