Water Test Advise Please?

[Sarah5098]

Should i be testing my treated tap water, or just the stuff from the tap? Does it make a difference? And do i just test my tap water for pH and GH, or all the ammonia and stuff as well?
Thanks
Sarah

 

[OldMan47]

I have found that I have some ammonia in my tap water Sarah. As long as I take that into account when doing a water change I have no problems but if I did not know it I could get myself into a lot of trouble. Nitrates are another thing that is not unusual in tap water and it would be good to know if your tap water is at say 30 ppm if you are trying to get the tank under 20 ppm with water changes. Usually tap water only changes slowly with the seasons so testing it all the time is not needed. I always test my tap water, when I test it, after I treat with dechlorinator because it shows more like what is going into my tank. Without a water treatment, I don't detect any ammonia because the water treatment breaks the chemical bond between chlorine and ammonia. It seems that the water company is adding chloramine which is a combination of those two chemicals.

 

[shetazjd]

It's good to know what the parametes of your tap water are but you do not need to test it on a regular basis.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, agree with the above. Excellent write-up by OM47 there.

~~waterdrop~~