stiggy614

I think this is wierd. i never have tested my FW tank water. it seems like alot of people rely on them. In the two years i have had my 30 gallon tank running. i have only lost one fish. For never testing the water. i seem to do well. i know that saltwater is totally different and that water needs to be tested. I vacuum the gravel about every 3 weeks, removing about 30% of the water, clean the decor. I add stress coat and stress zyme everytime i vacuum and thats it. I don't get it.

CHoffman

If you have never tested your water then you wouldn't know of any fluctuations in your tank..Fish can be in stress long before they show it or die. I do weekly waterchanges and vacume weekly also..You probably have high nitrates since you only vaucme every 3 weeks, unless you have a heavily planted tank. I always test my water but have never had any problems either. It could be your tank is just stable and happy and that's good but it's nice to have a test kit on hand if something does go wrong. If I have a fish that's acting funny the first thing I do is check my water..It's never been the problem but at least I can rule it out.

agabr123

test kits IMO are absolutely necessary. even if you haven't lost your fish yet, prolonged exposure to any amount of ammonia or nitrite and high levels of nitrate are causing serious internal damage to your fish. also, water changes every three weeks arent frequent enough. i do close to 50% water changes and gravel vac every single week.

if you read through the threads, you'll see that SO many people have fish die because of ammonia poisoning and putting their fish through the nitrogen cycle. you happen to be lucky, and your tank has cycled by now, but your fish have definitely been damaged from it.

Shawnie

im alot like you...although I do great maintenance, I never test unless I have an issue.....a couple weeks ago someone was asking about pH's and I had to test out of curiosity but its been years since I tested ph....sometimes testing isnt necessary but its the first thing id do if there was an issue with the fish babies