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iamruss7
I got some 5 in 1 dip strips to day and tried them out and it showed me that my water was NITRATE 80mg , NITRITE 0mg , TOTAL HARDNESS 75GH , TOTAL ALKALINITY 0KH and my PH LEVEL was 6.2
What do i need to do ?
mkinga
nitrites look good. hardness I'm not sure, alkalinity I don't really know either. PH is a bit low, I would add in something to keep it a constant 7 or so. Two choices really, you can add baking soda to increase the PH, but then you have to figure out how much to put in, too much and the PH will go too high. The advantage is that its really cheap. The other option is to add some PH 7.0 powder stuff they have in pet stores and just follow the directions, easier but a bit more expensive.

Your nitrate levels seem high, you can try add some live plants to lower nitrates. A better solution is to change the water more often, and more at a time. you should really try to bring it to under 20.
iamruss7
Thanks for your help. I Just done a 25% water change.
koko
Other good tip for your Ph see if you can get a KH kit this will tell you if your Ph will stay stable.

Also test your Ph from your tap water, if is the same then I wouldn't worry to much but we need to see the KH, this is the stabilizer of the PH.

Then if the Ph out of the tap is higher than the tank then we need to look at what we have in the tank?

If its lower then we still need to see what is in the tank ?
jetman73
Since your total alkalinity(kh) is zero you need too correct that ASAP. A ph of 6.2 is not good. Its not good for your fish or the filter bacteria. If you raise your total alkalinity too say around 50-100 ppm with the addition of baking soda your ph will rise but should stay fairly level and not fluctuate too much.
Just do it slowly and take ph and kh readings along the way. You don't say the size of your tank so I can't help you with the proper doses. The safe way would be too add a teaspoon of baking soda (assuming the tank is over 20 gallons), wait an hour and then test again. This way you will not alter the water chemistry too fast.
I would also cut down on the feeding until you can stabilize things.
jclif1995
i'm wondering if you may be getting false readings. dipping sticks are not known to be the most accurate test method out there from what i hear on message boards. you may consider buying a liquid kit. at the very least you'd have verification of your findings and a back up test kit when needed.

as far as your PH is concerned, i use a product by Kent Marine. my pH stays right at or just slightly above 7. i add it to all new water that i set asside to "rest" in the containers. this product, salt, and Prime are the only products i use regularly. here is a link to the product by Kent Marine.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...2989+2146962301

regards
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