Testing, Testing, Testing.

[Spyro]

Hi,
On this forum site everyone is testing.
Question. What are you testing for and what do you do when you find what you are looking for.

If you are just testing so you know that you need to water change you should be able to do that with out the test but with observation. If you are testing for dead fish you should be able to do that with observation. If you are testing for over feeding you should know that by observation.

So why all this testing?. What do you do with the results of the tests?. What do you do when things aren't right?.

Mostly I was testing because I was worried from reading about sudden ammonia spikes, PH swings, nitrates build up, MIA fish, etc. on this forum and other sources. And to figure out water change/nitrate build up regime, etc.

But since my tanks aren't building up nitrates, my dead fish just gets eaten by other fish even if undiscovered, I don't test.
Except rarely for GH/KH as I add booster, just to make sure.
Every once in a while just do test for ammonia and nitrate before water change to make sure ecosystem is still behaving the same

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Mostly I was testing because I was worried from reading about sudden ammonia spikes, PH swings, nitrates build up, MIA fish, etc. on this forum and other sources. And to figure out water change/nitrate build up regime, etc.

But since my tanks aren't building up nitrates, my dead fish just gets eaten by other fish even if undiscovered, I don't test.
Except rarely for GH/KH as I add booster, just to make sure.
Every once in a while just do test for ammonia and nitrate before water change to make sure ecosystem is still behaving the same

Do you ever wonder what's killing the fish?

 

[FishHobby99]

Tests are very necessary when cycling a tank so you know where you are in the cycling process. I rarely test my tanks now that they are mature and stable. The only thing I test for now is ammonia IF a fish disappears or has been dead in the tank for a long time OR if fish are acting strangely or look stressed. I very occasionally test for nitrates using the Salifert Nitrate test if I have gone too long between water changes. I usually do a 50% water change every 10 to 12 days (tanks are not heavily stocked) but if I go longer, I might test for nitrates so I can get an idea how large a water change I should do. Otherwise I might test for nitrates every few months just to be sure they're not building up too high., But generally my nitrates stay under 20 ppm as my tank is mature and is well planted (plants can absorb ammonia and nitrites or nitrates.

So you’re saying close to 20 ppm nitrate is ok?

 

[Spyro]

Do you ever wonder what's killing the fish?

Nope, I know what's killing them

 

[FishHobby99]

Nope, I know what's killing them

What?

 

[Spyro]

What?

Short answer will just lead to more questions so:

I have mostly Platies. Where I come from they come from farms in Indonesia. They are raised in brackish water and infested with parasites, disease at the farm.
Then they are stuck in plastic bags, shipped to distributors. Repacked and sent to Australia distributors; repacked and sent to LFS.
So by the time they come to me, they are stressed as f..k and all the diseases flare up. And they have some nasty diseases that don't seem to respond to antibiotics or any treatment, so a lot of them died from stress and disease.

When I was setting up the tank: I thought it would be great idea if I drill holes and cut opening in artificial twisted tree logs decorations. So fish can swim inside like in caves and explore.
Who knew that fish like to go to such places when they are sick to die. Which meant I had to go look for them in bunch of hollow twisted tube like decorations. (as you can imagine: it's very hard to get them out of there)

So: my fish was dying from stress and disease and dying inside the logs sometimes. And most of the time they were just hanging in there while freaking me out that they are dead and about to unleash ammonia spike. (and damn things like hanging in there, sometimes I don't see some fish for days).
Until couple of times I didn't look for them but just kept testing, thinking they are just hanging around in the caves. There was no ammonia spike and I only found bones from the fish.
Hence: not testing anymore for ammonia spikes if I don't see particular fish for couple of days, as I'm not worried about ammonia spike (due to previous experiences)
That's the dead fish reference in my not testing reasoning post.

 

[FishHobby99]

Thanks, very interesting. I was under the impression most fish are bred locally.

 

[robmcd]

I only test when I am cycling nowadays. My tanks are ridiculously stable, I rarely add new fish, and my tap water source is the same year round. Of my 3 tanks 2 are scaped that I can see and remove any dead inhabitants (usually platys that expire from old age), the other one is so densely planted and full of shrimp that if one of the small fish passes, it is gone and part of the food chain in a matter of hours.