Water Testing

[scousegirl]

hi all just wondering if my water is ok.


before my water change it was

120 GH 40 KH 7.0 Ph 0.5 No 2 (nitrite) 40 No 3 (nitrate)

this was took on the 9/6/09 then i did the water change after i done the test

then i did a test on the 12/6/09

180 GH 40 KH 7.5 PH 0 NO 2 (nitrite) 40 No 3 (nitrate)

not sure what the water should be like lol i am only a beginner really

 

[waterdrop]

Hi scousegirl and welcome to the beginner section!

You're going to have to tell us a whole lot more info so we can get the context of your question. We'll want to know tank size. Fish in? No fish? When was it set up? If there are fish, what fish? How many live plants?

What sort of filter? What media (sponges, etc.) are in the filter?

Most important: I'd guess from the stats you gave us that you're using paper strip testers. Unfortunately, those are worse than uselss, they are misleading, so one of the first things for beginners to do is to plan on getting a good liquid-reagent based test kit. Most of us like and use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[rdd1952]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

I agree with waterdrop on the tests. The 5-in-1 strips you're using don't test for the #1 most important thing in a cycling tank: ammonia. Trash those and get a good liquid kit.

As for the results, anytime you have a positive reading for nitrite it's not good. Since you have nitrate, I would assume that your tank is cycling but if you live in the UK, 40 ppm of nitrate in tap water is pretty common. Also, since it didn't change when you did the water change, I would think it is from your tap water and not from the cycling process.

The actual number for GH, KH & pH aren't terribly important (unless you are keeping a very delicate species that needs a certain range). The key thing is that they are stable (never used pH adjusting chemicals). NO2 (nitrite) as well NH3 (ammonia) should always be 0. Anything else means that there is a problem. Just keep doing water changes as needed to keep the ammonia and nitrite at .25 or below until they are back to zero. Don't add any more fish until both are at 0 for at least a week and then only add a few fish, no more than doubling the stocking.

 

[OldMan47]

I must agree that a paper strip test is almost useless. I hope the test strip is not accurate because it is saying that you have almost no pH buffering capacity in your moderately soft water. If that is true, who knows with a paper strip, you will have trouble getting your pH to settle at any consistent value. The shift your strip showed from 7.0 to 7.5 even supports that idea with a test method as unreliable as you are using.

 

[scousegirl]

thanks all

i will take a sample of water to the pet shop next week some time. but the fish in the tank are active only lost 2 fish in the tank.

to answer the question above

fish i got are:
3 bronze 2 albino corydoras catfish
2 silver tipped tetras
7 neon tetras
3 male 5 female guppies
2 guppy young at 2 month old and 5/6 guppies young at 2/3 weeks old
2 zerbra danio
plec

the tank size

length is 60m
width is 49m
side of the tank is 35m

the fitter i am using is a fluval 2 plus

thing in the tank are a log, 2 boats, castle and a plastic plant

when i do a water change i use 2 capfuls of the cycle and the agua plus to soften the water

 

[OldMan47]

the tank size

length is 60m
width is 49m
side of the tank is 35m




That is a huge tank ScouseGirl. What does it hold, 100,000 gallons? If it were only that many cm it would be a reasonable sized tank for inside the house.

It would be fairly fully stocked at about 100 litres. Your fish selection should be OK in the water that you are measuring if it happens to be close to right. The Cycle is a waste of good money and I don't recognize the other product. The thing that you really need is a water conditioner to take care of chlorine and chloramine. Your water is already fairly soft so I hope the "softener" doesn't really lower the water's hardness.

 

[waterdrop]

Length 60m. Yes, this is longer than the 50 meter pool I do laps in at lunch!

I think we can safely guess cm and that we have a 103L/27G or thereabouts tank here, lol.

So we've got a 103L/27G with a fairly full fish population probably in a Fish-In cycling situation but we don't know the water stats yet. I believe the Aqua Plus might -be- a water conditioner and if so then scousegirl can take care of the chlorine/chloramines with that during the water changes.

Scousegirl, we still don't know how long the tank has been set up and when the fish were put in.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[scousegirl]

Length 60m. Yes, this is longer than the 50 meter pool I do laps in at lunch!

I think we can safely guess cm and that we have a 103L/27G or thereabouts tank here, lol.

So we've got a 103L/27G with a fairly full fish population probably in a Fish-In cycling situation but we don't know the water stats yet. I believe the Aqua Plus might -be- a water conditioner and if so then scousegirl can take care of the chlorine/chloramines with that during the water changes.

Scousegirl, we still don't know how long the tank has been set up and when the fish were put in.

~~waterdrop~~

sorry

the tank was up for about 1 to 2 weeks before i transfer the fish over from me 3 foot tank. but i have had my new tank up and running for over three months.

in the three month it been up and running i had 2 set of egg of my albino corydora catfish. it been the past week or so but only lost about 2 over the weekend the rest seem active

 

[waterdrop]

OK, sounds like you're -not- in a fish-in cycling situation since you've had about 3 months to accomplish that.

Taking your water to the LFS for stats is a bit hit or miss, so you might want to be thinking about a real liquid-reagent based test kit for yourself so you can be more confident. It could be that you are a little under-filtered or perhaps there are problems with the media choices in the filter.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[scousegirl]

OK, sounds like you're -not- in a fish-in cycling situation since you've had about 3 months to accomplish that.

Taking your water to the LFS for stats is a bit hit or miss, so you might want to be thinking about a real liquid-reagent based test kit for yourself so you can be more confident. It could be that you are a little under-filtered or perhaps there are problems with the media choices in the filter.

~~waterdrop~~

thanks for the advice

Went to the pet shop yesterday. the fella took a look at the figues i was getting. then he gave me this white power (forgot to ask what it was lol) he told me to do another water and put the power in.

i have to leave it till friday and take a sample of water up to him

 

[Geoff1991]

I wouldnt put that white powder in just because he said so...

What are your water stats and what is the white powder?

 

[waterdrop]

Wow, even worse than "the usual" LFS treatment. Always try to get actual numbers from them when they test your water and ideally notice what testing kit they're using. Putting powders in our tank water is often what this forum helps us learn -not- to do, and that's even when we know what they are!

Water chemistry for keeping freshwater tropical fish is surprisingly easy! Often it involves no more than a product to remove the chlorine or chloramines that the water service puts in and then really just the learning of some straight-forward information and testing. In many cases adding extra things comes from lack of information/knowledge.

~~waterdrop~~