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What values
should my tests show?
Ammonia - should always read 0.
It is toxic at very low levels. If your tank is
new, however, you are likely to see some ammonia
present. Be sure to keep your feeding to a minimum
- only what fish will consume in 2 minutes or less, and
every other day. Never add new fish when ammonia
is present, even if your existing fish seem to be doing
OK. More fish will add more ammonia and compound
the problem. Be patient and add some Seachem
AmGuard to bind it up for 48 hours.
Nitrite - should always read 0.
It is toxic at very low levels. Same story as with
ammonia - new tanks are likely to have some Nitrite
because the bacterial filtration has not completely
established itself. Never add new fish when
Nitrite is present. Add Seachem Prime to lock up
Nitrite for 24 hours and add some regular aquarium salt
(if freshwater) to help protect fish gills.
Nitrate - should read less than
20 ppm. Showing some Nitrate is normal.
If your tank is new, the initial sign that the
biological cycle has begun working is by seeing nitrate
for the first time on your test kit. It is normal
to see no nitrate for the first several weeks.
Remember that this means it is still trapped as Ammonia
and Nitrite and hasn't yet been processed into Nitrate.
Coral reef aquariums and aquariums with sensitive
species should have a Nitrate reading of less than 10
ppm.
pH - this
is highly variable based on the type of aquarium you
have. Here are some guidelines.
Freshwater Community Tank: pH 6.8 - 7.2 -
use Seachem Neutral Regulator
African Cichlids:
Lake Malawi and Victoria: pH 7.8–8.4 - use Seachem
Malawi/Victoria Buffer
Lake Tanganyika: pH 9.0 - 9.4 - use Seachem
Tanganyika Buffer
Live
Planted Aquarium
Saltwater Fish Only: 8.0 - 8.3 use Seachem
aquavitro eight.four or Marine Buffer
Coral Reef: 8.3 - 8.4 - use Seachem
aquavitro eight.four or Reef Buffer
Alkalinity - this is a
tough one to summarize because there are a number of
ways to measure alkalinity, or buffering capacity.
Alkalinity is essentially what keeps pH stable.
The higher your alkalinity, the more stable your pH will
be when faced with something that tries to change it.
For example, if a fish dies in an
aquarium with high alkalinity, the pH is not very likely
to shift downward as the fish decays. On the other
hand, if a fish dies in an aquarium with low alkalinity,
there is nothing to keep the pH from dropping and as the
fish decays (organic waste can be considered acidic),
the pH will shift downward toward the more acidic end of
the scale.
Here are a couple examples of alkalinity measurements
based on two test kits that NorthSide Aquatics sells:
Mardel 5
in 1 (freshwater only): greater than 120 ppm
Marine pH and Alkalinity by Seachem (saltwater fish and
reef): 4 - 6 meq/L |
