Water Parameters

[andyj]

Hi guys,

Just bought myself pH and KH/GH test kits, and thought I'd post the results, and find out if the results I got are ok!!

Nitrite = 0
Ammonia = 0
Nitrate = 5 - 10
pH = 6.8
GH = 80 mg/L
KH = 30 mg/L

I've also got a Nutrafin CO2 kit in the tank.

Any advice you guys can give is much appreciated!

I'm trying to improve the quality of my plants in the tank, and have got a Dennerle 48" 38W tube to go in the tank in a couple of weeks time. Also have a 48" 38W 'PowerGlo' tube in there already.

Tank size = 52" (L) x 12" (W) x 18" (D) approx 210L


Cheers,

Andy

 

[OohFeeshy]

The Ph seems a bit low but DON'T do anything about it! Never mess with your pH unless you really know what you're doing, IMO. The rest seems fine, although I don't know much about parameters for KH and GH.

 

[CFC]

What you have is near perfect water chemistry for keeping the majority of tropical fish.
How long have you been running the CO2? Your KH is a little on the low side which although is certainly not a bad thing it does mean that the stability of the pH is low. By adding CO2 the pH could drop drasticly, particularly over night when plants stop using CO2 in the water.
I would recomend keeping a eye on the pH level by doing tests first thing in the morning and last thing at night every day for a week to see if there are any fluctuations in the pH, since the pH scale is logarithmic anything more than a 0.2 change in the pH over 24 hours could be placing your fish in a very stressfull enviroment.

 

[andyj]

Cheers for that CFC.

I've had the CO2 in there for about a month or so now. Only just bought the kit after chatting to a friend on here 'smithrc' about CO2 and plants etc, and he said to test for pH and GH/KH etc.

Will monitor the pH for a few days like you've suggested, and see what happens.

Cheers,

Andy