Does it matter what time of day you test Cal&Alk

[Lenny718]

I know with PH you will get varied results depending on time of day or if the lights are on or off. My question is does it matter when testing your Cal or Alk? I work overnights and like to test when I get home around 6am even though my lights don't come on till around 2pm so should I be waiting till later in the day or does it even matter? :spin:

 

[piranhapat]

No it doesn't matter what time. But it's good to test at same time but the next day. Until your levels are stable. Especially if your dosing and you have coral you should test both. Than once a a week and so on. Also watch Magnesium levels too.

 

[Lenny718]

Thanks I appreciate it! I'm not new to dosing but the vampire lifestyle is fairly new to me and the early mornings is when I have to most free time to test and dose

 

[JimWelsh]

I've monitored the Alk in my tank every 3 hours over the course of a day more than once, and there is definitely a diurnal Alk swing going on. I have a 210 gallon system with mixed corals but quite a few SPS, and I'm dosing about 120 mL of Randy's 2-part Recipe #1 daily. My daily swing ranges from a high of 2.91 meq/L or 8.2 dKh at lights on to a low of 2.74 meq/L or 7.7 dKh a couple of hours after lights off.

I agree that testing Alk at the same time of day is best for consistency.