Testing Aquarium Water Quality

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jerboux

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Testing Aquarium Water
Quality with Your Eyes, Nose and Finger Tips


http://aquariumfish.net/information/test_w...r_eyes.htm#top2


2. Test Your Water with Your Finger Tips.

First wash your hands with soap and water, then carefully rinse all the soap off your hands. Put the tips of your fingers in your fish's water and move your fingers quickly back and forth to produce bubbles on the surface. Do the bubbles sit on the surface of the water and not pop quickly?


If you said yes to any of these questions, your fish are living in water that is not good for them, and you should click here for a list of what to do. Or if the water is green, click here for a list of what to do.

In our facilities we rarely test the water with test kits or chemicals. We used to test for ammonia and nitrite and do other tests too. But most of us working here can spot poor water by looking at it. If in doubt we stir the water with our finger tips to see how quickly the bubbles pop.

If we see an aquarium with cloudy water or bubbles or foam on the water's surface, and the bubbles don't quickly pop, we take immediate action to clean the aquarium, the filter, and change some of the water. Click here for more about cleaning your fish's home.

3. How to Test Water with Your Nose.
Good water in your fish's home has a characteristic smell. It smells very much like good garden soil.

But Cloudy or Foamy water often does not smell good. Rather it smells like garlic or cigar smoke. I've been smelling fishy water for many years, and the smell is often an important clue in helping to decide whether the water is good for fish or not good.

If in doubt, clean your fish's home and change 20% of the water each day, until the water quality looks and smells good again.


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i just wonder, is this true? coz' i'm relying on it. when ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are at their tolerable level does it really smells like a good garden soil? when the water is becoming foamy or cloudy or the bubbles don't pop quickly how bad is the ammonia level? no2,no2 level? i never tried using water test kits before. im doing this method for about 2 mos now. as an expert can you recommend their method?
 
I think that while in some cases it will be true, it is probably not going to be true in every case. What the water smells like is going to be highly variable, and dependent on many things including (but not limited to) its source, what is being kept in it (fish, plants, other non0fish species), what the substrate is. I am sure that there are many more.

Similarly, how quickly bubbles pop is going to be very inexact since it is going to be very subjective. What is "quickly" to you may be "slowly" to me.

In short, what the above guidelines aren't terrible, if there is any way possible, a test kit is the way to go.
 

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