passive reefer/active reefer

[Weyou]

I bought full of test kits to test the water and do not really understand what the purpose of it is !!!! how to turn from passive reefer to active reefer.
I stayed in the same position before all the test results, looking with my eyes at the aquarium and just making cupping for the dead, changing water, adding carbon, adding adsorbents to the minyan, without really knowing how to act properly

 

[MrMreef]

Not sure I 100% understand the question, I’m interpreting it as “how do I act on test results?” - apologies if that’s the wrong take.

As best as I can explain it, the purpose of testing should not be to correct a single test result that’s out of range - the purpose of testing is to observe trends that indicate (hand in hand with observing the health your charges) flaws in your husbandry or underlying issues.

Good example: on testing kH and finding that it is 0.5 below your normal, the response is not to immediately dose 0.5, but to find what’s changed and adapt. Maybe you need to dose a little more each day to stabilize, maybe your last water change was a little low in salinity, maybe your RO top off is off.

Trends over time are, strictly in my opinion, the most important thing that testing reveals.

Hope that helps!

Edit: + to me, being an active reefer means having a plan and sticking to it but being open to change this based on observation

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

What tests are you using?

Alkalinity and calcium are the two most important ones in an established reef aquarium.

 

[Weyou]

hanna for alk and po4
tropic marin for no2 & no3
salifert for calcium and mag

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

What results do you get with them?

 

[Weyou]

What results do you get with them?

I must admit I am still learning to test the water accurately this thing is not simple for me but luckily there are plenty of videos and also some lfs help me and now I am positive for Corona so I have time in isolation to learn more. from what I am sure I recently measured accurately it is alk {yesterday} and nitrate alk according to hanna test it is 7.6dkh and nitrate ( yesterday} after all the addition of np bacto balabce it is about two to three weeks dropped from 10-15 ppm to 5-10ppm it according to tropic marin test kit today I will test phosphate and update

 

[Weyou]

my po4 is 0.10

 

[Weyou]

What results do you get with them?

po4 0.10
alk 7.6
no3 5 - 10

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

po4 0.10
alk 7.6
no3 5 - 10

Those values all look good to me and I would not specifically act to change them.

 

[Weyou]

Those values all look good to me and I would not specifically act to change them.

stop dosing np bacto balance?
my elegance coral coral is close for 2 month and i have a lot of algea

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

stop dosing np bacto balance?
my elegance coral coral is close for 2 month and i have a lot of algea

Your purpose of adding it is what exactly?

Defeating algae by lowering nutrients is a tricky and often unsuccessful endeavor, causing problems for other organisms before killing off the algae.

 

[Reeferbadness]

hanna for alk and po4
tropic marin for no2 & no3
salifert for calcium and mag

same here. The hanna calcium checker is a disaster. Alk and po4 are great. Salifert is solid for calcium and mag. I don't even bother checking no2 and no3 - but probably should (i have 2 x 200 g tanks - both are doing great with just slightly high po4 in 1 due to over feeding corals )

 

[Weyou]

Your purpose of adding it is what exactly?

Defeating algae by lowering nutrients is a tricky and often unsuccessful endeavor, causing problems for other organisms before killing off the algae.

so what you suggest? reduceing the np bacto balance or stop for good? my tank is 300 liter and i dose 1.5 ml of np bacto balance daily..

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I do not see a reason to keep adding bactobalance, but I'm not sure it is hurting anything.