Opinions On My Water Stats?

[FishHelper101]

Okay so I purchased the test strips over the weekend and I just tested the 10 gallon. I need opinions on the following stats:
 
0 nitrate
3.0 nitrite (The fish food)
150 hardness 
0 chlorine 
120 alkalinity (What's this?)
and a 7.8 pH 
 
Thanks!

 

[This Old Spouse]

Too bad you purchased the strips. They are notorious for being inaccurate. You'll see all over this forum that a liquid test kit (API, Nutrafin, Salifert, etc.) is the only way to get reliable results. They're a little pricey, but last for a long time and are well worth the peace of mind knowing what's up with your water.
 
Plus, you'll get a reading on your ammonia, which is absolutely necessary.

 

[phoenixgsd]

test strips are notoriously innacurate, ideally you need a liquid based test kit, are you cycling, whats your ammonia readings

 

[FishHelper101]

I was told by a fish expert that the strips aren't inaccurate at all soo…?

 

[daizeUK]

150 hardness 
...
120 alkalinity (What's this?)

 
I believe that your hardness is GH (general hardness, or total dissolved salts) and the alkalinity reading is what most people think of as KH (carbonate hardness, or just carbonate salts).  These strips use alkalinity to measure KH, or so I've read.

 

[This Old Spouse]

I was told by a fish expert that the strips aren't inaccurate at all soo…?

What kind of "expert?" Was it a staffer in a local fish store (LFS)?

 

[FishHelper101]

What kind of "expert?" Was it a staffer in a local fish store (LFS)?

 

No I had an over-the-phone conversation with this lady.

I believe that your hardness is GH (general hardness, or total dissolved salts) and the alkalinity reading is what most people think of as KH (carbonate hardness, or carbonate salts). 
These strips use alkalinity to measure KH, or so I've read.

Oh ok thanks for explaining! 

 

[ThatAquaristChick1234]

I see no problems with the strips. they work fine for me and others, and ive never had problems. 

 

[CezzaXV]

As the others have said, it's impossible to know what kind of progress you're making with your cycle without an ammonia reading. You've got nitrite, which is good and shows your fishless cycle is progressing, but we can't say how well without knowing the ammonia reading.

Alkalinity is your water's ability to resist a change in pH, commonly known as its buffering capacity. It's nice to know, but not really of much use to you.

Not sure why you've got a chlorine test kit as if you're dechlorinating your water, it should always be 0. No real way to mess that up really.

 

[daizeUK]

Not sure why you've got a chlorine test kit as if you're dechlorinating your water, it should always be 0. No real way to mess that up really.

 
The six-in-one test strips include a chlorine test.  I've found it quite useful, since it shows me that I need to overdose dechlorinator by quite a lot to get rid of all my chloramines.  It is possible to mess it up if you trust the instructions on the bottle and you happen to have loads of chloramines in your tap water.
 
Alkalinity=buffering capacity=carbonate hardness=ability to resist pH changes.  It can be important in a long cycle, KH is used up during the cycling process and may cause a pH crash if it gets too low.

 

[CezzaXV]

Why would they include a chlorine test and not an ammonia test? That makes no sense.

 

[Lilfishy]

As others have said, the strips can be inaccurate, you need accurate readings for ammonia nitrite & nitrate.
If you dechlorinate which you should before water changing then you shouldn't need to test for chlorine

 

[This Old Spouse]

Just to add ... if you use a dechlorinator like Seachem Prime, you'll also neutralize a number of other nasties in your water. Costs a little more but you use less and it's well worth it.

 

[FishHelper101]

Thanks to everyone for all the help! And let me just add, I don't come out to be mean or rude. It's just that I like to make sure that everything is going right before I do any harm. Thank you all!

 

[Lilfishy]

I'm sure none thought you were mean or rude.
We,ve all made mistakes, that's how we learn