Water Test Results Help

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sillymisslucky

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I have done a water test using a test strip. These are my results, I am just wondering if these are normal and if not what is the best approach to fix this problem.

GH= 30

KH= 120

pH= 6.0

NO2= 0.5

NO3=20

In my tanks I have one Betta and 1 tall plant and one marimo moss ball, aquarium stones, thermometer and a betta leaf bed. The tank has a heater set at 26°C and a filter on 24/7 and an LED light. My fish is currently being treated with medication for fin rot.
 
You want 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite. It looks like your test strip doesn't do ammonia though. You can use salt to bind the nitrite or do a water change to get rid of it.
It sounds like your tank isn't cycled or the test strips are wrong which could very well be since they are known to be inaccurate. I would pick up a liquid test kit ASAP.
 
Here are the instructions for the salt:
 
"To add 10 ppm of chloride for every ppm of nitrite in the water, use the following steps:
 
1. Multiply your nitrite reading by 10. This will give you the needed mg/l of chloride to will need to add.
2. Calculate the actual volume in liters of water in your tank. If your volume is in gallons you must convert this into liters. (As a rule, using the advertised volume of the tank at about 85% will put you in the right ballpark.)
3. Multiply the number in #1 above by the number of liters of water in #2 above to get the total mg of  chloride you will need to add.
4. Because salt is roughly 2/3 chloride, you must multiply the number calculated in #3 by 1.5.  You now know how many mg of salt you should add to the water. Dividing this number by 1,000 will convert this amount to grams which are easier to weigh for most people.
5. Do not add salt directly to the tank. Remove some tank water to a container and mix the salt in that, then add the salt water to the tank spreading it around the surface.
6. The amount of salt needed is not very much compared to a brackish or salt water tank. So don't worry about the salt harming things, especially for the short time you would need it in the water.
 
You will need to continue testing for nitrite because any rise may mean that further salt additions are needed. Once the cycle is done, or even as nitrite drops, you can reduce or eliminate the salt from the tank via water changes."
 
Did you cycle your tank? If so, how? What size is it? If you don't know what cycling is have a read of THIS.
 
Have you tested the pH of your tap water after it's sat out for 24 hours? I am wondering because 6.0 is the lowest on your test, it could be that or it could actually be lower.
 
Woulds also advise you may have better reliable and more accurate reading using a liquid based test out rather than these strip kits.
 
Test strip kits can be inaccurate and unreliable am afraid :/
 
In regards to fin rot - generally fin rot is a symptom of poor water quality. If your fish looked healthy, I'd assume the strip test was inaccurate, but the fact he has fin rot would send me for a proper test - either buy one or get your local fish shop to test your water (and get measurements, not just a 'that's fine!').
 
In either case, a 50% water change would be more effective than medication or salt, since clean water eliminates the root cause.
 

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