Water Testing

[michellebradford]

ive just started testing my water and i need advice on the results

tank one - with fish they all seam ok
NO3 - 250
NO2 - 0
GH - 16 od
KH - 0 od
PH - 7.2

tank 2 - no fish aimimg for drawf cichlids/shellies

NO3 - 10
NO2 - 0
GH - 10 od
KH - 6 od
PH - 8
ive got a feeling these are bad results please can someone give me some good news

 

[lizjamie]

Dont know much but a nitrates of 250 sounds like a problem...

 

[michellebradford]

so wot do i do?

 

[Annastasia]

Water changes, to get it down. It should ideally be around 40ish.

Do you have a test for ammonia?

 

[@ombomb]

That Nitrate reading is worrying, although I'm a little bit dubious as my nitrate kit goes no where near 250ppm.

What do you have in that tank?

What is your maintenance schedule?

 

[Phillip.M]

You could buy some live plants. They consume nitrate and would be a great contribuation to the tank.

 

[Durbkat]

What is NO3, NO2, Gh, and KH it would help if you had results for P.H., ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates.

 

[haplover]

Durbkat
NO3 = Nitrates
NO2 = Nitrites

I'd have to question a Nitrates reading like that. At that point most of your fish should be dead or have some disease. Another thing is that at that level your pH should have crashed with a KH of 0. When nitrates start getting that high then you actually will get nitric acid start forming in the tank and thus the pH will crash and likelyy kill everything in the tank.

Tank 2 is fine.

 

[Durbkat]

Well I think it would have been so much simpler to say nitrate and nitrite instead of using such complicated symbols.

 

[haplover]

Those are the chemical symbols for those elements Durbkat, they are standard. Test kits will have those on them. Some test kits are written totally in those.

 

[The-Wolf]

Well I think it would have been so much simpler to say nitrate and nitrate instead of using such complicated symbols.

it seems it wouldn't be simpler, as people often write(type) the wrong thing


I can only concure that a few partial water changes will dilute the NO3 in tank 1

BTW the correct chemical symbol is HNO2 & HNO3
but everyone(scientist) accept that the H (hydrogen) is a given
and is not needed in general speak.

 

[Durbkat]

Well I think it would have been so much simpler to say nitrate and nitrite instead of using such complicated symbols.

What are you talking about I wrote it right.

 

[IceH2O]

Dump the strips and get a liquid kit, strips are unreliable.

Test your tap water out of the tap and also fill a cup and let it sit for 24 hours then test it.

Let us know what the readings are.

You should test for:

PH
Ammonia
Nitrites
nitrates
KH
GH