AJGray
Fish Crazy
What is the ideal levels you should get on a water test kit for nitrite, ntrate and Ph please??
Ideal Water Test Readings
- Thread starter AJGray
- Start date
Ilya
Fishaholic
Nitrite around 0. A little nitrate is okay, but the lower, the better.
In a cycled tank nitrite should be zero.
For nitrates, the lower the better really, Some fish can't tolerate nitrates well and need them to be under 20ppm, other fish tolerate them better. You need to research your particular fish and their needs.
pH, the ideal level entirely depends on the fish you are keeping. Some prefer lower pH (acidic), others prefer a higher ph (alkaline), some like it neutral (7).
What's your set up? Are you cycling at the moment? With fish or fishless? if you have fish, what are they.
It's always good to test your tap water too, quite often tap water has nitrates in, so this will make it harder to keep nitrates low. It's also good to know what the pH of your tap water is.
For nitrates, the lower the better really, Some fish can't tolerate nitrates well and need them to be under 20ppm, other fish tolerate them better. You need to research your particular fish and their needs.
pH, the ideal level entirely depends on the fish you are keeping. Some prefer lower pH (acidic), others prefer a higher ph (alkaline), some like it neutral (7).
What's your set up? Are you cycling at the moment? With fish or fishless? if you have fish, what are they.
It's always good to test your tap water too, quite often tap water has nitrates in, so this will make it harder to keep nitrates low. It's also good to know what the pH of your tap water is.
Maxta
Fishaholic
AJ your tap water should have a pH around 7.4/7.6, mine is, therefore your tank water should be as close to this as possible, because it means whenever you do water changes, the condition of the water going in is the same and wont stress the fish.
If you buy bogwood which i think you are, you may need to buy some tufa rock, this is because bogwood leaches tannins into the water which is acidic and lowers your pH, this happened to me, my pH was dropping to at least 6, it could have been even under that. The tufa rock acts as a buffer and will counter the bogwood, OR you could add some crushed coral to your tank/filter - if you ever need to raise your pH, i have some crushed coral you can have to do this, but only ask if your pH drops low like mine, because if you put crushed coral in a tank thats water is already 7.4/7.6, the pH will raise to like 8 or 9 or something lol = bad for fish (depending on the quantity added).
Ammonia and Nitrite should always be 0 (unless you cycle the tank). Nitrate can reach 40 or so before its recommended to do a water change, some say a higher figure is tolerable, and some say a lower.
And in reference to littlest, AJs tap water should have no nitrates in. We live in the same town and iv tested my water before on numerous occasions.
I havent tested the tap water for 4 or so months though, so if you find any perculiar results AJ just let me know and il test my water.
If you buy bogwood which i think you are, you may need to buy some tufa rock, this is because bogwood leaches tannins into the water which is acidic and lowers your pH, this happened to me, my pH was dropping to at least 6, it could have been even under that. The tufa rock acts as a buffer and will counter the bogwood, OR you could add some crushed coral to your tank/filter - if you ever need to raise your pH, i have some crushed coral you can have to do this, but only ask if your pH drops low like mine, because if you put crushed coral in a tank thats water is already 7.4/7.6, the pH will raise to like 8 or 9 or something lol = bad for fish (depending on the quantity added).
Ammonia and Nitrite should always be 0 (unless you cycle the tank). Nitrate can reach 40 or so before its recommended to do a water change, some say a higher figure is tolerable, and some say a lower.
And in reference to littlest, AJs tap water should have no nitrates in. We live in the same town and iv tested my water before on numerous occasions.
I havent tested the tap water for 4 or so months though, so if you find any perculiar results AJ just let me know and il test my water.
I think you've already got the answer to your questions but I will add one thing. Since you only mentioned nitrite, nitrate and pH, are you using 5 in 1 test strips? If it isn't strips then ignor the rest of the post. I ask that because I know those don't have an ammonia test on them and ammonia is the most important thing to test for in a cycling tank. It is the first toxin to appear and by the time nitrite starts to show, you could already be losing fish to ammonia poisoning. I would suggest getting a good liquid master kit that test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH if you don't already have one.
K.J.
LUK ITS A FUZBALL
Ammonia should always be 0.
Nitrite (*a broken down form of ammonia) should always be 0.
Nitrate doesn't matter so much, as long as it's below 80.
pH is irrelevant mostly, as long as you avoid swings. Anything between 6.0 - 8.0 is fine.
*ammonia > nitrite > nitrate (taken out by w/c)
Nitrite (*a broken down form of ammonia) should always be 0.
Nitrate doesn't matter so much, as long as it's below 80.
pH is irrelevant mostly, as long as you avoid swings. Anything between 6.0 - 8.0 is fine.
*ammonia > nitrite > nitrate (taken out by w/c)
Maxta
Fishaholic
Yup. I know its tempting to get the strips because theyre cheaper and seem simpler to use, but theyre crap and proven to be i think.
Actuallu, they appear to be cheaper but if you compare the number of tests you can do with a master kit to the number of tests in a pack of strips, you will see that the liquid master kit is far cheaper than strips.
Maxta
Fishaholic
Yeah true. Iv did loads of tests with mine and still got some left, although im running low on the ammonia one.
For some reason, bottle 2 on my ammonnia kit always runs out first. The drops are noticably larger from bottle 2 and have been on both test kits I've had. Since the bottles are the same size, part of bottle 1 goes unused.
Maxta
Fishaholic
I got bored today so i did some tests. I took one sample of water from the tap and one from tank.
Ph Reading:
Both of the colours are identical, they are just below the top reading, which makes the pH of my tank and tap around 7.4, and the last water change i did was a week ago. Tap water on the left, tank water on the right.
Ammonia Reading:
Both the colours are the same again, which is a healthy 0ppm, showing theres no traces of ammonia in our water supply, and that the bacteria in my tank are handling the fish poop well. Tap water on the left, tank water on the right.
Nitrite Reading:
Again both are the same, no trace of nitrite in our water thank god, and none in my tank, both reading in at 0ppm, which means the bacteria are handling that well too. Tap water on the left, tank water on the right.
Nitrate Reading:
Well this one should differ, and it does, no nitrate in my water, but as expected i have readings of it in my tank which is normal, the reading is between 5-10ppm and this is normal for my tank. Tap water on the left, tank water on the right.
Ph Reading:
Both of the colours are identical, they are just below the top reading, which makes the pH of my tank and tap around 7.4, and the last water change i did was a week ago. Tap water on the left, tank water on the right.
Ammonia Reading:
Both the colours are the same again, which is a healthy 0ppm, showing theres no traces of ammonia in our water supply, and that the bacteria in my tank are handling the fish poop well. Tap water on the left, tank water on the right.
Nitrite Reading:
Again both are the same, no trace of nitrite in our water thank god, and none in my tank, both reading in at 0ppm, which means the bacteria are handling that well too. Tap water on the left, tank water on the right.
Nitrate Reading:
Well this one should differ, and it does, no nitrate in my water, but as expected i have readings of it in my tank which is normal, the reading is between 5-10ppm and this is normal for my tank. Tap water on the left, tank water on the right.
OP
OP
AJGray
Fish Crazy
Just carried out the Test with the test kit
Results are as follows
pH = 7.2
Ammonia = .25ppm
Nitrite 2ppm
Nitrate = 40 ppm
Can anybody give me any advice based on these results
Results are as follows
pH = 7.2
Ammonia = .25ppm
Nitrite 2ppm
Nitrate = 40 ppm
Can anybody give me any advice based on these results
Your tank is cycling.
If you don't have fish, you need to keep waiting/continuing with fishless cycling.
If you have fish, you should do a water change immediately. Continue to do so each day as needed to keep ammonia and nitrIte in check. pH and nitrate are fine for just about any freshwater fish. There is a stickied post about cycling with fish in the beginner section that'll give much more detailed information.
As mentioned, if you have fish in the tank, start doing water changes as needed to get ammonia and nitrite down to .25ppm or below. You may have to do a couple larger WCs (50%) to get the nitrite there and then smaller 15 to 25 percent changes daily or a couple times a day to keep them there until the tank cycles.
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