Still Newbie here, did some water tests, whats; next?

Hi,

I got ahold of one of those master ater tests and here are the results:

Ammonia - 0
general Hardness - 180 (moderatly hard, very hard)
Carbonate hardness - 110
PH Low range - 7.6
PH high range - 8
Nitrites - 0

What does this mean?
What's my next step?

Btw what is the appropriate water temperature anyway?
My tank is currently at 24C, a friend with a tank said it should be
around 21-22C only??

In article .com,
wrote:
Hi,

I got ahold of one of those master ater tests and here are the results:

Ammonia - 0
general Hardness - 180 (moderatly hard, very hard)
Carbonate hardness - 110
PH Low range - 7.6
PH high range - 8
Nitrites - 0

What does this mean?

It means you have a test kit and found your water was average.
180 ppm is "very hard". Wonder what they'd call my 1200ppm
water or LA's 800ppm water... "liquid rock" ? I'd call
180 ppm water just slightly ther other side of "soft".


--
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Richard Sexton wrote:
In article .com,
wrote:

Hi,

I got ahold of one of those master ater tests and here are the results:

Ammonia - 0
general Hardness - 180 (moderatly hard, very hard)
Carbonate hardness - 110
PH Low range - 7.6
PH high range - 8
Nitrites - 0

What does this mean?


It means you have a test kit and found your water was average.
180 ppm is "very hard". Wonder what they'd call my 1200ppm
water or LA's 800ppm water... "liquid rock" ? I'd call
180 ppm water just slightly ther other side of "soft".


1200??? Ack! My 240 ppm GH water leaves the worst scale on my drinking
glasses and shower I've ever seen. Are you sure LA is up at 800? San
Diego and LA both have Colorado river water and my 240 ppm number is
from the water plant rather than a test kit so I know it's accurate.

Anyway, you should be able to keep most fish in that water. It's a
little high pH for REALLY sensitive fish like rams or discus.

--
__ Elaine T __
__' http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__

It means you have a test kit and found your water was average.
180 ppm is "very hard". Wonder what they'd call my 1200ppm
water or LA's 800ppm water... "liquid rock" ? I'd call
180 ppm water just slightly ther other side of "soft".


1200??? Ack! My 240 ppm GH water leaves the worst scale on my drinking
glasses and shower I've ever seen. Are you sure LA is up at 800? San
Diego and LA both have Colorado river water and my 240 ppm number is
from the water plant rather than a test kit so I know it's accurate.

Yup, that's what the LA water district report said it was when
I lived there. It picks up a lot of hardness from the concrete
pipelines. And some radiation, but it's in "acceptible limits".

I got an RO filter after I read that...

Anyway, you should be able to keep most fish in that water. It's a
little high pH for REALLY sensitive fish like rams or discus.

Doesn't seem to bother anything.

--
Need Mercedes parts ? - http://parts.mbz.org
http://www.mbz.org | Mercedes Mailing lists: http://lists.mbz.org
633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | Killies, killi.net, Crypts, aquaria.net
1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Old wris****ches http://watches.list.mbz.org

Richard Sexton wrote:
It means you have a test kit and found your water was average.
180 ppm is "very hard". Wonder what they'd call my 1200ppm
water or LA's 800ppm water... "liquid rock" ? I'd call
180 ppm water just slightly ther other side of "soft".



1200??? Ack! My 240 ppm GH water leaves the worst scale on my drinking
glasses and shower I've ever seen. Are you sure LA is up at 800? San
Diego and LA both have Colorado river water and my 240 ppm number is

from the water plant rather than a test kit so I know it's accurate.

Yup, that's what the LA water district report said it was when
I lived there. It picks up a lot of hardness from the concrete
pipelines. And some radiation, but it's in "acceptible limits".

I got an RO filter after I read that...


Anyway, you should be able to keep most fish in that water. It's a
little high pH for REALLY sensitive fish like rams or discus.


Doesn't seem to bother anything.

I meant the original poster for rams or discus. When my ex-husband kept
discus here, they needed a minimum of 50% weekly water changes to handle
the higher pH and hardness, and twice weekly was better. Otherwise they
went dark and striped and hid in the corner. I think the high pH
stressed them so that DOC and nitrates had to be at an absolute minimum.
Since rams are similar, I'm adding enough RO water to my tank with the
ram to drop the pH to about 7.2 and that's working much better. (I'm
guessing 8 the correct measurement for OP's water since it's hard to
read above 7.4 with bromthymol blue.)

--
__ Elaine T __
__' http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__

I meant the original poster for rams or discus. When my ex-husband kept
discus here, they needed a minimum of 50% weekly water changes to handle
the higher pH and hardness, and twice weekly was better. Otherwise they
went dark and striped and hid in the corner. I think the high pH
stressed them so that DOC and nitrates had to be at an absolute minimum.
Since rams are similar, I'm adding enough RO water to my tank with the
ram to drop the pH to about 7.2 and that's working much better. (I'm
guessing 8 the correct measurement for OP's water since it's hard to
read above 7.4 with bromthymol blue.)

I can't see how discus would be bothers by that ph and hardness
or how water changes would fix that. The water you're adding is
still hard and alkaline right? Sounds more like ammonia to me.

Despite the water here being hard Ihave no problem keeping
fish from 0ppm acid water like killies and apistogrammas,
here's a pic of red agassii eggs laid here in this water;
the fish were raised in soft acid water.

http://images.aquaria.net/fish/cichl.../agassizi/red/

Now, they didn't hatch, and I suspect were infertile; Ron
Harlan told me calcium ions attach to the unfertilized egg
and block the entry of spermatozoa.

Water hardness is not fixed. Last fall in southern ontario
a bunch of people teste their hardness. Lake Ontario
watr is supposed tobe hard (375ppm) but people found
anwhere from 30 - 175 ppm depending on where they lived,
even though the water all came from the same source. Very
odd.


--
Need Mercedes parts ? - http://parts.mbz.org
http://www.mbz.org | Mercedes Mailing lists: http://lists.mbz.org
633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | Killies, killi.net, Crypts, aquaria.net
1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Old wris****ches http://watches.list.mbz.org

Visited the pet store and got a PH Adjust from Nutrafin to bring the Ph
down.

Which means no fish for me

Btw a friend of mine that also has a tank, told me before pouring this
chemical in the water to bring it down to remove the charcoal bag out
of the filter otherwise it will require more chemical poured in the
water.
According to him the charcoal absorves that chemical leaving it no time
to change ph.

Any truth in this?


Also what is the correct temperature in Celsius that I should have for
the water?

wrote in message
ups.com...
Visited the pet store and got a PH Adjust from Nutrafin to bring the Ph
down.

Which means no fish for me

Btw a friend of mine that also has a tank, told me before pouring this
chemical in the water to bring it down to remove the charcoal bag out
of the filter otherwise it will require more chemical poured in the
water.
According to him the charcoal absorves that chemical leaving it no time
to change ph.

Any truth in this?


Also what is the correct temperature in Celsius that I should have for
the water?

Hi,
I'm not quite clear why you feel you have to lower the pH. My local pH is
around 8. The pH in my tanks is 7.5 - this is the same level as my lfs have
meaning that there is unlikely to be too much shock when adding fish. Surely
by adding chemicals and altering the pH you run the risk of pH shock when
adding the new fish? (JMO)

We keep a range of fish quite happily in our tanks without any probs - IMHO
you should match the fish to your local conditions unless you are looking to
keep specific fish that would not tolerate a high pH rather than attempting
to change it artificially. And also try and find out the pH of the water at
your local stockists.

Just my thoughts...
Gill

Hi!
just letting you know that you dont need to use both PH test kits...

ONly use the high range PH if you are keeping fish that live in a high
PH....Other fish (like goldies and stuff) you can just use the low range ph
kit....
wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi,

I got ahold of one of those master ater tests and here are the results:

Ammonia - 0
general Hardness - 180 (moderatly hard, very hard)
Carbonate hardness - 110
PH Low range - 7.6
PH high range - 8
Nitrites - 0

What does this mean?
What's my next step?

Btw what is the appropriate water temperature anyway?
My tank is currently at 24C, a friend with a tank said it should be
around 21-22C only??

"Squeek" wrote in message
...
Hi!
just letting you know that you dont need to use both PH test kits...

ONly use the high range PH if you are keeping fish that live in a high
PH....Other fish (like goldies and stuff) you can just use the low range
ph kit....

Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I thought that if your PH ended up at the high
end of the low range, you needed to use the next kit. I think that the low
end kit only goes so high, so if your water has a higher PH you need to use
the high end. But only the high end...

A