Water Testing Kits

[black_molly]

Hello,

I am fairly new to the fish world and normally get my water tested, I havn't had it tested in a while and see my fish losing thier energy. I have bought my own water testing kit but there are no instructions with it and no guidelines to tell me what is the norm for my tank?!

Could someone please tell me what the PH should be, the NO3, NO2, GH and KH should be as its all jargon?

Confused!

 

[Tolak]

What's the brand/maker of the test kit? You want ammonia & nitrites at zero, nitrates, hardness, & pH depends on the type of fish you have. You want to keep nitrates as low as possible, but the others can cover a wide range and be just fine depending on the fish.

Tolak

 

[black_molly]

What's the brand/maker of the test kit? You want ammonia & nitrites at zero, nitrates, hardness, & pH depends on the type of fish you have. You want to keep nitrates as low as possible, but the others can cover a wide range and be just fine depending on the fish.

Tolak

It's a Tetra Test in that case, my nitrates are under 5, PH 7.6, and my hardness is >6d? What would be the chemical symbol for ammonia and do those sound healthy?

 

[rdd1952]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Ammonia is NH3/NH4 and nitrite is NO2. Both of those should be 0. The readings you have on pH, KH and nitrates are fine. In case you haven't found it anywhere, the higher the KH, the higher your buffering capacity and the more stable your pH should be.

On a side note, I see that your group is "Validating". You will need to go to the email you received when you registered and click the link in it to validate your membership. Until then, you will only be able to post ing the "Newbie" and "Beginners" sections.