Are they really necessary? I raised cichlids for years and never used a test kit, just regular maintenance. I left the Hobby quite a while ago because we lived in a tiny house. I am back at it again and decided to use test kits. They seem to just make me paranoid. So I ask, what is better testing water or the strict maintenace that has served me well for years. Just curious what others think?

I only test my water every so offten. Unless there is a problem with my aquariums. I keep up on my water changes each week.

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Help those in our hobby to exceed beyond their expectations.
Aquatic Engineer

As a Chemist, I rarely test for anything but Chlorine. As long as you keep up the strict maintenance, nothing really changes. The larger the tank the less things change with the strict maintenance.

Charles H

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27 to 35 tanks from 5 to 55 gallon fresh water tanks. 300 to 350 gal in all.
Spawning mostly Killies, Live bearers, American & west African Cichlids, Pencil fish. 4 species of spawning Corydoras, & some Bristle nose Plecos. Other less than 6 inch species from time to time.

In St. Louis
Change As Much Water As Often As You Can

When you are cycling a tank a test kit is needed to monitor the tanks progress.

If you post a question about your water or fish one of the first things asked of you is "What are the Ammonia/Nitrites/Nitrates"?

Now that my tanks have been set up for awhile I no longer monitor my ammonia/nitrites. I check the nitrate level weekly to determine the percentage of water to change out.

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Do fish get thirsty?
How to fishless cycle your aquarium http://www.aquariumforum.com/f66/fis...cle-15036.html

Information on API FW test kit http://www.aquariumforum.com/f2/api-...ion-15347.html

I would consider keeping them without a quality test kit, especially Africans. If you ever decide to go with Demasoni's or something similar, it is recommended to stock 1 or 12 or more to spread aggression. Adding the kind of extra bio-load can kill off your stock quite fast and at over $10 a peice it will pay for itself in a hurry. Not to mention like was previously posted, when the time comes for advice, the first questions are gonna be about water parameters to help find out what is going on.

You can certainly keep fish with out ever testing the water. Test kits are helpful. If you have some experience and are careful and patient you will likely get on fine with out one. I usually recommend them to newbies that are in a hurry to have as many fish in their tank as possible and know nothing about the nitrogen cycle, how much they should feed or how to maintain their tank. Even for experienced fish keepers they are helpful to know when a tank has finished cycling and to check ammonia levels etc when some thing seems not to be right.

I kept goldfish with regular without a kit for several years, and they are doing fine, but I got a master test kit when my convict got sick. I wanted to know if it was the quality of the water that caused it. The water was fine, so they arent that necessary, but they are nice to have. I recently used it to help out a friend who let her tank go for a couple months. It was pretty gross in there and it was nice to be able to show her the difference in water quality before and after and explain to her that she could have killed all of her fish. I've only been at it for about 5 years but in my opinion, if you keep fish long enough, you'll want the water tested at least once if something goes wrong. I have to say, its awful nice to know whats going on with the water chemistry and to be sure that it's stable.