hi guys

have just bought my first water testing kit and was after some help with the analsis of the results

Nitrate - 0 mg/L

Nitrite - 0.25 mg/L

Ammonia - somewhere between 0 and 0.5 (was hard to tell)

PH - 8 (bit worried about this one )

General Hardness - 15 dGH (not even sure what this is about but it was in the kit )

Carbonate Hardness - 8 dKH (ditto for this one)

i've only had the tank up and running with 4 guppies and 2 peppered corys for about a week

thoughts/comments

I'm a bit worried about the pH of 8 what should I do to correct this??

high ph is better than low ph for the fish you mensioned the amonia is not too high for a week old tank but could be lowered with a water change. for the fish you menisoned i think they will survive just fine with those water chem results. the hardness tho i have never tested i think a dash of salt is sposed to change it. but i never recomend salt if its not in a marine aquarium tho if someone put a good case forward then shure do as you feel. with testing i think you picked the right time to test and thats during the start up of the tanks cycleing process. try not to add any fish for a while as the chems calm down totally over the next few weeks. and when you add fish make shure and do it slowly.

Ace,

Whilst not a direct response to you post here is something I posted a little while ago that may help with part of your questions.....

Before explaining KH + GH it is probably best to understand that there is a third property that makes up the water chemistry triangle in a freshwater tank, this third property is PH. All three of these properties have an effect on our water chemistry.

PH is used to denote whether the water is acidic (PH reading below 7), neutral (PH reading of 7) or alkaline (PH reading of above 7). PH is fundamental in providing a good environment for our fish to live, all species have a PH range that they will be happiest in, therefore the more constant & stable we can keep the PH the happier our fish will be. For the beginner is is probably easier to match our chosen species to the PH we have as opposed to trying to adjust PH to suit a specific species.

KH refers to the ability of our water to resist change in PH. This ability to resist change is known as carbonate hardness or more commonly buffering. Therefore when a KH reading is taken, the higher the KH reading the stronger the ability to resist changes / fluctuations in PH. A strong buffering capacity is beneficial if you have the PH that you require to keep the species of fish you are interested, however if your are trying to alter your PH for any reason a high KH reading is going to make it more difficult to effect this change.

Finally GH or General Hardiness, when water is referred to as hard or soft GH is the property being referred to. Water hardness is measured on two scales either DH (degree's hardness) or the chemical compound measured (CaCO3) in ppm (parts per million), both of these measurements can be used although most test kits will utilise the ppm measurement system. The two systems equate as:

0 - 4 dH or 0 - 70 ppm = very soft water
4 - 8 dH or 70 - 140 ppm = soft water
8 - 12 dH or 140 - 210 ppm = medium hard water
12 - 18 dH or 210 - 320 ppm = fairly hard water
18 - 30 dH or 320 - 530 ppm = hard water

As mentioned at the beginning all three of these properties are distinct, however it is important to realise that PH, KH & GH all interact, therefore any alteration to one will have an impact on the other two. Having said that with careful monitoring and control it is possible to make adjustments to these properties without having to rely on shop brought chemical additives such as PH Down.

Ace - Two thing really that should stand out would be:

1) A stable pH is more important than aiming for a specific pH.

&

2) It's better not to aim to alter the water for the specific species you keep but rather to adjust the species you keep to match the water condtions you have.

Hope that helps a bit, if you want to go into the specifics of your water just shout.....

This post has been edited by Fishsmurf: Jul 10 2003, 08:49 AM

cheers

that was most informative

I think I'll change the water now to try lower the ammonia a little

This post has been edited by Ace Rimmer: Jul 10 2003, 09:01 AM

Hi Ace.

The fish you have will do fine in the water that you have. As the water has a good level of KH, the values should not change too much, and will provide a stadle water for your fish.

As your tank is still new the ammonia and nitrite readings will still be unstable for a few weeks. Small frequent water changes will ensure that you fish are not put under too much stress.

With a new tank you need a high level of ammonia and ntirite for the filter bacteria to reproduce. When the tank has finished it's cycle these levels should be 0, unless you add more fish to the tank.

Fishsmurf,

that has to be one of the best post about water condition that I have ever seen. you should forward it to a MOD and ask them to pin it either in begginer questions or tropical chit chat.. fantastic and thank you!!!

Yes very well put. Saved me a lot of typing!!!

Ta.... )

now you've gone and scared the poor bugger

Tada, have a sticky at the top of the forum fishsmurf

good job fishsmurf

glad to see my creating this thread will help benefit others

Yes, salt does help alot. I had a bad case of ich a couple weeks ago, but i added aquarium salt. The recovery was amazing, after 2 days, almost all the fish are doing great, except for those too late(was my fault, i didnt know about ich then).

So now, everytime my fish seems stressed(like yesterday, my bala sharks are darting and my tiger babrs are itching), today, they are better and are all eating.

I really didnt know what the problem was because my parameters are in the acceptable limit.

This isn't true.

I can easily change hardness of water, GH, and pH and KH don't change. When I add CaSO4 (Ca2+(aq) + SO4--(aq)) into water, it will increase hardness, but doesn't affetc pH or KH. When I add NaHCO3 into water, pH and KH increase, but GH doesn't.

pH-KH-CO2 is related together somehow - it isn't either so simply, because:

CO2(g/l) + H20(l) <-> H2CO3(aq) => HCO3-(aq) + H+(aq) <-> 2H+(aq) + HCO3--(aq)

Only small amount of gaseous CO2 reacts with water. And other chemical compounds affect pH in aquarium too, like tannic acid.

DOUBLE

GOOD POST

MUST HAVE BEEN AN EXPENSIVE KIT...HOW MUCH U PAY? WHAT MAKE ?

CHEERS

This may anger some people but the fact is that PH in freshwater is a crock. Read this entire post before responding! Go into any REPUTABLE LFS where the owner really cares about his fish where all the tanks are clean and clear and the fish are healthy. Ask the guy what his PH is. He will either look at you like your an idiot, not know the PH or not care. I realize that when you go into a "chain store" they will run 3 tests on your water. PH, Nitrite and Ammonia. If your PH is anything but 7.0 they will then take you to the massive shelf of chemicals and meds. By the time you leave you will have spent 10 bucks on fish and 80 bucks in various chemicals and such to add to your water. You start putting that stuff in your tank and sure maybe you will change your PH for a bit but in the process if you weren't carefull you killed many fish. Also, if you check it again in a week or so the PH is pretty close to where you started from. People need to realize that your water is your water. Unless you want to buy a R.O. setup or spend alot of money on real buffers like crushed coral and such, the point is moot. The fish will generally survive most PH levels provided it's not totally off the scale. PH is only really an issue if you are a breeder or doing marine and some brackish tanks. Besides, chances are where you bought the fish unless they were shipped to you have similar PH as you do if they are local. It's been almost 2 years since I added ANYTHING to my water besides "Coppersafe" and I haven't lost a single fish. My Nitrite and Amonnia stay at zero because I keep my tanks maintained properly. The bottom line is this, once your tank is cycled and you don't make drastic changes to the tank or add a zillion fish your water quality will be fine. The more you mess with it the more stress you put on your fish. So, if it isn't broken...don't fix it! Most likely your fish will adapt to the PH just fine. Save your money on the chemicals and use it to buy more elaborate fish or an additional tank. Besides, if you are careful and you REALLY can't not mess with your PH there are cheap ways of lowering it. Distilled white vinegar can do wonders to lower PH if done properly. I have no reason to raise it so I don't know tricks for raising it but I'm sure it can't be too hard. So there you go, that's my take on things. Now, I'm gonna sit back and wait for the flood of responses since I added contraversy with this post. By the way, the first guy that explained water chemistry did do a thourough and good job explaining it.

Now you generalize too much. Some fishes tolerate wide scale of water values naturally but some fishes don't. Adaptation to different kind of water takes hundreds if not even thousends years in natur - so it won't happen faster in your tank either..

People also need to realize that water isn't just water. It's different here or in England than in Amazonas. Our tap water it's quite different than water in lakes and rivers... Something is missing and something it's too much. They all affects on fishs physiology - so it's not just water what we have in our tanks.

So, what was your point? If you don't want to pay, just sit on chair and do nothing? Isn't it easier then to buy fishes that are naturally able to live water that you have?


Ps. Please divide your text into paragraphs, because it's then easier to read it.