These are Katie's levels in her tank.

Nitrate was 40, Nitrite was 0, Hardness was 75, Alkalinity was 120 and PH was still at 7.8 . I don't know if all of these are okay. The ph is okay but what about the rest?

well if you can get the ph down then the alkalinity will come down as well and the hardness means how hard it will be to change i am not show how hard this is is i do not no what the scale of hardness is but if you can tell me it would be a great help

thank you. What should the levels for those be?

Actually, the hardness, alkalinity and pH are fine - they are perfectly OK for goldfish. Katie does not need to adjust these at all.

The nitrate is a little high at 40 however - though not dangerous - but that is easily remedied by increasing the amount / frequency of water changes, adding more live plants and not overfeeding.

Thank You, Emma!!

hey it's Katie
how often should i changed my tank? i think the last time i changed it was on the 15th i had 6 fish and a pleco but Jasmin prolly told u that i lost 2 goldies and my pleco.

You should be vacuuming and doing a 30-50% water every week, so it looks like due for another change. What size a tank do you have?

i have a 10 gallon tank but in 2 months im gonna get a 20 gallon tank and tomorrow i will do a water change.
i guess keeping fish isnt all that easy. LOL

Nope it isn't,but when you do fallow the gallon rules
and do everything alright it isn't that big of a job other then cleaning
the filter once a week teh gravel and doing a 25% water change
once a week (when your fallowing the 10/15 gallon rule.)
Since the hobby isn;t just about cleaning but to enjoy the nice healthy goldfish

I think goldfish keeping can be fun, if you turn the work into 'fun times'. It's hard for me to do that, but changing water in tanks has become so regular, I just do it like that. *snap*. It's done and I can quit worrying about doing it for a few days. Then I do it again.

A 30-40% water change every week is nessecary for a healthy goldfish aquarium due to ammonia, and nitrite buildup. If these levels get to high, tje environment becomes unbearable and impossible to live in, not to mention just the debris making the water dirty! It is a good idea to use a gravel vacum or siphon in order to suck up debris from the gravel. The more fish you have the more you have to do the water changes. Over-stocked fish tanks, have to be cleaned way more than keeping the limit. So if you have 4 in a 10 gallon, I would suggest doing a 30 to 40 % water change 2 times a week + if you can make the time.
Hi Katie, by the way!!