1329eheim

Experienced Reefer
Location
Staten Island
Rating - 100%
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Red Sea alk and calc kits 2-3 x a week. Results are usually stable, but frequently require slight tweaking of 2-part/kalkwasser dosing to maintain levels within desired range. So in my mind, these are VERY useful tests.

Hydrometer salinity test once a week. Another very useful test to make sure, I haven't overfilled/underfilled tank with SW during recent water change

API NO3 test maybe once a month. No idea how accurate it is, but I do see consistent changes in response to changes in filtration methods.

Hanna low resolution PO4 kit maybe once a month (and very often when I repeat the test -- within minutes of previous test -- with water from same DT, I get a substantially different result so I wonder, really, what's the point and prefer to gauge PO4 by algae growth). I've stopped testing with Salifert and Red Sea PO4 kits because they always read zero. (In fact, a friend of mine used my Salifert kit to test PO4 in a well-fed grouper tank at a public aquarium, which had nitrates exceeding 160, and the result was . . . ZERO.) The test is clearly useless.

Magnesium (Red Sea) -- I test maybe once a year because I always get a reading that is substantially higher than NSW levels. I don't dose the stuff so must be result of my weekly 10% water changes with IO salt.

I'm glad to see that strontium and iodine tests have fallen out of favor. Both tests are totally unnecessary IMO.
 

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