No testing, just water changes, manual dosing, and watching colors?

[Doctorgori]

This poor guys going to think he needs to check alk 3 times a day for 3 frags. Automation is nice for tenuis, and sps, goniopora, and when dealing with a large mature reef, But if he's got a duncan, a mushroom, and acan I don't see the point in wasting the money.

haha ... I see your point ...but the gist I think is people wanted to emphasise the need to test almost regardless and how they go about it ...
I got the feeling the OP was trying to get a feel of the issue, something. ....

 

[Hydrored]

This poor guys going to think he needs to check alk 3 times a day for 3 frags. Automation is nice for tenuis, and sps, goniopora, and when dealing with a large mature reef, But if he's got a duncan, a mushroom, and acan I don't see the point in wasting the money.

The point was getting into the habit and not get lazy reefer syndrome. May be a waste of money to you but small investment compared to the money invested into a tank and taking care of animals

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

personally I hate testing, it upsets me every time because my numbers never line up with the "ideal numbers". For example, my alk is 7, half the people on this forum will tell me my tank is in great danger and I need to increase my alk, the other half will say I'm fine. But my corals are all growing, fish are happy, inverts happy, no algae, why should I do anything? The test is complicated so I have no idea if I did it right, the disclaimer on the box says the results might not be 100% accurate, and if you use 2 different test kits you get 2 different results....... I think it makes a lot of sense to judge your tank health on the overall appearance, backed up by the occasional testing, but I won't ruin my hobby fun by chasing numbers. (unpopular opinion I know)
PS - dosing without testing is a bad idea

 

[Darren in Tacoma]

In a mature tank you can test less often and it is easier to tell when something is off due to familiarity. But, I wouldn't say to never test. In my opinion, alk stability is important enough that I test about twice a week regardless of how things look in the tank. I also think that you need to test more often in a demanding sps tank as opposed to an easier to manage softie tank.

 

[Lancelogan1217]

The point was getting into the habit and not get lazy reefer syndrome. May be a waste of money to you but small investment compared to the money invested into a tank and taking care of animals

600 for a trident system is a pretty big investment when your new. And don't people buy them to be lazy? To not manually run tests? Regardless, the original post was asking if it was a waste of time testing regularly with 3 frags, or if its more so for larger quantities, and id agree with him. At 2 months he should be focused on testing no3 and po4 until he's got his nutrient export tuned in. Or simply telling him at 2 months, with that few corals you shouldn't be dosing anything.