Water Parameters what you think

[jlo]

Guys just carried out a a few test on my water what do you think of these and any suggestions to improve it would be appreciated

Amonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 50
General Hardness - 125
Carbonite Hardness - 180
PH - 7.6

first time testing all these but would i be right in saying the main 2 (first 2) are good little higher with the PH wouldnt hurt
little concerned about nitrate but not sure with the offers

Please let me know guys and any advice is appreciated thanks jas

[yunachin]

Your Nitrate is through the roof. Are you cycling or are there fish in the tank?

[yunachin]

Oh and if you aren't keeping corals, you really don't have to check the Kh.
Ph is just fine.

[jlo]

What would of caused that then if the amonia and nitrite is 0 more to the point how do i lower it
I am just switching over to a knew filter but i still have the old one running to keep the bacteria in the tank plus i am adding salt bring up to brackish its currenlty 1.oo4

There is fish in there

[yunachin]

Have you tested your tap water or do you use Ro/Di water? Sometimes there are nitrates in the tap water.

[jlo]

no havent tested the tap water i will now tho ewhat is RO/DI water

Alarm bells have stopped just retested the water in the tank and its ok now the nitrates are at 0 now not sure that was might of been something in the cup or dodgy dip stick i will try it again in half hour to see just incase tho.

thanks for the rapid help yunachin

[lilacamy931]

are they tst sticks or liqud? my test sticks always read much higher than the liquid. Nitrates are always much higher with my test sticks. Thought worth mentioning as may be worth while to get liquid kit to have more accurate results? (and possibly more reassuring)

[yunachin]

I am glad everything is good. I agree that liquid test kits are far more accurate than the strips.
Check your tap water from time to time as well to see what it is at. R/o water stands for reverse osmosis.
Look at this thread for a description:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=17480&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=

[jlo]

i use nutrifin water conditioner i did nt know anything RO or distiled to distil water do you just let it sit over night or something

[yunachin]

No, there are actually R/O-D/I units that you can purchase. Some fish stores will sell R/O water as well. It can be costly. Some people do not like to use it which is fine. I use it because I need pristine water for breeding my clowns. It is not a necessary thing.

[LilGreenPuffer]

Basically, bottled water from the store is RO/DI.

One major reason people use it is to prevent algae problems. Tap water usually has phosphates, which are desirable in a planted FW tank, but definitely not in a marine tank.

[jlo]

Can you use it brackish water i am having a trouble with algae growth on the ocean rcok i keep having to clean it about once a week

[LilGreenPuffer]

Sure, you could. You could use RO/DI water in any type of setup.