when to test your water? me again?

Question

hi ya, i do my water changes every sunday, what is best to test your water before your water changes or after, sorry im a novice, just got my water tester, so just want to know for future, x

Answer 1

i've always heard to test your water before your water change to know what your levels were at. Then do the water change and wait a day or two for the biological processes in your tank to adjust to the new water. This will ensure a more accurate reading. If you test the water immediatly following a water change, it will be very different from the water quality in the middle of the week.

However, unless you have severly overloaded your tank, I highly doubt you will have issues with ammonia and nirtite/trates in your water since you are changing every week.

If your water quality is fine before the water change, it will be fine an hour later. Where you will see a potential problem is 24-48 hours later when the bacteria in your tank will have had a chance to bloom.

The only time you will have a significant change in water quality in less time than that is if your are changing the water with new water of a different Ph, or if you had high levels of ammonia or nitrites/trates. If this is the case, then yes, you should test the water a few hours after changing and continue to do so daily until your water quality is optimum and stable.

Since you are new at this, keep a note book and log your water quality. You will notice trends in water quality and will be able to better anticipate a problem. Seasoned hobbyists say that if your ammonia levels reach above 0ppm, you have over 0ppm nitrite, or you have over 20ppm nitrate, then it is time for a water change.

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

As far as I'm concerned it's a good idea to do both before and after the water change.

Testing after the water change will give you all the specs of your tank while it is 'clean', with the new water freshly added.

Testing the water before the water change will give you a good idea as to how the tank is when the water is 'dirty', by the time your water change comes around.

Comparing the results can give you a good idea of what's going on in your tank. As examples of how it can help, perhaps the nitrates were 20 after the last water change, and 40 before the next, and then 30 after. That's a good sign that your water changes aren't keeping up - you know they're climbing and you've got to change something in the tank or routine. Or perhaps the PH is at 6 before and 7 after, and then back to 6 before - this will indicate to you that your PH isn't stable and likewise allows you to fix it, where if you only checked it before or after the water change you would always see it at 6 or 7 and it would appear stable.

After a while you'll get a good idea as to what's happening in your tank and can certainly ease off the testing and relax.

Answer 3

Always test your water about an hour after your water change. Since you have added new water, this will dramatically change the water quality in your tank.

No need to test before. It doesn't matter much what the previous reading were, but what they are now. As a rule of thumb you should test your tank every three to four days anyway.

Nitrates will change constantly which is why you do water changes. If you are doing water changes every week, waiting days to test isn't going to help. Every three days. On the sixth or seventh day you are changing water, if not test twice per week.

Answer 4

If you are good about changing your water every week. Then after is more useful. I'd do a before ad after for a few weeks so you can see how the changes effect things.

Answer 5

danielle Z makes a good point abou the differences a water change can make. You could also say to test before your water change so you get an idea of how good or bad your conditions are and how much water you need to change. I guess you could even say both are informative.

MM

Answer 6

Depends what you're testing for.
General hardness and carbonate hardness can be tested any time.
pH should be tested in the morning just before the lights go on, and again at night just before the lights go off.
If you're testing for ammonia or nitrites, sometime after the water change, like a day. If you're testing for nitrates, don't bother to test until 5-6 days after the water change.