Water Analysis Record Keeping

If you're going spend several minutes every day testing your saltwater aquariums water then its recommended to record down the data. This is a good practice which will allow you to evaluate trends in your water quality. Jot down the info in a notebook then in future transfer the data to your laptop to create charts to map the variations that occur. With today's technology maintaining good accurate records on your computer will not present any issues.

Regardless on your way of recording your data, these should be the basis of your records:

• Date and time.
• Result of each test done.
• Nature and amount of any water conditioner added.
• Amount of water change performed.
• Reason for testing, routine or due to special reasons, note any dead fish.

By keeping these records over a period of time, you will quickly learn to notice any fluctuations in your aquariums water parameters. An example would be the pH levels vary depending on the time of day due to photosynthesis. Therefore pH will be higher by the end of the day compared to morning's readings. But if at the same time of the day over several days the pH is reducing then there might be an issue.