What Do I Do with My Spare Time?

Generally I'm performing tank maintenance.  Or creating things that allow me to track the history of water conditions so that I can at least anticipate a water change.

I just did a water change 4 days ago.  Ammonia and phosphates had risen to the level of what I've termed "half stress".

Performed another water change today.  Ammonia had again risen to "half stress", and if I was reading the phosphate test correctly, it had neared "stress" level (I should probably get into the habit of reading the phosphate test in the same lighting from day to day, today I read it at the tank, not the sink where I generally go).

I've created a graph that is automatically generated from a spreadsheet I record water conditions in.

• Ammonia stress is .25 ppm.  When ammonia reaches that level, it is a "100" on the above graph.
• Nitrite stress is .5ppm.  That is equal to "100" on this graph.
• Nitrate stress is at 40ppm.  That is also "100" on this graph.
• And phosphate stress is at .25ppm, which equates to "100" on this graph.

Anemones and some coral are nitrate sensitive.  And being that I have an anemone, I should probably reduce the scale on nitrates so that 20ppm is "100" on the graph.

Simple enough:  When a line or two reaches or approaches the 100 mark, time to change the water.  I just can't believe I'm changing water every 4 to 5 days on average.  And for each change I'm using at least 10 gallons.  Never read that anywhere.

Some folks brag about how far between water changes they go.  I guess I'm bragging about how often mine are...