API test kit, help!

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For me.....testing for ammonia and nitrite are needed only when starting a new tank, once the tank is established I barely ever test for those parameters,
After becoming established, or if adding stock, .I use regular pH and nitrate testing to determine frequency and amount of water changes it needs.
Because I want nitrate levels to be as close to zero as possible, and pH to be as stable as possible, regular testing until a proper water change routine is developed lets me know what that water change routine should be.
If I do a water change on Monday showing nitrate at 5ppm(or less), and 8.2 pH, but if either pH has dropped significantly by Fri, or nitrate has risen to 20 ppm by Fri, that tells me (with my stocking level, and my tap waters buffering capacity) that I need to do at least 1 or more water changes between Mon and Fri.
For me, when my 300 gal system in stocked with 15 medium size fish, and a cleanup crew of shrimp in the sump, and heavy planting, regular testing results over time has showed me how to maintain my undetectable to 5 ppm nitrate goal, (and a rock solid pH of 8.2).
That I need to do between, 30% to 40% changes of the systems water volume every other day,
Because each tank is its own entity, when starting a new system, I usually keep a testing log for up to year, to watch trend, and determine that tanks individual needs, and stability.
And/or if a drastic fluctuation in extra stock, is done, or a revamp of filtration is realized, I might do a barage of tests again to reflect those changes.
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duanes said:
For me.....testing for ammonia and nitrite are needed only when starting a new tank, once the tank is established I barely ever test for those parameters,
After becoming established, or if adding stock, .I use regular pH and nitrate testing to determine frequency and amount of water changes it needs.
Because I want nitrate levels to be as close to zero as possible, and pH to be as stable as possible, regular testing until a proper water change routine is developed lets me know what that water change routine should be.
If I do a water change on Monday showing nitrate at 5ppm(or less), and 8.2 pH, but if either pH has dropped significantly by Fri, or nitrate has risen to 20 ppm by Fri, that tells me (with my stocking level, and my tap waters buffering capacity) that I need to do at least 1 or more water changes between Mon and Fri.
For me, when my 300 gal system in stocked with 15 medium size fish, and a cleanup crew of shrimp in the sump, and heavy panting, regular testing results over time has showed me how to maintain my undetectable to 5 ppm nitrate goal, (and a rock solid pH of 8.2).
That I need to do between, 30% to 40% changes of the systems water volume every other day,
Because each tank is its own entity, when starting a new system, I usually keep a testing log for up to year, to watch trend, and determine that tanks individual needs, and stability.
And/or if a drastic fluctuation in extra stock, is done, or a revamp of filtration is realized, I might do a barage of tests again to reflect those changes.
View attachment 1496979
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You keep shrimp in your sump??
 
Caveden said:
You keep shrimp in your sump??
Click to expand...
Yes
My sump (sometime might be more of a refugium) is 125 gal tank, run almost full.
I find the shrimp help keep the mechanical and bio-media free of debris, and help break it down, tomore easily usable substances for the plants in the sump.
0B9D32C8-19A9-41E3-86BA-23A61C2CA55D_1_201_a.jpeg
Some shrimp occasionally get pumped in the main tank, and act as food for the fish in it.
A full tank view of my sump below, as you can see, the.biomedia, and mechanical are a small portion of its volume, on the left side.
I don't only envision a sump as simply a place to put un-aethsectic stuff, and simple filtration, but the majority of its use for me, is nitrate and other deleterious nutrient, untestable substances to be mitigated thru the use of aquatic, semi aquatic plants.
DFBF0FE3-4BA0-4284-96E5-DF1EFF66A2A2_1_201_a.jpeg
 
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That Home Depot test strip kit looks very convenient! One stick, one dip, one chart to compare to. Thanks for the heads-up!

I've had been doing a crapload of testing the past few days, mainly because I am moving fish out to stocktanks in the yard, which are filled mostly with snowmelt water and so can be noticeably different in pH, hardness, TDS, etc. from my well water. In order to minimize huge differences, I usually need to do a half and half mix of snowmelt and tap (well) water. But, throughout most of the year, I do almost no testing after I know the trends regarding parameters in my relatively few tanks, unless I make some drastic changes to one or another tank.

This year a combination of unusual circumstances led me to try topping up the stock tanks with the water from my single small inground pond. That pond gets one almost 100% change per year, in the spring...so the water I pumped from it was, shall we say, "well-used" all last summer. Testing showed undetectable nitrate levels (which I attribute to an extremely light fish population coupled with an extremely lush growth of aquatic and emergent plants), along with a visible amount of tannin from leaves and wood and pH close to my well, i.e. 7.0-7.5. Generally speaking, I detest the idea of utilizing old lived-in water, so I hope this will work out for me.

My test kit is marketed by Fluval, likely identical in functionality to the API that everyone seems to like. It's a bit of a PITA, with separate instruction sheets and colour charts for each individual test. Wandering around the yard trying to keep those dang sheets from blowing, tearing, getting wet, etc. with a pocket full of reagent bottles and another full of test tubes gets old fast. I must find that swimming pool kit and try it out; I'm sure that the test strips will be more than accurate enough for my purposes and the ease of use will be a joy. :)
 
That is more of a veggie filter than a traditional sump. ?

I rarely test going tanks. but I do a bio-farm rather than cycling individual tanks and there I test ammonia and TDS a lot plus KH some. I will sometimes check the pH as well in the farm. The cycle is acidic and, in a bio-farm, can crash the whole thing fast if you do not monitor the TDS/KH. I test the ammonia to know when to redose. Towards the end of the bio-farm making the filters all ready I am dosing 5-6 ppm of ammonia 3 times a day or more.

Last year I got cocky and stalled things. This year I cycled 15 filters in a 40b tank which were then going into 8 tanks holding 220 gallons. It took 9 days. I do use seeding to get things rolling.

jjohnwm jjohnwm
I have all my test kits, vials and TDS pens in a yellow plastic tackle box. I never lose things that way and with my outdoor summer tanks on the screened terrace it keeps things dry and prevents them from blowing away. I even have a kittke time in it for the 6 minutes wait when needed.
 
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TwoTankAmin said:
jjohnwm jjohnwm
I have all my test kits, vials and TDS pens in a yellow plastic tackle box. I never lose things that way and with my outdoor summer tanks on the screened terrace it keeps things dry and prevents them from blowing away. I even have a kittke time in it for the 6 minutes wait when needed.
Click to expand...

As I was schlepping all that crap around I was thinking that there had to be a better way...and yours is it!

I wound up with a total of 6 stock tanks this year, might be putting in 2 more; that's more than I have had in a long time, so I haven't had the organization challenge lately. I also have a basement full of assorted tackle boxes, tool boxes, totes, etc. and am absolutely going to use your system. :cheers:

And now, having literally just sat down after lugging pails of fish outside all morning, I am sitting on the deck and working on another favoured system of mine: a careful melding of fish-watching and beer-drinking. Pretty much have that one down pat. :)
 
I bought the api solution test kit. My country does not have home depot
 
duanes duanes
I seem to remember Panama Red from my visit in 1969. That and rolling bats using banana paper..... ?
 
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