was not meant to an insult, i missed spelled the company meant Hach, its where we get our reagents. I stand corrected and my apolageise.While I hate to jump on the complimenting duanes band wagon(don't want his head to get too bigJ/K). Pops you should really look at some of the fish duanes has kept and bred. Fish that don't have exactly easy water requirements to keep never mind breed such as Alcolapia. Now a fish surviving water conditions doesn't mean much because surviving isn't necessarily thriving but getting your fish breeding usually means somethings being done right and to breed the fish duanes has means he's doing something very right.
A rant
- Thread starter pops
- Start date
Testing that often seems very much overkill to me.got it
I have a well and know my starting water chemistry is VERY POOR insofar as Nitrates. Just over a handful of miles down the road (Finksburg, MD.) they are required to post warning signs in public facilities stating the high (15ppm) Nitrate level and advisory to young children.
Smallwood runs just under half of that (right out of the wells tapped into the water table!)
I agree, and it is imperative to get a firm base on your water chemistry by initially doing frequent water testing. I recorded my test result on my 20 - 30 tanks in an excel spread sheet rather than a notepad. Each columns can be defined with conditional formatting to alert you to any number of variables (Not only simple thresholds).
Each individual tank had its own tab in the spread sheet where the conditional formatting was depending on the stock in each different tank. A column was setup for PH, Am, Ni, Na, GH/KH & temp. I often set different color shading alerts in each column for Upper limit thresholds, % change from previous test reading and continuing directional change trends.
After around 18 months of close monitoring, it became almost like clockwork on the extreme majority of tanks with no alerts from my preloaded conditional formatting on any tank below 20 gallons.
5G, 10G & 20G's had far more variance than 40's, and I found the larger the tank the less the variance in parameters, and again NO upper threshold alerts after setting the parms.
I am like the 4th person in this thread seriously interested in an accurate quick dip test strip. I would use these religiously!!!!!!!!
I will no longer do a TEN to twenty minute water test on 5G to 20G tanks to avoid (unnecessary WC's) when it takes TWO to FIVE minutes to do a 100% water change on them.
Again I stress (WELL WATER)
ZERO chlorine (EVER!)
ZERO water bill (EVER!)
Fish Water ==> Siphon + 100' 3/8" drain hose ==> outdoor gardens = great daily food plants and cleanest water possible for fish. (No testing involved, and less than half the time spent.)
Shake a test tube vigorously up and down for five minutes on four separate water parameter tests and you are playing with yo self
@screaminleeman I'm on a small community well.
Here in Calif the drought is lowering the water table for some wells in my county, so I need to balance testing and water usage. Recently have lightened up on my WCs because of it. increased my Purigen bags.
I have a good idea about how much WC is truly neccesary on my tanks, thankfully, because all the time & shaking for multiple tanks is a real pain. but as drought conditions worsen, trustworthy strips could be very helpful.
Here in Calif the drought is lowering the water table for some wells in my county, so I need to balance testing and water usage. Recently have lightened up on my WCs because of it. increased my Purigen bags.
I have a good idea about how much WC is truly neccesary on my tanks, thankfully, because all the time & shaking for multiple tanks is a real pain. but as drought conditions worsen, trustworthy strips could be very helpful.
duane, can you help a lost person with the Fisher Scientific products? as for strips actually called Fisherbrand: am not finding nitrate, nitrite, ammonia.. just ph, acid/alkaline and chlorine.
ON the Fisher Scientific site there are LaMotte Company test strips. they have several options, varying from single tests to a 5-way test strip.
can you post which strips you buy and use?
Sorry for the inconvenience if I'm missing the obvious. I wouldn't bother you, but for the drought here & water usage concerns are mounting.
ON the Fisher Scientific site there are LaMotte Company test strips. they have several options, varying from single tests to a 5-way test strip.
can you post which strips you buy and use?
Sorry for the inconvenience if I'm missing the obvious. I wouldn't bother you, but for the drought here & water usage concerns are mounting.
I would say any that any test you acquire from Fischer (or other companies like Hach that produce tests for drinking water) are good quality, I have used the single test nitrate strips, and have used the "combination strips" (especially lately).
I have had success with LaMotte, Hach, and the Fischer brand, I'm not sure, but wouldn't be surprised if one factory produces any number of strips, and each company adds its own logo.
I go with the one I can afford at the time, since they all must meet the same drinking water/wastewater regulations required by the EPA and state DNR to be used.
The combination test strip for alkalinity, chlorine/chloramine, nitrate/nitrite, etc is a good bargain and allows for a broad overall look at your water quality.
I find the chemistry type titration tests (a few drops of reagent in a plastic tube type) can be easily flawed by improper technique, outdated reagents, and contaminated glassware. In the lab, all tubes are rinsed with DI water 3 times before and 3 times after each test, acid washed, and the reagents compared with known standards, in tandem with each use, which insure accuracy.
Most home testers do not follow these aseptic techniques and practices, and this is why I believe the use of good quality strips may be a better way of determining aquarium parameters.
I have had success with LaMotte, Hach, and the Fischer brand, I'm not sure, but wouldn't be surprised if one factory produces any number of strips, and each company adds its own logo.
I go with the one I can afford at the time, since they all must meet the same drinking water/wastewater regulations required by the EPA and state DNR to be used.
The combination test strip for alkalinity, chlorine/chloramine, nitrate/nitrite, etc is a good bargain and allows for a broad overall look at your water quality.
I find the chemistry type titration tests (a few drops of reagent in a plastic tube type) can be easily flawed by improper technique, outdated reagents, and contaminated glassware. In the lab, all tubes are rinsed with DI water 3 times before and 3 times after each test, acid washed, and the reagents compared with known standards, in tandem with each use, which insure accuracy.
Most home testers do not follow these aseptic techniques and practices, and this is why I believe the use of good quality strips may be a better way of determining aquarium parameters.
duane, thank you for the answers. That 5-way strip does seem most affordable. it would help track the parameters you mentioned doing in an earlier post.
I have also wondered how the non-precautionary measures with home tubes may affect accuracy.
I have also wondered how the non-precautionary measures with home tubes may affect accuracy.
I had that issue two years ago. In the case out here the lowering water table lowered the PH to the point that balancing was required. Hope the rainfall comes real soon for you. I am uncertain of your area, but a dry April/ May would be a bad omen for the coming July - September around the mid Atlantic.
I am going to try these "dependable" drinking water strips too.
I do not have the motivation or patience for the proper sterilization of test tubes, precision of the measuring drop bottle technique, or exacting vengeance in a mosh mixing regents to make water testing with regents more than of absolute zero value.
I am as 180 degree on the other side of "POPS" rant as anyone here.
I do try to imaging the "pro regent" MFK crew properly handling performing and storage of their kits.
I would dearly like to see home videos attached by these members displaying their "technique" for mixing the regent(s) in the test tube, as well as their sterilization techniques used for their equipment post testing!
Thirty second of shaking, or a few minutes gently shaking is worthless. Quickly rinsing the test tube in tap water is not the greatest for sterilization leading to accuracy of future tests either.
LOL, by the second test vial, during the prolonged shaking my mind wanders at great length, "doubting that my 2x shoulder surgeons & PTs would approve of it".
I often obsess about getting water to the exact level fill line, even while trying to talk myself out of that. haha.
I often obsess about getting water to the exact level fill line, even while trying to talk myself out of that. haha.
welcome to mfk. haha
for me, it's only because the timing of your thread followed on the heels of some friends [on the other side of town] tell me about wells going dry. sad but true, might have to adapt.
