i dont understand anything that people are talking about..... ph levels.... ammonia.. i just take water from my tub.... put stress coat in it....... and filter it.... than im ready to go... ive been doing this for a while.. but is it bad
am i hurting my fish
- Thread starter telluride91
- Start date
google "aquarium water chemistry" and it should give you a little information on Ammonia Nitrite Nitrate pH, etc.
also read this Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle
also read this Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle
Oh boy! well I'm going to start by saying Welcome to MFK! Ok well what people are talking about is fish give off a constant supply of ammonia. This is very harmful to them and causes disease and health issues. So nature has divised little guys called nitrifying Bacteria in which convert this harmful ammonia to less harmful Nitrite ( also harmful!). Then other bacteria turn this Nitrite into Nitrate. Nitrate is toxic but not as toxic as Ammonia and Nitrite. This is the reason for Water changes. Water changes remove any toxins in the water like the Nitrates, Nitrate , and Ammonia. All this takes place in your Filter media and substrate. The process of obtaining these beneficial bacteria is called cycling. There are 2 methods of cycling. Fishless and fish lol. Fishless is when you add ammonia to the tank yourself until your bacteria colonies are strong enough to turn all ammonia into nitrate as an end product. You know when you are cycled when the ammonia levels (ppm) in your tank drops and Nitrate rises. This is when a water change should be done. Your Nitrates ppm (parts per million) should always stay at 10 or below. 20 ppm is the max until you do a water change. Some people may disagree with 20ppm being max and say 40ppm is max but your fish aren't going to be as healthy. You should be adding Dechloronator such as Aquasafe, Prime, Amquel stuff like that. I also recommend you let your water sit for a couple hours with alot of airetion such as a bubbler or a powerhead. This helps with gas exchange and will completely get rid of chlorine. Getting rid of chlorine is very important as it kills bacteria and you don't want to kill yours. This causes you to re-cycle or commonly known as a mini-cycle. ph levels are to test how much the water acidic or alkaline it is. 7ppm is the neutral pH in the scale. Anything under 7 is known as tannic water, blackwater, etc. This water is commonly found in the americas rivers and lakes. Alkaline water is from Areas of Africa,etc. This water is higher than 7 on the pH scale. Saltwater is usually a pH of 8. I hope I helped you and if you would like to know anything else just ask. I will be happy to help. 
Honestly, if you want to know what I do, and I'm currently breeding fish... I fill my tanks up, and do water changes directly from my tub, as well. No stress coat. No de-chlors. And never once have I lost a fish due to my water. They've always been due to escapees, or other fish.. Maybe I'm just lucky.
telluride91;1038320; said:
Basically, fish produce waste (Ammonia).
Your filter has 2 types of microscopic bacteria in it (These are called "nitrifying bacteria")
The first type eats fish waste (Ammonia) and as a result produces a different type of waste (NitrItes).
Because of this bacteria, ammonia (which is deadly to fish) is eliminated. When you have enough of this bacteria in your filter media you will then have no ammonia.
The 2nd type of bacteria eats NitrItes. As a result it produces another type of waste (NitrAtes). Because of this 2ndary bacteria, nitrItes (which are also deadly to fish) are eliminated from your aquarium. If you have enough 2ndary bacteria you should NOT have nitrItes.
NitrAtes are the end result to this whole process and can ONLY be eliminated by either water changes, live plants, or nitrate absorbing media.
In short:
Bacteria gets rid of ammonia and produces nitrItes.
Another type of bacteria gets rid of nitrItes and produces nitrAtes.
NitrAtes build up in your aquarium until they are lowered by water changes.
That's the simplest way I can think of putting it. If you don't get THAT I'm not sure you're going to get it lol.
Cross127;1038578; said:
I don't think you were consfusing, so much as it seemed a little complicated for someone that was learning about nitrifying bacteria from scratch.
I'm not sure there's a good way to completely simplify the process though. It's pretty simple in itself, but I think the whole nitrites and nitrates thing is where people end up getting lost. That's where I kept getting confused when I first started learning.
ShadowBass;1038591; said:
Yea but luckly I grew up with tons of tanks around me and was constantly learning. It was pretty difficult for me to learn about how carbonate hardness ties in with different pHs to measure how much CO2 is in your water. The bacteria part wasn't really confusing as much , none the less is difficult as first.
Dread;1038386; said:
There seem to be two different boats of keepers.. some who check water parameters constant and freak when they forget to add stress coat during a water change and others who KISS(Keep it simple stupid) who hardly ever check water parameters/feel water temperature with their finger/and never use stress coat. I think both are ok.
But for the point of this exercise I guess it's good for the poster to learn what all these things are so he knows about them.