Water test kits

[ryanmagill]

Could anyone give me any ideas on the best (easy to use) test kits currently available ?

What (ideally) is the hardiest fish to be adding to the tank first in order to get the ball rolling ? Guppies seem a regular choice.

Cheers.

 

[guppymonkey]

Most of the test kits in pet stores are fine choices. I usually go with test strips, the ones that you can dip in the water and test for 5 different things at once. They usually sell one strip for ammonia and then a 5 in 1 test strip for nitrite, nitrate, pH, alkalinity and water hardness.

If you don't want to do the fishless cycle, which can be frustrating when you want fish now, try guppies. If you get a generic guppy they are usually more hardy then the fancy ones with special names like "Tequila Sunrise" or "Snakeskin". Fancy guppies are like purebred dogs, they are nice to look at but are more likely to get sick. Start with a few guppies and do a water change 10% every week. That should help them survive the high ammonia and nitrite of cycling.

 

[kev_kb]

Start with a few guppies and do a water change 10% every week.

You'll need to do more water changes than that during cycling, thats what you should water change on an established tank. Just keep the Ammonia & Nitrite well under 1ppm, say 0.25ppm, and you should be fine.

 

[clutterydrawer]

doing a cycle with fish is gonna involve testing the water and *possibly* changing it every day.

platies and zebra danios are hardy aswell.

I use hagen test kit...they are a pain in the....you know. you're not menat to get the reagents on your skin yet the test tubes leak. go figure. ive used Tetra kits as well, bit fiddly but better test tubes.

 

[ryanmagill]

Thanks folks.

Im off now to purchase my kit, im going to leave the fish until saturday

Cheers

Ryan

 

[corrosive]

Yeh, at least 10% every day until nitrite levels go to zero, with ammonia, took me 3weeks to cycle my 20g, and 2weeks of that time was doing 20% water changes daily, you get through quite alot of declorinator LMAO.