Test Kits - Testing Your Aquarium Water

Test Kits and Testing Your Aquarium Water

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Testing Freshwater Tropical Aquarium Water

Testing your aquarium water with Water Test Kits is essential... especially for a new aquarium!
Maintaining good water quality is the single most important factor in having a successful aquarium. Poor water quality always means trouble! Water quality problems can be detected and corrected early with aquarium water test kits.

Aquarium water test kits are inexpensive and easy to use. They can be purchased as individual kits for testing a single element like Ammonia, or in combo kits that test 5 or more elements.

I'm fond of the Tetra Laborette Deluxe Test Kit. The kit costs less than 20.00 US and enables you to test Ammonia, Nitrite, pH, Carbonate hardness and General hardness. This self contained kit has everything you need to test your water.

Let's review each of the elements that the Laborette Aquarium Water Test Kit checks...

General Hardness (GH) and Carbonate Hardness (KH)
Water hardness is simply the measure of the amount of dissolved salt minerals present in aquarium water. Hard water contains more dissolved mineral salts than soft water. If you live in an area with soft water... consider yourself very lucky!

General hardness is the measure of the amount of dissolved calcium and magnesium. Carbonate hardness is important to maintaining a stable pH. Most freshwater tropical aquarium fish prefer a KH of 2° to 8°.

Carbonate hardness is the measure of the amount of dissolved carbonate or bicarbonate. Most freshwater tropical aquarium fish are content with a GH of 3° to 10°.

The Laborette kit tests both GH and KH using the German hardness scale of DH. A simple formula for converting German DH to the Clark hardness scale is as follows:

1° DH = .65° Clark = 17.9 ppm

pH
pH is the measure of either the acidity or alkalinity of aquarium water. Aquarium water with a pH value of less than 7.0 is acidic. Aquarium water with a pH value greater than 7.0 is alkaline. A pH value of 7.0 is considered neutral.

Therefore if you live in and area with soft water and neutral pH... you're living in paradise.

Most freshwater tropical fish are quite happy to have aquarium water that ranges in pH from 6.5 to 7.5.

Ammonia and Nitrite
Ammonia and Nitrite are the two most toxic compounds found in the freshwater aquarium. They should be periodically monitored... especially in the new aquarium. Elevated levels of either Ammonia or Nitrite indicate either a failure of your biological nitrification system, or the beginning of your nitrification system... as in a new aquarium.

pH influences the amount of ammonia present in aquarium water. Water of low pH will have a lower concentration of ammonia than water with a higher pH.

Nitrates and Phosphates
The Laborette test kit does not test for nitrates or phosphates. I'd highly recommend purchasing a nitrate test kit. Phosphate testing is not really all that critical... but it is advisable to have a phosphate test kit.

Nitrates are the final product of nitrification. We manage nitrates thru regular weekly water changes. Most freshwater tropical aquarium fish are content in water with a nitrate reading of 0 to 12.5 ppm.

Phosphates don't effect your freshwater tropical fish unless phosphate levels are very high. Ideally phosphate levels should be between 0 and 1 ppm.

If your aquarium does not sit in direct sunshine, and your continually battling green or brown algae... most likely your freshwater aquarium has a high phosphate level. I no longer have a phosphate test kit. If I see a sudden bloom of algae on my aquarium walls or decorations... I know that my phosphate level is high.

The leading cause of high phosphate levels is over feeding with flake food. Flake food should have a phosphorous content of 1.3% or less.

To combat high phosphate levels don't over feed with flake food... do partial water change twice a week instead of once a week until your phosphate levels fall.

Water... especially aquarium water is extremely complicated. We've barley scratched the surface of freshwater aquarium chemistry. If you'd like to learn more I'd highly recommend purchasing either... Aquariology or The Manual of Fish Health. I own both books. Each has excellent chapters on water chemistry... and much more!