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joel

joel

Polypterus
MFK Member
Jul 14, 2005
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THE GARDEN STATE
over the years i have raised several species of fish, and i never checked water chemistries. I've never had a problem with the health of the fish, at least i think. How crucial is it to check the chemistries of the water? Would my catfish benefit from it? And if so what should the levels be? I appreciate any info i can get. And thank you for getting back to me so quickly last time.
 
it can't hurt...but if your alkalinity (kH) is high, then you probably don't need to bother with it.

it doesn't matter-- too your fish-- WHAT the water parameters read, it just matters that they remain CONSTANT, and kH levels are what determine whether things remain constant in your tank, or if its likely to suffer pH drops due to fish waste.

I've never heard of anyone who had tapwater coming out at pH 9 or pH 5 so im sure you're safe there.

Nitrate test kits may be helpful, but if you do at least one 50-70% water change a week in your tank (assuming your tank isn't heavily stocked, if it is then 70-90%), nitrates aren't a problem.
 
yea it would help to check it constintly..... people say your suppost to do a 20% water change every month and when i finally got a test kit i had zero ammonia, zero nitrite, and with nitrates the indicater card couldnt reach the level of nitrate that was in my tank.... i did 50% water change and it was still bad....next day i did another 50% change.... it went to the 180 ppm mark... next day did another 50% water change....went to 80 ppm....2 days later did another 50% .... went to 40ppm...... then did another 50% change..... 20 ppm.... 2 days later did another one and it was at 10%.... and i was like this is a waste of water...... so i left it at 10ppm but now i think i need to do another one cause i just checked and its at 40 ppm.... 2 weeks later and nitrite and ammonia are still at zero..... so i have to do it again..... i dont over feed too.... and the test strips dont work very well.... get the liquid one where you have to use the droppers.... and one tin foil died.... thats about it
 
Well fella i never heard of anyone doing a 20% water change once every month i think if they did that they would be stupid as a change in water can pretty much happen over night so you would be screwed if you only changed water once every month and had a problem.

And if you only changed 20% of water you would be leaving a lot of waste still in and i'm sure there would be i high level of amonia.

When i change my water i ony change between 30% and 50% as i don't have a conjested tank i only have 3 fish in there at the moment and there still only young. Once i have changed my water i'll leave it for a day then i will check my PH , Amonia , Nitrate , Nitrite.

But my words to you Joel would be do the tests you can never be too careful in looking after your fish mate. For the sake of a few dollars what a test kit costs you can allways keep the fact if there is a problem with your fishes health i won't be beceause of your water .
 
piranha45 said:
it can't hurt...but if your alkalinity (kH) is high, then you probably don't need to bother with it.

it doesn't matter-- too your fish-- WHAT the water parameters read, it just matters that they remain CONSTANT, and kH levels are what determine whether things remain constant in your tank, or if its likely to suffer pH drops due to fish waste.

I've never heard of anyone who had tapwater coming out at pH 9 or pH 5 so im sure you're safe there.

Nitrate test kits may be helpful, but if you do at least one 50-70% water change a week in your tank (assuming your tank isn't heavily stocked, if it is then 70-90%), nitrates aren't a problem.
Click to expand...

:iagree:

I never owned a water test kit, until I started importing fish.
 
If you have a tank thats been running for a really long time and you haven't changed much in it. Then you can probably just stick to whatever routine is working for you, but if you are starting a new tank or adding something major, I think test strips are kind of a necessity...thats my opinion though.
 
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