What Should Test Readings Be ?

[NeonWater]

Hi, ive have a look through the Begginers Resource Center and cant find the ideal water condition ive done tests and my results are:

PH 7.4
KH 4
N0'3 10
N0'2 0
GH 10
Amnmonia 0


Any feedback on these results would be great and what to do,

Many thanks

 

[JustKia]

Amonnia (NH4) - 0
Nitrite (NO2) - 0
Nitrate (NO3) - <20-40 Most people prefer to try and keep these under 20ppm but some sources say that even at 100ppm it's not detrimental. Also some of us already have nitrates in our tap water.

After that the "ideal" is variable depending on what fish you have and what their natural habitat is.
Some cichlids are happy in a pH of 6.2-6.5 where as a marine tank is usually around 8.2-8.4
Again the ideal GH (general hardness) is going to be variable as it depends on whther you have softwater or hardwater fish, although it's best to try and work with the water you have as stability is better than keeping on trying to change your chemistry.
KH (carbonate hardness) is to do with how much buffering you have in your water and can be increased, if needed by adding crushed coral sand, or crushed shell, but you have to monitor this carefully.

The best advice is to get a decent liquid based reagent test kit such as the API master kit (although this doesn't include the GH and KH tests, so you'd need to get them separate) and don't reply on test strips as they are notoriously inaccurate.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi there NeonWater,

Depends... ideal conditions for *what?* I'm going to guess you are talking about running conditions after your tank is established (and not during fishless or fish-in cycling, right?)

First of all the numbers need to come from liquid-reagent based tests and not paper strips, but I think you've been around a while, so that's probably true, right?

If those numbers are liquid based, then they look pretty "ok." One detail is that the KH of 4 means that normal nitrification (ie. the nitrogen cycle doing its thing day in, day out) may gradually push the pH downward, but after a delay as the minerals that make up temporary hardness (KH) get used up. What this means in practical terms is that larger (say, 50%) water changes for your habitual weekly water change will be a better thing for you, rather than say, 25%. Also, the more thorough gravel clean you will get while all that 50% water goes out of the tank will help things a lot as more of the nitrite and nitrate may be hanging out down in the gravel.

While I'm on it, don't forget to always be aware of this basic principle: There is no such thing as a universal ideal set of water conditions for tropical freshwater tank keeping. *Your* water, the stuff coming out of your tap (or well, or whatever you use) is tremendously important because its your *baseline.* It is the baseline your fish need to get used to, so that a day will never come when adding a bunch of "baseline water" would hurt them. How would that happen? Well, if you got more and more lazy over time and just didn't take time to do your weekly water changes, then the trace metals and organics would gradually cause your fish to get used to higher levels of these things... then one day when you did a larger water change, the shock of these things changing could kill them. So that's why nice regular tank cleanings that involve a significant water change are a very important habit.

~~waterdrop~~