Water testing is one of the most important practices for keeping your aquarium safe for your fish. If you are just setting up an aquarium, wait for several days before adding the fish. You should then monitor the water quality carefully as the nitrogen cycle begins by testing the water daily. You can help the cycle along with a product like EcoBio-Block. The first stage of the cycle will include an ammonia spike. The second stage will show a nitrite spike as the ammonia is converted to nitrite. All of these can be determined with water quality tests.
When your fish are in the water, it is still necessary to test your water daily to see how it changes with the addition of the fish. After a few weeks, you can reduce the daily testing to just weekly. There are two ways to do the testing. Either you have the aquarium supply store do the testing for you, or you can buy testing kits and do them yourself at the convenience of your own home.
You will be presented at the aquarium supply store with a wide variety of testing kits to choose from. There are basic kits with strips that test important water quality indicators like pH, nitrate, water hardness, ammonia, nitrites and others. The strips change color to indicate the quality of the water.
The basic kits are convenient, but have some drawbacks. They are cheaper but are not very reliable. You can go instead with more complex testing, which involves a test tube. Add also a thermometer to your testing supplies so you can test the water temperature.
The results of these aquarium water tests actually have a substantial impact on the health of your fish. The only way to ensure that the water stays healthy is to test it regularly and add products to adjust it as needed.
Healthy pH level is around 6 or 7 for most fish, but they will generally tolerate a fairly wide range of pH. Any decor, food or medication added can change the pH level in your aquarium. You can increase or reduce the pH to healthier levels by adding some chemicals. A natural, but much slower approach will be to add driftwood or peat for more acidic water or a lime rock if you want more alkaline.
The ammonia levels should be low; high ammonia levels can kill your fish. A partial water change can reduce ammonia levels. Nitrites should be as close to zero as possible. Nitrites are changed into less harmful nitrates by beneficial bacteria, and a high nitrite reading may indicate you need to add beneficial bacteria.
Even simpler and less trouble is to have a bacteria colony established with the EcoBio-Block which gives long-term, continuous results. The bacteria breaks down ammonia into nitrites and then into safer nitrates. The bacteria live and multiply in the block and disperse into the water, keeping the water clear and healthy.
With regular aquarium water testing, you can keep your fish’s environment clean and healthy and provide them the best quality of life that they deserve.
Leonard Boyler has been keeping fish for more than 20 years. His favorite products really make aquarium care and maintenance so easy everything from the start up to being able to clarify cloudy aquarium water. To learn more about how to keep water clear and fish healthy , please visit ONEdersave.com.
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