Water testing frequencies

[algae]

Apologies for brining up a question that must have already been asked a thousand times. My 140lt tank has been stable now for 3 weeks since going through its cycle. I have been testing every other day with no blips so at this stage how often would you recommend testing.

[VikingMummy2015]

I must admit I’ve tailed off and now only test if I notice off behaviour from fish, or after filter maintenance. I do twice weekly water changes so I’m probably over confident things are ok.

[Andys temperate tank]

I'm the same as VM. I've got full confidence in my tank setups so only test if I've lost a fish or I notice a change in a tank.

[Stephen]

ditto as above.

[algae]

Thanks you all for your replies, as yet I've not tested for GH or KH is this something I should do? In a few weeks time I'm thinking about cleaning my 207 filter and putting in a bag of Seachem's Purigen which will hopefully reduce nitrates as it claims. The last 4 weeks I have been using bottled water for 30% water changes as nitrates from the mains supply in my area are over 50ppm. I have now rigged up a Pozzani filter system which should knock out any nitrates from the tap, fingers crossed this will get results and save me a lt of

[algae]

Don't know what happened there anyway to complete my post :- it should save me a lot of manual labour

[plankton]

You won't need the Purigen if you're running the Pozzani now.
I would suggest that you still test weekly for a while, just to keep an eye on the ph (and hardness if you've got a hardness test). If you've been using bottled water you could find all sorts of strange results.
It may have also upset the munchers with the changes.

[algae]

The only thing against using spring bottled water as far as I can find out is it may or may not have more microplastics. The quality of bottled water can vary according to where its sourced and the manufacturing process of the bottles but like I've said in another post the nitrates from my tap is above 50ppm. The guidelines in the US state anything above 10ppmm nitrates in drinking water is a health risk, so seeing as the bottled water I've been using for water changes only contains 0.5 ppm it tips the balance in its favour. As for chlorine, chloramines, other minerals and metals I suspect there is little difference in one or the other.

[plankton]

Yes, I understand about the nitrates (although up 50ppm is ok, that's the recommended highest in the UK), but the bottled water is sourced all over the place and the ph and hardness will probably differ to the tapwater, and could even be different in each bottle.

[algae]

Point taken about the PH and hardness, something I must admit I did not consider, however bottled water will hopefully e a thing of the past. Apart from removing nitrates do you know if the Pozzani filter has any other benefits, the paper work that comes with it is pretty limited. The £10 you've saved me on Purigen will go towards a new test kit that can handle GH and KH, thanks for the info.