Baseline (Tap) Water Readings

[phocoena]

How often should you do them?

I have just redone mine after 3 months. And in a couple of cases there are massive changes.

 

[Prime Ordeal]

I would only test tap water if I suddenly developed a problem in my tank that I couldn't put down to other reasons. Also I always slightly overdose on my water conditioner (Prime) to take account of the local water authority flushing the pipes and not telling you (which they never do). I'm not sure if that's what your question is about?

 

[Dieses Madchen]

I do mine every couple of months because I have ammonia in my tap water...

 

[phocoena]

Thanks.
I think I am more in line with Dieses Madchen's situation as my tap water does contain Ammonia. Chloramine is also used as the disinfectant.

Ammonia was my main concern. Last night's NH[sub]3[/sub]/NH[sub]4[/sub][sup]+[/sup] result was 1ppm so got to work out the issues surronding using Prime in this situation.

 

[Dieses Madchen]

If you have a well established filter, the ammonia isn't really a problem. With the help of Prime, your filter will get rid of the ammonia before it has a chance to touch the fish. Especially on small water changes. The only time it is a problem for me is when i do water changes on my smaller unfiltered betta tanks, so I have a 5g bottle of RO water for those tanks.