Tested My Water For The First Time, Comment On Results

[Dave_NI]

hi folks, well from i joined here i have realised i have been doing nothing right lol so i bought myself an api test kit and i have just completed my first test, the readings were as follows

Nitrite 0ppm
Ammonia 0ppm
Ph 6.0
Ph high range 7.4
Nitrate 40 ppm

any comments and info would be really appreciated folks!

 

[JenCliBee]

Re- check the PH, sounds a little odd from both the high and low range other than that the results are perfect apart from a little high nitRates, a water change would drop this unless the nitrates are 40 from the tap.

Other than that test results seem really good

 

[Rediahs]

If your pH was 6.0 when you tested it, there's no reason to use the high pH test kit. Your pH is 6 or lower, which is pretty low. Some fish like that. But it makes things harder for cycling (I assume you already cycled with fish or something?) but that's not really relevant for a stocked tank that's already been cycled.

Looks fine to me.

 

[pauline]

hi folks, well from i joined here i have realised i have been doing nothing right lol so i bought myself an api test kit and i have just completed my first test, the readings were as follows

Nitrite 0ppm
Ammonia 0ppm
Ph 6.0
Ph high range 7.4
Nitrate 40 ppm

any comments and info would be really appreciated folks!

hi there im also new here but ive had some great advice. been cycling my tank and taking readings for 3 weeks so i know a little about water quality. your nirates are too high. i was told to do 50 percent water changes when this happenned to neutralise the nitrates as theae are deadly to fish. so id take out half of the tank water and replace with fressh not forgetting the de chlorinator! then check levels again in a couple of hours. dont be put off by this as it may take a few days to settle. keep checkind and changing the water until the nitrates come down. good luck and if you need any help just ask like i said im new to this but ive learnt a lot!

 

[Dave_NI]

thanks for all the info folks, i've had my aquarium from jan '08 and this is the first test i have done, i know, tut tut dave

 

[JenCliBee]

hi folks, well from i joined here i have realised i have been doing nothing right lol so i bought myself an api test kit and i have just completed my first test, the readings were as follows

Nitrite 0ppm
Ammonia 0ppm
Ph 6.0
Ph high range 7.4
Nitrate 40 ppm

any comments and info would be really appreciated folks!

hi there im also new here but ive had some great advice. been cycling my tank and taking readings for 3 weeks so i know a little about water quality. your nirates are too high. i was told to do 50 percent water changes when this happenned to neutralise the nitrates as theae are deadly to fish. so id take out half of the tank water and replace with fressh not forgetting the de chlorinator! then check levels again in a couple of hours. dont be put off by this as it may take a few days to settle. keep checkind and changing the water until the nitrates come down. good luck and if you need any help just ask like i said im new to this but ive learnt a lot!

NitRAtes arnt deadly to fish unless they are in extream high amounts like over 200-300 and even then reports have said that level is fine, i think your getting mixed up with NitRItes which yes any amounts are poisoness to fish.

Results look fine apart from a nitrate level a tad high for what people recommened of 20 ish... but if you have 40 out of the tap theres not really much you can do

 

[waterdrop]

hi folks, well from i joined here i have realised i have been doing nothing right lol so i bought myself an api test kit and i have just completed my first test, the readings were as follows

Nitrite 0ppm
Ammonia 0ppm
Ph 6.0
Ph high range 7.4
Nitrate 40 ppm

any comments and info would be really appreciated folks!

hi there im also new here but ive had some great advice. been cycling my tank and taking readings for 3 weeks so i know a little about water quality. your nirates are too high. i was told to do 50 percent water changes when this happenned to neutralise the nitrates as theae are deadly to fish. so id take out half of the tank water and replace with fressh not forgetting the de chlorinator! then check levels again in a couple of hours. dont be put off by this as it may take a few days to settle. keep checkind and changing the water until the nitrates come down. good luck and if you need any help just ask like i said im new to this but ive learnt a lot!

NitRAtes arnt deadly to fish unless they are in extream high amounts like over 200-300 and even then reports have said that level is fine, i think your getting mixed up with NitRItes which yes any amounts are poisoness to fish.

Results look fine apart from a nitrate level a tad high for what people recommened of 20 ish... but if you have 40 out of the tap theres not really much you can do

Yes, I agree Jen, I believe this has been talked out in any number of threads and most tropicals will tolerate up to 400ppm NO3 with reports that some species show no problem with 1000ppm. NO2 is the deadly one.

Also agree and its often discussed here is that desirable numbers for nitrate(NO3) are better expressed as additions beyond tap level rather than just numbers. If your tap water has zero ppm nitrate then 5 or 10 is a very nice number and 20 is not bad. If you have 10ppm nitrate coming out of the tap then 30 is not bad.

Also good to mention is that nitrate(NO3) is traditionally used as a "canary in the coal mine" to give a rough glimpse of possible maintenance issues with a tank. When nitrate levels go up it can be a sign that more frequent gravel-clean-water-changes are needed and nitrate serves as an inexpensive single test to represent the hundreds of trace heavy metals and organics that we want to keep from building up in our tanks but which would be too expensive or time consuming to test for.

We don't know Dave's tap stats.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Dave_NI]

i'll try and get a tap sample tomorrow for you

 

[ChiNA MaN]

nitrates are a lil to high but water change atleast 25-40% every week instead of 10-20% just to neutralize the nitrates as they are deadly to fish.