What's in my Water

Magoo

Magoo

Fish are like children
Nov 11, 2005
24
0
0
Northbridge, MA
I was wondering how to find out what's in my water concerning my new planted aquatic experience! Will a LFS test for Iron, Phosphate, Potassium, Magnesium and Iron. Do they sell a master test kit for planted tanks???


Thank You,
Jeff

Also what are the reccomended levels for a healthy tank?
 
I was wondering how to find out what's in my water concerning my new planted aquatic experience! Will a LFS test for Iron, Phosphate, Potassium, Magnesium and Iron. Do they sell a master test kit for planted tanks???
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Your lfs probably would not test for those elements, and I would be suspicious of the results if they did.

Try your local water company, they should be able to fax or mail you a report of your tap water. It may be available online also.

For a planted tank the test kits most needed are...
pH, KH, GH, PO4, NO3
they should be available at your lfs.

As for your last question - Well it is a little open ended to answer without knowing everything about your tank. It also suggests you need to go to the archives and do some reading on planted tanks.

Good luck with it

Jay
 
Ditto as Jay wrote. Chech the "stickies" at the top of the aquatic plants page for fertilizer info.
 
Holy Cow

I think keeping a well maintained planted tank is harder to learn about than keeping freshwater fish!! I have been reading for two days straight and today I'm heading to the LFS and gonna go hands on and try it out. I'm starting to understand some of the chemical makeup but it really is a little overwhelming. :duh:

I guess the best way to learn is to give it a go. I'm going to try it fishless first because I don't want to hurt my fish. Thank you everyone at Aquaria Central :clap:

Jeff
 
I think keeping a well maintained planted tank is harder to learn about than keeping freshwater fish!! I have been reading for two days straight and today I'm heading to the LFS and gonna go hands on and try it out. I'm starting to understand some of the chemical makeup but it really is a little overwhelming.
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Not really, it's just another aspect of the hobby. If it wasn't a little challenging it would not be of much interest or fun to me as a pursuit. Look at it this way, the learning, reading, experimenting, and eventual success is what its all about. After a while, when you can step back, and say I "Created" that beautiful aqua-scape, and I know why it all works and how it hangs together, then you can move on to some really difficult plants or techniques.

Lol...Zen and the Planted Aquarium

Jay
 
Your'e right

You are deffinately right, The challenge of the whole auqascape is what is driving me. I think we all want the most beautiful tanks we can make. I did some more studying and went to the LFS and picked up some Flourish, Flourish tabs. For plants I got some that I think are easy to grow for the beginner. I bought 3 Java Ferns, 2 Red Melon Swords and a nice handful of Java Moss that I want to grow onto my driftwood.

I got a couple more newbie questions if you dont mind. My Java Ferns have a couple of blades with blackened tips. Should I prune them just below where the black ends, cut the whole blade off or leave them be??

In the above posts I was told that I should have test kits for pH, KH, GH, PO4, NO3. This is where I still have a lot to learn. I uderstand pH, KH, and NO3 but what is GH and PO4. Is it General Hardness and Phosphate??

One more. I am currently cycling the tank and my Nitrites are very high. (5.0) Is this bad for the plants?

Once again thank you!!!!!!!
 
understand pH, KH, and NO3 but what is GH and PO4. Is it General Hardness and Phosphate??
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Yes, both important to the planted tank. You will begin to understand as you research ferts.

Oh. IMO you should forget the root tabs for a while, they can cause you problems down the road especially if you are planting and replanting. Here's another fun part of this hobby...not everyone will agree with me on that. :o
 
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