Tropical Fish Forum

Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => New Fishkeepers => Topic started by: Thor God Of Thunder on May 20, 2015, 03:39:25 PM

Title: my tap water test results.
Post by: Thor God Of Thunder on May 20, 2015, 03:39:25 PM
got my test kit today and did a test.

ph 7.6
ammonia 0.25ppm
nitrite 0ppm
nitrate 5ppm

is that ph high? and is there anything you might recommend to get it down to 7?

also is it normal to get 5ppm of nitrate yet have 0 nitrate and is 5ppm of nitrate high?

thanks.
Title: Re: my tap water test results.
Post by: Sanjo on May 20, 2015, 04:04:54 PM
No that isn't high for tap water Thor.
Water companies I believe are allowed up to 50pmm. Mine, I think is about 15
Title: Re: my tap water test results.
Post by: Thor God Of Thunder on May 20, 2015, 04:10:01 PM
cool, in regards to reducing that to 7 should I bother or just accept it?
Title: Re: my tap water test results.
Post by: Richard W on May 20, 2015, 04:16:33 PM
Unless you are desperate to have fish that demand softer and more acidic water, you should be fine at pH 7.6. Fiddling around trying to change pH often does more harm than good and doesn't always work anyway.
Title: Re: my tap water test results.
Post by: Thor God Of Thunder on May 20, 2015, 04:26:03 PM
ahh ok thanks dude.
Title: Re: my tap water test results.
Post by: Sue on May 20, 2015, 04:52:20 PM
It would also help to know your hardness. While you can buy tests for that, it should be on your water company's website. If you find it, make a note of the unit they use as well as the number. Water companies tend to use different units from fish keeping websites so it will need converting.
Title: Re: my tap water test results.
Post by: Thor God Of Thunder on May 20, 2015, 10:05:35 PM
yep I checked that one already saw a post about it on here I didn't know that Thames had the hardness. for me its 266ppm which is a medium hard I've checked with the fish and they all seem fine with it.
Title: Re: my tap water test results.
Post by: Sue on May 21, 2015, 09:57:17 AM
If that value of 266ppm is ppm CaCO3, that is actually hard rather than medium hard.

The bands I've found are:
150 - 200, medium hard
200 - 300, hard
300+, very hard
Title: Re: my tap water test results.
Post by: Thor God Of Thunder on May 21, 2015, 10:57:55 AM
ohh, on the thames site it shows it has medium hard. ok that's good to know.
Title: Re: my tap water test results.
Post by: Sue on May 21, 2015, 11:24:33 AM
Every site or book you look at has different band boundaries.
I used Northumbrian Water's boundaries (my water company) which are, in mg/l Ca:
40 - 60 = slightly hard
60 - 80 = moderately hard
80 - 120 = hard
120+ = very hard

I converted those to ppm CaCO3 in my last post (the conversion factor is multiply mg/l Ca by 2.5 to get ppm CaCO3)