Water Chemestry Mardel 5 in 1 test strips

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Bonniegiff

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Jul 18, 2010
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I Have a 10 gallon tank with three gourmais that I want to breed. I used the mardel 5-1 strips. My Nitrate - Nitrites are perfect zero and 0.5. My hardness is 120 and gouramis like the water soft so I think That is fine. My problem is my Alkalinity buffering capacity is 80 and needs to be raised. My PH is 6.8 but I am not sure about that because they say if your alkalinity is off you dont get a true reading. Does anyone know how to raise the Alkalinty Buffering Capacity. Can I just use aquarium salt or baking soada. I appreciate any help you can give me
Bonnie
 
Just some thoughts.....

Having nitrates of zero is not perfect....unless that tank is extremely heavily planted or it is after a very large water change in a lightly loaded tank, you should read some.


Having nitrites of .5 is not perfect.....in a well established steady tank they should read zero.

I personally think you need a good liquid test kit. Test strips are like the stick on thermometers....somewhat reliable and difficult to read. Plus they end up being affected by the oils on your skin and getting contaminated by the air/moisture over time.

Have you taken any readings on your tap water to compare it to your tank?

What is your substrate?
 
My substrate is gravel. I have lowered the water level, My air pump is not going very strong and the temp of the tank is 82 degrees. I have some real plants but mostly plastic. Thanks
 
Are you sure you did not mix up the nitrate and nitrite results? How long has this tank been set up?

I agree with Rbishop that you need a liquid test kit and should probably buy the GH/KH test kit if you plan on making any change to your hardness and buffering capacity.

Many species that have a specific water type in the wild have been bred for many generations with common tap water and may actually be much more comfortable with that water. If your Discus were raised locally then they may not need any special water treatment. Just a thought.
 
Yes you are right I didn't right it correctly. Please tell me what is wrong and how do I correct it.
Nitrate = 20
Nitrite = 0
Hardness = 120
Alkalinity Buffering = 80
PH = 6.8
 
I don't see what the problem is with those numbers...what levels are you trying to achieve?
 
Put some sea shells in your filter.
Get on a water change schedule to reduce the nitrate.

Gravel covers a multitude of things. When an aquarist asks what your substrate is we're usually interested in the chemical make up of the materials. Estes epoxy coated gravel is inert. Pea stone from a landscape operation will be composed of what ever the local gravel supplier is extracting. Something like ADA AquaSoil is a high humus product.
 
i agree about

  • liquid test kit
  • gh/kh kits
  • the actual necessity of buffering your water for local stock
  • testing your tap water as a reference
  • knowing the chemical properties of your gravel (ie; what gravel?)
  • stating your goals and purposes for such goals
if anything, i'd think your ph and buffering might be a little high for w/c discus. i'm no discus pro, so don't quote that. either way i would work with what you have unless you're willing to strip your water clean and re-constitute for every water change. your numbers don't seem alarming to me.

god speed and good luck.
 
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