What do you do?

[smpolyp]

What do you test for? What do you look for? What do you do?
In the late 80's early 90's. Test for CALCIUM, pH, temp. Use an R.O. With a flush kit.
What do you do in the time frame you started to Love Aquariums?

[ccampo]

I started back in the early 80's as a teenager with fresh water and I haven't sopped since then.
I was not testing for anything, I just had a normal filter and an air pump, I always wondered why all my fishes died after 4 or 5 days after setting up the tank or after cleaning it (I used to clean the whole tank including the rocks).
But that was until I learned about the need of cycling a tank, poor little gold fishes. I used normal tap water after letting sit for a day to let the clorox to banish.

[smpolyp]

Yeah things have come a long way. I think by the mid 90's My testing craze hit. I looked at alkalinity more than pH and added magnesium, strontium, iodine and phosphate to the list.

[CoralolisEffect]

Wayback in the day before understanding the cycle only the strong would survive. Looking back it's amazing how much survived my desk top tanks. Under gravel filters of course. Do you remember those carbon cartridges at the top of the tower. How many bubble towers did you have? I Remember before going to school. A strange friend of ours had a spring fed pool. With lots of growth on sides but pristine water. I put my tank mates in his pool for retirement. The Baka shark got like 12+ inches in there. So much for the pet store 4-6". I think I might of had a ammonia and ph test. But did use a dechlorinator. Kind of silly as I was on well water. Must of been for the "stress coat"
.

[smpolyp]

Yeah those carbon filter were a big hit. I had a friend the use to have a UV that slid in the undergravel tube. I think it was 4 watts.

[techbiker]

I am to Young to get into this conversation, I am like a teenager when it comes to saltwater aquariums

[Jim28fl]

In the lil nuvo 16 gal tank i test for ph alk and mg once a week and look at everything very closely twice a day. If i suspect something i test as well. i seem to be able to now tell when the alk is off by the shrooms behavior as well the polyp extension i guess its a key thing to look at what it should look like when its healthy as your guide to your waters/systems quality….

I do have the entire work up of tests which i sometimes do just for curiosity sake. but never find anything out of whack.. most common for me the ALK being to high lately.. as well as MG. but i have a dosser set up which i tinker with constantly on such a small tank i try n keep growth high.. The silly kenya trees doubles in sizes every week... i flush the splits down the toilet before it takes over…. lol

Cant seem to keep montipora very well.. other than that the fact that i have sps n lps in there has been ok so far. LPS grows very slowly it seems for me to "clean" of water i suspect..

I clean my pre filters every three days, blow the rock off once a week, and clean the skimmer cup once a week or so… this is all on a lil 16 which is way over stocked for the water volume on a mixed reef setup.. but the three other tanks are in the works…ATM should have 100 gallons of system water for this to all move to very soon..