Water Testing

Cribbinator

Cribbinator

Fish are Friends, Not Food
May 26, 2004
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0
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Alpharetta, GA
www.thecribbs.com
Hello,

I have a question. Can anyone recommend a good water testing kit to purchase and what the proper steps are to test your water ? I've heard you should test your water regulary and always before adding fish, is this correct ? I'm a newbie aquariumist so any help or information would be appreciated.

Thank you!

Jim
 
Ummm...That link is not the best source of information. Sorry, but the 'guidelines' for fishless cycling there are wrong, and lack enough detail to be at all useful.

There are several links listed in cycling sticky in this forum for cycling information and techniques.

On test kits: I prefer the liquid kits. Masters is nice--it includes ammonia, nitrite, pH, GH, KH. Nitrate can be purchased individually. The strips aren't always as accurate. For a cycling tank, KH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are important. With an established tank, nitrates, KH, GH, and pH are the ones you'll need most often. Ammonia and nitrite are seldom used, unless there's been an 'event'--fish health issues, deaths, sudden changes to the system. Knowing about your water source is also important, and you can obtain a detailed report from your water utility; often this can also be found online.
 
I'm relatively new to the hobby myself ... I've had my tank cycled and running for about 3 months now. I've tried plenty of testing kits and finally have settled on one that I'm extremely comfortable with ... its the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Freshwater Test kit. The tests include freshwater pH, high range pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Its the test tube kind of kit as opposed to the strips. You can order it from Big Al's online and it costs only $12.99. The link for it is as follows:

http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=19383;category_id=3233;pcid1=;pcid2=

If you want a brand name for the test strips ... I've used Mardell and they worked pretty well.

I personally prefer the liquid tests. I feel I can get a slightly more accurate result from those and the strips. And it doesn't take ALL that long as some people might think. It takes me literally 5 minutes to complete the tests and another few minutes to wash the tubes out.

Hope this helps!
 
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Thanks for the replies.

So what do I look for in the water tests ? I assume they have some guidelines and ranges to look for ? Is there something specific I should test for on a regular basis and other tests that are usually done every couples of months ? Thanks again.

Regards,

Jim
 
they lack the detail because there's a link to tomgriffin's site which has all the details. the summary just gets the main idea out, so that one can get an idea of which options they might be interested in. but thanks for the input, i'll try to make it a little more reader friendly.

i use jungle test kits, but they're not that great for fishless cycling because of the magnitude of some of the spikes.


if you plan on doing a fishy cycle, then they would probably be fine to use.
 
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The ranges on most of the kits available are pretty standard. The only one to worry about will be pH. There are usually high and low range kits, and which you'll need will depend on your tank. Low range works for most tropical setups, but some areas have high pH water naturally. The high range kits are needed for many African cichlid and marine setups. My test kit included both.

In terms of how often--if the tank is cycling, you'll want to test KH initially, and ammonia and nitrites as they spike and decline daily. Testing for nitrates once nitrites start to decline is useful to see how the bacteria are progressing. Start testing Once the tank is established, testing weekly for nitrates and pH, as well as regularly for GH and KH will help you get a feel for how often and wht size water changes are needed to keep the tank stable. Once you are comfortable with your routine, testing should be done regularly, or as needed if you suspect a problem, or when you make large scale changes to the setup or stock.

In terms of the results, ammonia and nitrites should always be 0 in an established tank. Nitrates should be kept low--how low is debatable and will vary with the setup, but under 20 is great, under 40 is acceptable. For pH, stable is better than a particular value for most community setups. GH and KH--the test kit will give you an acceptable range (there are some variances in the type of reasing, so giving a set value is tough).

silentskream--that site also says that fishless cycling should take 2 weeks, which is false, and that going fishless allows you to add more ammonia to increase bacteria growth, which is also false. Increasing ammonia will not speed the rate of growth, and excess ammonia can inhibit the bacteria.
 
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you do add more ammonia than in a fishy cycle though?

so you get more bacteria.. isnt that why you can add a full bioload at once?

in addition, i've restructured the links so that they are in the title of each section instead of at the bottom of the page, hopefully that will be a little more userfriendly, and people can look at the specific directions if they're interested, but not have to read the big long thing about fishless cycling if they dont care.
 
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If you use the liquid test kits, you basically take a sample of the tank water ... add a certain number of drops (instructions will be included in the kit) ... and wait for the color to develop. Then you compare that color with the cards that have the color chart (also included in the kit). Each color (or shade of a particular color) represents a certain level which you'll be able to read off from the card.

The strips work pretty much the same way ... you dip the stip in the tank water, wait for the color and compare it to the chart that they give you with the kit.

As far as what to test for ... take a look at OrionGirls' post above ... that pretty much sums up what you need to test for when.

During the cycling process, I used to test every other day and kept a log of the readings. Once my tank cycled, I eased off on the ammonia and nitrIte testing ... I only check the levels once every 2 or 3 weeks or so now.

Good luck !!
 
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