Correct Test Results For Freshwater Tank?

[woody88]

Hi all, I have a 20G long tropical community tank with a UGF. My tank is slighty overstocked with gouramis, tiger barbs, silver shark and cory's which is why I do large weekly wc to keep the water fresh 'ish'.

What I would like to know is what readings should test results be for nitrate, phosphate, ph and kh.

In comparison to my readings on my marine tanks, my phos, nitrate and kh were sky high but i presume that readings for these 3 differ between saltwater and freshwater.

If anyone can give me an idea of what they should be then that would be great.

Cheers

 

[StandbySetting]

Depends on what you keep for both KH and PH, and nitrate anything below 400PPM, but obviously lower the better, and there are no published values for phosphate, it is thought to be harmless.

 

[woody88]

Depends on what you keep for both KH and PH, and nitrate anything below 400PPM, but obviously lower the better, and there are no published values, it is thought to be harmless.

Cheers bud. My PH is 7.4 My Nitrate is 100 ppm My KH is around 9 and Phosphate is 3.[Is phosphate harmful to freshwater fish?]

Ammonia and Nitrite a big fat zero! LOL

 

[StandbySetting]

Phosphate is harmless I believe, mine floats around 5PPM, your nitrate could do with being lower, what's your stocking like and how often are you doing water changes?

 

[weezawoo]

I just measure Ph ammonia nitrite and nitrate woody! Ph generally only matters to what fish you are keeping, I think mine is 7.2 last time I checked but cant remember! Obviously amm + trite 0 and I just keep nitrates below 40.
If it gets higher do a water change! Do you know the nitrate in your tap water if you are doing regular w/c it seems quite high?

I started having a reading of ammonia in my tap water so am now doing w/c with my RO water, I know you buy yours but you could possibly use a bit of that if your tap nitrates are high?