Water Testing

[BuddyTheGreat]

What’s the most important test to run on a tank with just fish? Plan on adding corals later in the future once the tank is older and more stable but in the mean time I want to be sure my fish are happy. How often should I run these test and what should I use to test? Most accurate and easy to use!

 

[BairCorals]

Just fish, I'd say everything is still important. Ph too high or low can hurt fish, alkalinity out of wack can harm, calcium and magnesium go hand in hand with alkalinity, nitrates of course, ammonia of course, and phosphates need to be in check too otherwise you'll have all sorts of ugliness going on in the tank. And of course you need a refractometer.

Just get salifert tests and a good refractometer. Later you can get the Hannah checkers for alk, nitrate, and phosphates.

 

[Gtinnel]

If we don’t include the obviously most important parameters of salinity and temperature, then for a fish only system I’d say nitrate and phosphate are most important. However if you’re going to be keeping corals you might as well get into the habit of testing alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium as well.
With a fish only system none of the parameters are nearly as important as they are for corals, and even the two I mentioned have more to do with avoiding algae issues than the health of the fish.

For nitrate and phosphate I strongly recommend Hanna checkers (ULR for phosphate and HR for nitrate). I would start testing them about twice a week then after a while I’d probably go to once a week.

 

[BuddyTheGreat]

If we don’t include the obviously most important parameters of salinity and temperature, then for a fish only system I’d say nitrate and phosphate are most important. However if you’re going to be keeping corals you might as well get into the habit of testing alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium as well.
With a fish only system none of the parameters are nearly as important as they are for corals, and even the two I mentioned have more to do with avoiding algae issues than the health of the fish.

For nitrate and phosphate I strongly recommend Hanna checkers (ULR for phosphate and HR for nitrate). I would start testing them about twice a week then after a while I’d probably go to once a week.

Hanna HR as in high range? Also the tank is a little over a month old. When can I stop worrying about testing for ammonia and nitrite? I know it’s important to check it when cycling.

 

[Gtinnel]

Hanna HR as in high range? Also the tank is a little over a month old. When can I stop worrying about testing for ammonia and nitrite? I know it’s important to check it when cycling.

Yes HR is high range, they make a low range nitrate test but it is awful. Also, for nitrate if you don’t want to spend the money on a Hanna checker I’ve also always liked the salifert test and it’s cheap.
Once your tank is cycled there is no reason to check ammonia and nitrite IMO. Assuming you don’t add fish way too quickly or have something large die in your tank then ammonia should never be an issue.