Testing Water

Is there a specific time you test your water. It was brought to my attention that depending on what time you test your ph, alk, or other various tests will cause different ranges of results. When do you do your tests?

 

ph can vary depending on time of day Reef Bruh

Ph can lower at night when the plant life is taking in oxygen and releasing CO2

so PH is best to test after the lights have been on a few hours

other tests - I tend to do Mag Calcium and Alkalinity once per week normally and do these late afternoon at weekend so its well after the daily dose of Calcium has been dripped in and the previous nights Alk etc

this fits in well with the PH situation and as such most of my tests are run Saturday late afternoon, as I will be mixing SW for water change which I do on Sunday
so that gives me a chance to compare levels in the new mix, with the levels I got from the DT

Steve

 

I normally test the big three before I do a water change. pH I rarely test:-[. I test ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and phosphate only when there is a problem.

 

I test Alk Calc and Mag in the afternoon once a week. I do ph at night, but the API ph kit is so hard to read I have been skipping it. I figure if my Alk is where it should be my PH is usually fine.

 

So is it best to test early morning / afternoon ? before feeding ?

E

 

Mine is almost the exact regimen as Steve's.

If I'm feeding at night I perform all tests prior to the feeding.