water advice

tonybb

hello new to tropicalfishkeeping.com long time fish keeper. im looking for advice about my water
these my tank readings
gh - 180ppm
kh - 0
ph - 6.0
no2 - 0
no3 - 200

55 gallon freshwater, 6 fish i do water changes vacuming the substrate weekly between 20 - 35%

i just tested my tap water out of my sink and the readings r as followed
gh - 180
kh - 0
ph - 7.0
no2 - 0
no3 - 0

ive been working on my ph trying to get it to rise for the past 3 weeks with testing water and adding ph up daily with no change. i cant get the ph to rise and i cant get my no3 to come down.

leogtr

hi there!! welcome to the forums!!!!

general hardeness 180??? godness. try not to add anything else to regulate your ph thats going to make it really unstable in the future!!you need to be doing 50% water changes when your no3 is that high!!! your fish right now are suffocating if it really is that high!!! Water containing 200 ppm NO3 is potentially toxic!!!

how long has your tank been established?? we need more info on your tank!!

wow man good thing you joined us im sure youll get the help you need!!!! again welcome to our community here at tropical fish keeping!!!!!!

tonybb

its a55 gallon glass tank, i have like 1/2 to 3/4 river rock for substrate. ive had the tank going for the past 10 years. ive had fish come and go during that time. when i got it i was under the impression that u fill it u feed them and u clean it. never really got into the chem part of the water until know. i have 2 fish that have been with me for about 8 years and the have grown on me like kids. i dont want to lose them so ive been reading alot for the past year about water and where the readings r sup[posed to be for a healthy enviroment for fish

55 gallon glass tank
river rock
3 plastic plants
fluval 304 filter
undergravel filter system (new)
hang on the tank filter with a bio wheel (new)

leogtr

good man. no plants? what are you using to test the water?

tonybb

i am using API aquarium pharmaceuticals 5 in 1 aquarium test strips which measure pH, Nitrite, Nitrate, Carbonate & General Hardness

leogtr

okay. I know that product is expensive but your going to have to get a liquid master test kit. testing strips are really inacurate and sometimes off the chart about what the water really is on its parameters. aquarium pharmaceuticals makes them too. When I had test strips and got the liquid test kit there was a significant difference, and the petstore recommended me the test strips because they used them on their tanks. ofcourse why not go by what the store said? but trust me friend make that exchange most of us think its worth it.

tonybb

damn it i had some and i just through them out because the lps said the samething u said but opposite. oh well they were a few years old.

i did a 50% water change and retested and the ph was 7.0 and no3 were around 80 ppm so i see the light at the other end of the tunnel.

i will get the new testing equip tomorrow and test and will post the readings
thank you

leogtr

yeah if they were a few years old it was better to throw them out for sure! change the water until the ppm get to about 40ppm. 80 ppm is still pretty high your fish are still going to be very stressed out!

hurry! go!!

Byron

Nitrate is still a concern, though it may be less as I'll explain.

With the API liquid nitrate test kit, you need to shake Regent #2 for 2 minutes before adding the drops. The instructions say 30 seconds, but this is not sufficient and many have had false (and much higher) nitrate readings because of it. Shake Regent #2 for 2 minutes, then tell us the result.

Nitrate should be kept below 20 ppm. Plants will greatly aid in achieving this. But so do water changes--unless nitrates are in your tap water, but you said zero on that. High nitrates means there is too much bioload in the tank. We can look into that if the new nitrate reading is still high.

On pH, in an established tank the pH will naturally lower as the water acidifies. Having zero carbonate hardness (KH) in your tap water means there is no buffering capacity, so the acidification will naturally occur. Here again, significant weekly partial water changes work to stabilize this.

A GH of 180 ppm which equates to 10 dGH is quite good. This will not have much effect on the above issues.

Let us know the new nitrate reading.

Last, always make tests prior to the water change so you know where the tank sits after a week. And pH should always be checked at approximately the same time of day each time, as it varies due to the natural diurnal cycle, moreso with plants but still present without.

Byron.

tonybb

hey thank you on the advise today. i wasnt able to get to the lps today but i will deff tomorrow and when i get home i will test like u stated and will post my results thank you