My Aqua Care Test Strip Results

I bought a couple of Aqua care test strip kits today, here are the results, comments invited.

Ammonia 0
pH 6.8/7.2
(KH) dH 3
(GH) dH 28
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0


 

That was the tank water, last water change was 6 days ago.

If you can let us see a photo of the range of potential readings from your test strips container, that would be helpful too. There's a possibility that that might explain some of the readings you have - for example, nitrate might look closer to 0 than whatever the next unit of measurement is.

Can I suggest you search on your water company's website for hardness - ie GH - though they are unlikely to give KH (they'll call it alkalinity if they do give it).

The water company may give it in German degrees hardness or CaCO3 (or something else) but let us know what they give as the unit of measurement plus what the result is.

I think it's a waste of time testing the tap water, my aquarium doesn't contain just tap water, the readings I got from the tests show that all is well regarding Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrite in the tank, I understand that the water is hard and that is because of where I live.

Aluminium    6.6    200    µg Al/l
Calcium            80.9    -    mg Ca/l
Colour              1.2    20    mg/l Pt/Co Scale
Conductivity    485    2500    µS/cm
Copper              0.0741    2    mg Cu/l
EColi               0    0    no/100ml
Fluoride              0.1    1.5    mg F/l
Iron                       8.8    200    µg Fe/l
Lead               1.77    10    µg Pb/l
Magnesium       9.6    -    mg Mg/l
Manganese       1.8    50    µg Mn/I
Nitrate              13.68    50    mg NO3/l
Nitrite                0.022    0.5    mg NO2/l
Sodium              17.8    200    mg Na/l
TotalColiforms         0    0    no/100ml
Turbidity                0.16    4    NTU
pH                      7.1    6.5 - 9.5    pH Units

That was my concern as well. I wondered if there was something in the tank that was increasing the GH, which is why I asked for the tap water level to compare it with.

With the water quality report, the first figure is the test results, the second is the maximum allowed in drinking water. It shows that the nitrate level in your tap water is 13.6 ppm, which is not the same as the 0 shown by the test strips.

This, combined with the readings for KH and GH, suggest to me that the test trips are not terribly accurate.


What does the water company give for hardness - that will be in a different place from the water quality report.