Testing supplies?

zanybees

zanybees

New Member
Can anyone tell me what I need to test my water and keep it in the right shape for my fish. I am still fairly new to this. When I started out, I went directly to the pet store where they specialize in salt water fish. They only ever told me that I would need a tester for the salt level and a thermometer. I keep loosing my fish. The salt always tests good and the temp. always stays right around 78. I have a 26 gal. and I am very pleased with it or have been up until today, I lost 3 fish. I just dont know what I am doing wrong. My fish have been great since I bought them 6 weeks ago. After reading some of the other posts, I feel that I am not testing everything that I should be. Can anyone tell me what else I need to test other than the salt level and what supplies I would need to test with?:help:
 
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big911dog

Guest
The "Big 4" you need to keep an eye on (besides temp and salinity or SG) are PH, Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates. I like the Aquarium Phamaceuticals (sp?) test kit.
HTH
 
dskidmore

dskidmore

Active Member
Unfortunately there are a ton of things you need to test for.
Things to test every week:
Salinity - ammount of salt
Temperature
pH - acidic or basic?
alkalinity - resistance to change in pH
nitrate - ammount of biological waste buildup, toxic in high quantities
Things to test daily until they start reading 0, with a new tank and every time a new fish is added:
ammonia - the first byproduct of fish waste
nitrite - the second byproduct of fish waste.
If your ammonia and nitrite do not go to 0 a few weeks after adding a fish, that would explain things dying. You need to add fish more slowly and make sure to not overstock your tank.
If you are keeping invertabrates, which it doesn't sound like you are, there are other trace elements to test for, but for a fish only aquarium, you don't need to worry about them much.
 
zanybees

zanybees

New Member
wow, I sure wish they had told me all of this when I first started. Maybe then I wouldnt have lost most of my fish. Thanks for all your help on this matter. Can anyone tell me how much it costs for the ammonia tester, nitrate tester, alkalinity tester, and ph tester and also do I get these Items @ the pet store or are they available some place else?:confused:
 
zanybees

zanybees

New Member
big911dog, can you tell me where I can find the Aquarium Phamaceuticals (sp?) test kit.? That sounds like it would cover all the basic testing that I would need. :thinking:
 
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big911dog

Guest
i got mine at my LFS. It tests all four. The rules of this board prevent me from putting up any links, but you might try a google search for that company and see who sells it. SFW might, but they're still offline i think. HTH
 
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