Getting water tested in the UK

[DEL 707]

I recently had a bit of a catastrophe with my fish tank where I lost a lot of livestock and had to give the remaining fish/shrimp away.
The tank is currently sitting empty and dry.

Ammonia spike, cloudy water and white critters

I have a 55l nano planted tank. Stock is: 10 Green Neon Tetras 3 Amano Shrimp An army of Cherry Red Shrimp 2 Nerite snails Today my tank is very cloudy and has diatomes on the glass. Also 1 dead cherry shrimp, an adult female. I did an ammonia test and got a reading of 0.25ppm. I've...

www.fishforums.net

I'm trying to figure out what went wrong, I did a water change on Monday, everything seemed fine. Did another water change on Wednesday when I spotted the problem, another water change at 1 in the morning when I saw the shrimp trying to escape. By Thursdays morning I had to evacuate what was left alive and give up on the tank.

The only thing that changed was that I started using a new RO water supplier on Monday.
I want to get the water properly tested to see if there was anything in it that could have caused a crash in my system.
I only have the basic test and a TDS stick which gives a reading of 2.

Can anyone recommend a company that can help me?

 

[JxsPxxle]

Your lfs will most likely test your water for you if you bring a sample in.

 

[seangee]

TDS of 2 suggests that its pretty much water and nothing else - did it also come in a new container?

I once had a massive rcs die off that I was never able to explain. As soon as I noticed I did a 90% water change late at night followed by another first thing next morning. Thankfully there were a few survivors visible within a few weeks and the colony has since re-established without any further intervention. My only theory was that some contaminant got in - probably on my hands, it was also immediately following a water change.

Sorry not much help but you're not alone. Potential sources are
new plants
new water container
something on your hands
paints or aerosols in the room
Disturbing the gravel if it was particularly mucky
Did you remember to turn the heater back on
Did you check the heater wasn't getting too hot.

LFS probably won't check anything beyond what's in their test kits - and most don't understand GH/KH anyway. They won't pick up any contaminants beyond nitrogen compounds or chlorine.