Here I sit for the second time in as many weeks, on a plane bound for San Diego. The movie, If I choose to watch it for the third time in two weeks, is What Women Want. Funny, and I'd recommend it, but since it doesn't star Ashly Judd, I don't think I'll watch it again. I've run out of products to review and since my seahorse tank is brand new, I can't write about that. So I think tonight's topic will be about monitoring your tank's water parameters.

I cant tell you how many times I've heard people say, "I don't measure anything, I watch how my tank looks and let it tell me when I have a problem or have to do something". All I can say to that is bullcrap! That's like waiting until you see metal chips on your car's oil dipstick before you change the oil! Now you do have to be careful about chasing the numbers, but don't be blind to what those numbers are telling you.

In my opinion, if there is on parameter you absolutely need to measure often, it's pH. Of all the normally tested parameters, pH is the best for indicating the general health of the tank. I personally believe that if you are going to invest in one expensive monitoring instrument, then it should be a pH meter. As I said earlier, don't chase the numbers, but learn your tank's trend. If you hook up your meter to run 24/7 and Velcro it to the side of the tank, then you will soon come to know what your tank's pH is at different times of the day. My tank for instance, when the Nilsen Reactor is freshly charged, will vary from 8.3x during the off-light hours to a high in the 8.6x range by lights out. Do I worry about 8.64 at 10pmà nope. But if at 10pm the pH is 8.41, a perfectly good pH value, I look around for anything suspicious. The point is that 8.41 is not my tank's normal pH at 10pm. It's different, it may be nothing, but it does at least warrant some investigationàeven if it is only a fish head count.

Another parameter, or actually two, which must be monitored frequently if you are adding Kalkwasser or a calcium supplement are Alkalinity and Calcium. You shouldn't be adding calcium until you get test kits for these parameters. I use the Salifert DKH and Calcium kits. They are of the titration variety, meaning that you drip in a titration solution until the test turns color. You don't have to match it up to a color chart, just stop adding the solution when the color changes, then calculate the answer based on the amount of solution you had to add. It's really simple. By the way, Craig Bingman recommends these kits.

Monitoring things like ammonia and nitrate can be done on a less frequent basis. I found that the tetra s/w ammonia test kit for about $6 is as accurate as any, and I'm just now trying the Salifert Nitrate kit. Unfortunately both these kits are color match kits so they are inherently less accurate and more difficult to read, but seem to work all right. Other kits I've used an like are Kordon (Hach) and Hach. Although I haven't tried them yet, the Tropic Marin kits look to be of the same quality, albeit a little less expensive, as Salifert. I also used Red Sea and found them to be wildly inaccurate. A tip when using a color match kit is to use either normal incandescent lighting or natural sunlight to read the color. Trying to read the color under either your metal halide of fluorescent lighting can change the appearance of the test solution.

Ahh, let's not forget salinity. Scrap those plastic swing arm hydrometers and go to www.premiumaquatics.com and buy either the Tropic Marin or Marine Enterprises 12" glass hydrometer. They are $15 and $13 respectively and are quite accurate. The most accurate instrument for measuring salinity is a refractometer. Decent quality ones can be had for $75-$180.

One last parameter that I like to monitor, and one that unfortunately requires a test instrument, is ORP, or Oxygen Reduction Potential. Basically this is a test of how clean your water is. Good readings range between 300 and 400mv and more than most, this is really a trend to watch for, not the reading.

Lastly I'd like to suggest not adding any full strength trace elements like Iodine or Strontium without first purchasing a test kit. It's too easy to overdose full strength solutions in an enclosed system.

So that's it for my recommendations on testing. Just a note, rather than buying separate pH and ORP meters you might want to look into the Neptune AquaController 2. It's not much more that the separate and does a whole lot more. A review of the AquaController 2 can be found at http://www.mv.com/users/besposito/aq2.html

If you have any comments, you can email me at bespo@cereal.mv.com or visit my web page at http://cereal.mv.com/reef