Water Parameters: too often, SG or PPT?

Have my new tank up and waiting on the cycle. I have a whole, head and all, table shrimp in the refugium. In the mean time I'm checking water parameters every 2 days, in MS excel. I'm checking and recording Nitrates, Nitrites, PH, Ammonia, and salinity.

I have some questions, I’d appreciate any help.

1. Is it okay to have the shrimp in the refugium? It's kind of ugly laying there so I like the fact that it's hidden down there as opposed to the DT.
2. Am I checking too often, every 2 days?
3. I'm using a refractometer, should I be tracking Specific Gravity, PPT or both? I can track both by using a conversion formula in excel.

Thanks in advance,

DarkHorseMBA

 

Doesn't matter where the shrimp is, as long as it's in the system somewhere. You don't really need to check everything every 2 days. Just check as it might be neccesary. Once you see ammonia start to drop, test for nitrites. Once you see nitrites get to 0, test ammonia, and test nitrates. Save test kits that way. SG tends to be better since you can do calculations with it, but it doesn't matter as long as you're consistent.

 

Even though they are measuring different things, you can use either for what we want. Just know the normal values of either. Most people use specific gravity when talking on these forums, so it's probably easiest for you to go with that. Otherwise peeps may have to go look up the normal ranges for salinity.

 

SG is also better for use in quite a few equations relating to saltwater tanks, since there's no absolute 0 that can throw off the equations.