How often should you test your water parameters and why to use Tropic Marin Test Kits

A while back, we did a series of testing aquarium parameters for beginners, and well, if you started then, you are no longer a beginner. Maybe you're ready for some more advanced testing, and if so, stick around and read on!

Here at Quality Marine, we most of our testing in a lab environment, using a spectrophotometer, or high precision probes and other equipment that is generally out of reach for most home hobbyists, both in price and convenience. For everyone who falls into this category, we strongly recommend using the test kits from Tropic Marin. It's what we all use for our home aquariums and desktop displays. There are also times when we need a snapshot of something quickly, and in those cases, we always reach for a Tropic Marin test kit.

The water analytics program from Tropic Marin are available for all the tests you'll be doing for an established tank. When you first get your tank going, Ammonia tests are important, and in a biologically robust aquarium, the relevance wears off a bit. You should still conduct Ammonia tests every time you re-work your aquascape or add new livestock. This test is called the NH4+/NH3 test, it is available as a stand alone test kit, but is also part of the “Compact Lab” which is a one stop shop for tests aimed at fish keeping more than mixed reef aquaria. The Compact Lab also contains tests for pH, Nitrate/Nitrite, Phosphate, and KH/Alkalinity.

The other kit with multiple items is the Tropic Marin Professional Lab which is a collection of high precision tests that are aimed at aquarists interested in reef style aquariums. The Professional Lab contains all of the tests you'll commonly do in reef tanks as part of one package. It includes tests for Calcium, KH/Alkalinity, pH, Nitrate/Nitrite, Phosphate, and some standard solutions for double checking all the test's accuracy.

All of the tests included in either of these kits is also available as a stand alone test kit. The standards for testing the kits are also available separately. In addition, there is a K+ kit for testing potassium and as this test is rarely done, it isn't included in any of the Labs. Each test is available in different resolutions as well. For example, there is a test kit for CA/Mg, and there is a Pro version of this kit as well. The Pro version is always the higher resolution, and the kit we always recommend for advanced aquarists.

The schedule for the rest of these tests varies a little bit on what kind of aquarium you have, and how that aquarium is stocked. Even in established aquariums, nutrient testing should be done occasionally, weekly to bi-weekly depending on stocking. The NO2/NO3 Pro test covers you for nitrite and nitrate testing, and the PO4, covers you for phosphates. These tests should be done daily whenever you change foods, re-arrange the décor or add livestock, to ensure the system is adjusting to your changes.

Alkalinity can be done weekly in fish only aquariums, but should be done daily, or every other day in aquariums with invertebrates, and aquariums that are heavily stocked. Alkalinity is the component most likely to get used up quickly in the home aquarium as it's part of many different biological processes.

There are a lot of you who don't want to hear this, but you should test your pH everyday, and ideally, twice a day, once at night just before lights out, and once in the morning, just before lights on. These are the two periods that will be the most different, and give you the best idea of exactly how much pH swing there is in your aquarium. A stable pH is super important to a wide variety of organisms, especially sensitive ones. It's a great indicator of how stable the tank is overall. It's also the best way to see if your water changes are keeping up with the natural depletion of buffers in your saltwater mix.

The last tests we'd like to touch on is calcium and magnesium, Ca/Mg Pro. Both these elements are vital for stony corals for growth and strength of skeletons; they are also important for a variety of biochemical processes in the home aquarium, though these mechanisms use very little of each, so if you only have fish, and do regular water changes, the Ca/Mg test will be of little use for you and won't tell you much that the pH test didn't already reveal. This is why it isn't included in the Compact Lab. One of the biggest draws on calcium and magnesium (as well as alkalinity) in marine aquariums is decorative clams like Tridacna and Squamosa. They will uptake these minerals at a rate that vastly exceeds corals, and so if you have these kinds of inverts in your tank, keep a close eye the Ca/Mg. These tests can be done on a weekly basis, though if you notice large differences in values from week to week, you'll want to increase the frequency of tests, and will probably need to start thinking about supplementing and or doing much larger or more frequent water changes.

If you're only keeping fish in your tank, and it isn't over stocked, you should get and use the Tropic Marin Compact Lab, which is also an excellent gift for the marine aquarium enthusiast in your life. If your aquarium features a lot of invertebrates, you should go with the Tropic Marin Professional Lab. When testing your water, a good rule is to start out doing tests every day (or more, like with pH) and as you notice which parameters are very stable, decrease the frequency of those tests. When ever you make large changes (new food, new fish, new inverts, aquascape changes) then go back to daily tests until the stability of the test results level off again.

Now, if you've been searching for the perfect gift for your fish obsessed friend, head over to your LFS, tell them Quality Marine sent you, and pick up some Tropic Marin Test Kits and maybe a bucket of their salt! Happy Reefing!