Checking water parameters

[kurly]

How often should you check your water parameters after your tank has completely cycled and you have added fish?

[Azear]

I check mine around 4-7 days depending on how much time I do have (Ammo testing takes 20 minutes ! and Chelated Iron takes 30 minutes.... lol so... gotta have a bit of time) But gotta remember that this is AFTER the cycling... :P

[kurly]

I don't have ammo or chelated iron tests. As a matter of fact I have never tested for either. What is ammo? (If its ammonia then I have tested for that of course) I only have the API master test kit for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and PH. Should I be checking more than what I have been?

[markbob]

Once you're established and the cycle complete, once or twice a week is fine. and maybe the day after you do a water change if you do water changes.

[Azear]

What is ammo?

Ammonia.... it's like saying " 'trites" and " 'trates" refers to Nitrites and Nitrates

once or twice a week is fine. and maybe the day after you do a water change if you do water changes.

That's what I do... I test on day 1... do water change on day 4... test on day 5 and restart testing on day 1... and .... and so on... :P

[kurly]

Thanks. I'll start checking once a week. For the first week after it cycled I was checking everyday. Maybe a little paranoid, but I wanted to make sure that my fish were okay. Of course I know that I don't need to check everyday now but I wanted to see how often others check their parameters.

[zackish]

I haven't tested my water in about 3 months. I did regular checks the first few months my tank was set up.

[spudbuds]

I test once a week prior to my water change. I test for ammonia and nitrite just as a sanity check and then test for nitrate to make sure it's not building up too much every week.

[richberstler]

I was only planning on testing once a month, so I'm a bit off. Will probably check my shrimp tank a little more often.

[~Erik3.8.07~]

i test every other sunday, once just before i change the water, then again after the change, just to be safe.

[mitcore]

i test ammonia etc with i feel like it
it takes to long to do it all the time
and i test ph and hardness 24hr after a tank change

[Lady Hobbs]

I do large water changes every week on my tanks and very, very seldom ever test water parmeters. The only time it would concern me is if I started moving fish around and added more than 4 or 5 to a tank that had previously had less just incase of an ammonia spike.

[kurly]

I just checked my parameters and everything is okay except my PH has dropped to 6.4 which is getting too low.

[mitcore]

just add a small amount of ph up
it should fix it what fish do you have in there?

[kurly]

I have 3 pygmy rasboras, 4 black diamond cory cats and 4 red cherry shrimp in the tank.