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<\/p>\nWhen starting up a fish tank, learning how to accurately test the water in the tank is one of the most vital skills necessary for keeping aquarium fish healthy. Aquariums are an enclosed system, so if there is any kind of chemical imbalance it can negatively impact every animal that lives in them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
So how do you test fish tank water? <\/span>There are many water testing kits (both freshwater and saltwater) available to test the levels of toxic chemicals in fish tank water, as well as the pH. These kits allow aquarium keepers to monitor for dangerous waste products such as ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, chlorine and chloramine that can sicken and kill fish.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Testing fish tank water isn\u2019t difficult, and once you know how to do it, you\u2019ll be able to keep your aquarium pristine and your fish in good health. Read on to find out more about testing fish tank water and the best kits for the job.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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If you\u2019re new to keeping aquariums, you might not realize why testing the water in fish tanks is so crucial to keeping them in a good working condition. Here are some of the reasons why it\u2019s so important for you to get your water tested on a regular basis:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
No matter whether you\u2019re just starting up a new aquarium or you\u2019re trying to get an older one in good shape, water testing is one of the most important things you can do to get a handle on what your aquarium water quality is like and how you can improve it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
The easiest way to test aquarium water is through using an aquarium water testing kit. These kits are designed for either freshwater or saltwater applications and measure the following water quality levels:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
How often fish tank water should be tested is a matter of some debate among aquarists. If you are starting a new aquarium you should test the water every few days to see where the tank is in the nitrogen cycle, as this will determine when you can safely add fish to your setup.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
If your tank has been established for a few months, however, it is okay to only test your water once every few weeks or once a month just to keep an eye on things. As long as regular water changes are being performed, the quality of the water should remain fairly stable as long as the nitrogen cycle has already been established.<\/span><\/p>\n
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The one thing that water testing kits cannot easily test for is disease in the water. Instead, if you suspect disease in your tank, this often must be diagnosed through direct observation of the fish themselves and how they look\/act.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
If you suspect an epidemic outbreak of disease in your tank and cannot determine the symptoms, dead fish can sometimes be sent away to labs for testing to determine their cause of death. The cost for this can vary depending on where the fish is sent. However, this is not usually undertaken unless there is a serious illness suspected that would require the entire tank to be euthanized, such as tuberculosis.<\/span><\/p>\n
Rather than testing for disease in your fish tank, it is much easier to prevent disease from occurring in the first place. Here are some methods you can use to prevent an outbreak of disease in your tank:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Testing for disease with water testing kits can be tricky, so it\u2019s important to keep an eye on your tank outside of water testing to keep your fish tank in good working order.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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The most important aspects of aquarium water to test determine its overall quality are pH, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. These are the water quality factors that are most likely to negatively impact an aquarium\u2019s ecosystem and cause illness in your fish.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Here is what you can expect to find if you purchase an aquarium water testing kit:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Once you have your water testing kit, use the following procedure to start a water test:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
This method can be used to test most major water quality parameters that could negatively impact the closed ecosystem of an aquarium.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
If testing determines that you have high levels of ammonia or nitrates in your water, the best thing to do is to begin a daily regimen of replacing 10% of the water a day with clean, dechlorinated water that has been brought to approximately the same temperature as the water in the aquarium. This is preferable to doing large water changes on the tank, as this can be just as stressful to the fish as bad water quality.<\/span><\/p>\n
Whenever you make adjustments to parameters of the water in your aquarium, it\u2019s important to do so gradually so that the fish don\u2019t become shocked by a sudden change in their environment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Some fish are more sensitive than others and introducing large quantities of new water into an established tank can not only throw off the nitrogen cycle and cause an ammonia spike, the pH shock can cause serious problems.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
One of the water qualities that most standard testing kits look for is water hardness, which determines how many dissolved minerals your water has in it. Fortunately, most store-raised tropical fish have become very adaptable to varying levels of water hardness and can tolerate it quite well. However, there are some types of tropical fish (such as discus or other wild-caught species) that are sensitive to it.<\/span><\/p>\n
Once you\u2019ve tested your water and determined its hardness, there are a few different ways you can adjust the hardness of the water to suit the fish you\u2019re trying to keep. Water can be softened with additives such as peat or driftwood, while it can be hardened by using materials such as crushed coral substrate, fish tank limestone<\/a> or even oyster shell.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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Ask most experienced aquarium keepers what their preferred water testing kit is, and you\u2019re probably going to hear a lot of references to API Master Test Kits. These kits are some of the most comprehensive and easy-to-read tests that are available to not only beginning aquarists, and they are widely distributed throughout most major pet supply stores such as PetSmart or Petco. Test kits are also available online on Amazon.<\/span><\/p>\n
Here are four of the best test kits you can find for testing your fish tank water:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Each of these water testing kits is especially calibrated to check the parameters that are most important in the type of aquarium they\u2019re designed for. For example, someone running a reef tank is going to be more concerned with calcium levels than someone running a basic freshwater tank, and someone who has a pond full of koi fish<\/a> will need to test for different things than someone who has a saltwater nano tank.<\/span><\/p>\n
There are many benefits to keeping one of these test kits on hand at all times even if you\u2019re not establishing a new aquarium. Here are some of the reasons that it\u2019s important you should have a water testing kit whether your tank is already set up or not:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Since water testing kits are relatively inexpensive and most of them can last years before expiration, they are a worthy investment for anyone who is considering getting into the aquarium hobby, or anyone who is trying to become more seriously invested in the tank or tanks they already have.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Whether you\u2019ve had your aquarium for years or you\u2019re just getting one started up, testing the water regularly to determine parameters for ammonia, pH, and other issues can be the difference between losing a bunch of fish and having a healthy, vibrant tank.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When starting up a fish tank, learning how to accurately test the water in the tank is one of the most vital skills necessary for keeping aquarium fish healthy. Aquariums<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,8,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-freshwater-tanks","category-guides","category-saltwater-tanks"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fishkeepup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fishkeepup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fishkeepup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fishkeepup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fishkeepup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/fishkeepup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fishkeepup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fishkeepup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fishkeepup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fishkeepup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}