Test Kits...
- Thread starter snytiger_92
- Start date
Nope, just the general freshwater should suffice. Make sure it has Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, pH, KH and Gh. Some folks add Iron (Fe) and Phosphate tests to their arsenal. I personally don't, as everything I have heard about them says that they are very innacurate.
Hmm.. no but that's not a bad idea. It would save a lot of money on individual test kits. 
In a planted aquarium you want to test for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Phosphate, pH, KH/GH and Iron.
If you're starting to get serious then I suggest you pick up one of those Hagen Master Kits. It contains all of these tests and more. There are only a few you won't use so even though it costs $60 it's still a great value.
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You just beat me to it benedict. But since we're on the subject, I've found the Hagen phosphate test to be bogus. It tests positive on distilled water and adding non-phosphate pH buffer to the water falsely lowers the value on the test. But I've found that their Iron test kit works well. It tests zero on distilled water and when I dose PlantGro which contains chelated Iron it tests exactly what you would expect. All of their other tests seem fine.
In a planted aquarium you want to test for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Phosphate, pH, KH/GH and Iron.
If you're starting to get serious then I suggest you pick up one of those Hagen Master Kits. It contains all of these tests and more. There are only a few you won't use so even though it costs $60 it's still a great value.
-edit-
You just beat me to it benedict. But since we're on the subject, I've found the Hagen phosphate test to be bogus. It tests positive on distilled water and adding non-phosphate pH buffer to the water falsely lowers the value on the test. But I've found that their Iron test kit works well. It tests zero on distilled water and when I dose PlantGro which contains chelated Iron it tests exactly what you would expect. All of their other tests seem fine.
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Nitrates are bad when there is too many of them. I think you need less than 20 ppm.
Plants use the nitrate to grow and provide a peice of the circle that balances out your tank. This is part of the reason why palnted tanks are recoomended for better water. The use some of the nitrates and other harmful chemicals. I think they use ammonia as well, but I'm not sure. Nitrates are posionous to fish only but food to palnts.
The real crooks are the nitirites. They aren't food to anyone and need to be removed by a water change. You really need to watch that one little i.
Plants use the nitrate to grow and provide a peice of the circle that balances out your tank. This is part of the reason why palnted tanks are recoomended for better water. The use some of the nitrates and other harmful chemicals. I think they use ammonia as well, but I'm not sure. Nitrates are posionous to fish only but food to palnts.
The real crooks are the nitirites. They aren't food to anyone and need to be removed by a water change. You really need to watch that one little i.
Plants prefer to use ammonium over nitrates, as it means less work for them, however, adding ammonium isn't a good idea because it's stressful for the fish. That's why nitrates are added instead (as most fish can tolerate higher amounts of nitrates, relative to ammonia)
jonathan03 said:
Actually, if cycle your tank before adding any fish, you shouldn't have any problems with nitrites.
Nitrates should be kept below 20 ppm. High concentrations of nitrates are linked to most fish disease. Also, when in high concentration, nitrates can turn into phosphates. If your phosphates get too high it is very likely that you'll have algea problems.
Nitrate does not turn into Phosphate, no matter the concentration.
Nitrate does have long term toxicity to fish, but one major concern is that NO3 acts as a measurable proxy for unmeasurable organic pollutants, sulphates, fish hormones, steroids, etc. This of course fails in a planted tank because the plants are using up NO3, so we feed lightly, stock lightly, and do weekly 50% water changes and "hope" that it is sufficient to keep an equivalant of an unplanted <20ppm NO3.
Hagen's PO4 test kit is fine, yours is apparently deffective, but the product itself is fine. Contact your lfs for an exchange or contact Hagen and inform them.
Iron testing is tricky to say the least. In its chelated form it will be held in the Fe(II) (Fe 2+) form that plants prefer. So if you tested shortly after dosing, you would obtain the correct results. However, this will degrade to Fe2O2 and then spontaneously oxidize to Fe2O3 if there's oxygen present. So, for example, the next day, your kit will be hard pressed to produce accurate results.
Nitrate does have long term toxicity to fish, but one major concern is that NO3 acts as a measurable proxy for unmeasurable organic pollutants, sulphates, fish hormones, steroids, etc. This of course fails in a planted tank because the plants are using up NO3, so we feed lightly, stock lightly, and do weekly 50% water changes and "hope" that it is sufficient to keep an equivalant of an unplanted <20ppm NO3.
Hagen's PO4 test kit is fine, yours is apparently deffective, but the product itself is fine. Contact your lfs for an exchange or contact Hagen and inform them.
Iron testing is tricky to say the least. In its chelated form it will be held in the Fe(II) (Fe 2+) form that plants prefer. So if you tested shortly after dosing, you would obtain the correct results. However, this will degrade to Fe2O2 and then spontaneously oxidize to Fe2O3 if there's oxygen present. So, for example, the next day, your kit will be hard pressed to produce accurate results.
benedictj said:
Yes provided you do regular water changes. I meant that of the big bad three (ammonia, nitrates, and nitirites) nitirites are the only ones that can't be removed by plants or any other means besides a water change. If you had the right amount of plant/fish ratio and feed the right amount, then ideally a water change would almost never be needed. However, the nitrites need a water change since they can't be used by anything and are harmful to the fish.
It looks like you're a bit confused jonathan. In a cycled tank, nitrite will be 0ppm all the time. In a cycled tank, nitrifiers convert ammonia (NH3) to nitrite (NO2) then to nitrate (NO3). NO2 being the most harmful of the three. Nitrate is the end product of cycling in a standard FW tank.