water chemistry

Hey everyone, I've got a query that I'm struggling to solve about water chemistry. There are no fish in this tank, so it's not an urgent fix just looking to understand. It's a 180L (roughly 47 Gallon), 120cm/4ft long tank. Has been setup for 6 months as a daphnia/micro invert/plant tank but was...

Hi friendly fish community! We recently moved and began using reverse osmosis bottled water (because our new tap water is high in chlorine), which has slightly changed the water chemistry in our 20 gal freshwater planted tank. My fish species include: •Cory cats •Neon tetras •Flame tetras...

I don't know much about them, but I do know that they're basically bulletproof cleaners like snails. I am acclimating them just in case. I've heard that they won't die except when opened, and that their cleaning abilities could even replace the need for having a filter. So, I'm excited. But I'm...

I've seen in discussion that you shouldn't add store water to the tank when putting in new fish. I get it, but how would you do that? The net is too big to fit in the bag to only scoop the fish out. I don't understand how you would get the fish out without adding the water they come with. I'd...

As a clumsy person, I've had my fair share of struggles. I always end up spilling some water on the floor during water changes. I accidentally tipped over the bucket I was using for a substrate swap, so I had to start over. I spilled a water test on the floor when I meant to dump the liquid in...

I finally saw the test kit I wanted today and picked it up. My mom put it back, saying it was too expensive and that test strips do the same thing. The strips have 5 in a package and could potentially be inaccurate. I have a disability that prevents me from getting a job, otherwise I would have...

I wanted to get a test kit the most, but the store was sold out of freshwater master test kits. I asked my dad to go to another store, but he refused so I was stuck with what I could get. All the bottles of Prime left were tiny, so I got Aqueon water conditioner instead. Because there weren't...

My other tank could fill up my new small tank, would it still need cycling?

SO there have been a couple threads on here that I’ve found really interesting about water chemistry (I thinks that’s how you would refer to it) such as KH, GH, ph and water sources. I feel I was originally misled by my LPS (classic) as he said “all my fish are in the same water as you have so...

Does it make a difference where in the tank I collect the water to test it? It occured to me that since I'm taking water from the top of the tank to test I might not be getting information about lower in the tank, but I've got a filter, so theoretically the water should be all mixed? I've had a...

Hi All I've recently set up my 20 litre, planted nano tank. I've elected to use 100% RO water which I am remineralsing, and I wanted to ask if others have done this and how they scaled their doses for various quantities of water for a nano tank, i.e. large quantity at start up, 50% water...

Hi every one, Dobby here. I always had fish growing up but this is my first foray into a marine aquarium. Naturally i go for a reef aquarium as my first attempt. My problem is Ph. It is WAY to low. 7.52 (seneye) and about 7.8 from a NTLabs test kit. I can not get it up enough. Tank: 220L, Red...

Hey guys I'll keep this brief. I'm starting an African Cichlid tank in a 29 gallon. I attached the heater to the back-side of the tank, with the suction cups on either side of the heater. A week later, I look at the heater's instructions more thoroughly and realize the first instruction says...

6/5/18 I did a 40ish% water change, siphoning out to what I perceived was to be all of the cyanobacteria. I took this water test right after my water change. Refilling the water (dechlorinated, conditioned, and added bacteria) the parameters were as follows: pH - 8.1 Ammonia - .50ppm Nitrite...

Hi all! I'm interested in starting an acquarium but I'm a little confused about water testing. There is a lot of different information about test strips and drops out there. So I have a few questions: - Is it hard to monitor chemical levels in your water/is it a pain? - Are there any good...

Update on my first Aquarium, I'm doing a fish-less cycle of my tank things seam to be going well, I'm two weeks in and Ammonia is 0.25 Nitrite 2 + Spiked at 5, Nitrate 40PPM (Hard water area). I have done a water change today 52 litres added some Stress coat and some Stress-zyme+ and i'll check...

Hello, I've been looking into keeping Apistogrammas however my local tap water has a high pH and is relatively hard. I understand Apistos prefer softer, acidic water so thought that I could achieve this by mixing my tap water and de-ionized water in a set ratio to reach a desired pH. I take A...