New to Walstead tank & completely confused

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Strmwrng

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My small 5 gal. tank is 3 days old, fish-less for now. My confusion comes with the water testing...I purchased 5 kits...ph, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and phosphate. Iā€™ve been researching for a couple of months but just today read about kh & gh? And that I should test for levels? Can I please get some clarification on what I really should be testing? Any/all help is very much appreciated! This has probably been asked/answered, but I must say that Iā€™m also confused on how to navigate this whole forum thing too. Thanks so much!
 
Unless you do something to the tank to change GH, it should remain constant at the same as your tap water. This means it is not necessary to buy a tester just for one test. Look on your water provider's website to see if they give your hardness - you need a number and the unit (as they could use any one of several different units). If they also give a value for alkalinity, that's KH. If the website doesn't give it, you can email or phone them to ask, or take some tap water to a fish shop and get them to test it.

The reason you need to know about GH is that fish should be kept in water with the same hardness as the water they come from. Once you know the hardness of your water, you can research fish - though with 5 gallons your choice is very limited.
 
Thanks for that info, Iā€™m on it Iā€™m only planning on a couple of female guppies cuz of small tank size. I know theyā€™re not as colorful, but I really donā€™t want to deal with babies Thanks again!
 
Guppies need hard water, with a GH of at least 200 ppm (11 dH). They don't do well kept in soft water.

If a female guppy has ever been in a tank with males (at the shop, for example) she is likely to be already pregnant and storing sperm, so she will have fry at monthly intervals for the next 6 months. The only way to be certain of not having fry is to get females from a supplier which has kept them separate from males from the moment the male fry started to develop. Or keep males.
Another alternative would be male endlers. They are a lot smaller than guppies and more brightly coloured. But again, they need hard water.
 

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