I went to nnnnnn today and purchased a water tester, Jungle Quick Dip. After testing the water in my tank it said my Nitrate was high, 160. Will it being this high harm my 2 gfs, and what can I do about it? I just did a 25% water change after finding out it was high. Also my ph was around 7.8, is this ok or should it be lower? And finally my water has a hardness of 300, will it being this high harm my fish at all? Unfortunatel I didn't realize my test kit didn't test for ammonia before I got home so I was not able to test that, but I am hoping it is ok. I may end up buying an ammonia test kit online since I have no idea when I will beable to get to someplace that has them anytime soon, so if anyone knows of someplace online that sells amminia test kits cheap let me know. thanks for the help

160 nitrates is high. Some fish have real problems with high nitrates. Some will flip upside down in response to a high nitrate reading. Even though you may not see any sideeffects of higher nitrates, I feel that it adds to the stress of the fish, may lower the immunity, and makes a fish far more susceptible to disease, parasites, egg impaction and constipation. High nitrates will also feed algae - the more nitrates the larger the algae bloom.

The best way to lower your nitrates is to either:

Do water changes - do another 25 %, and then another 25% until you get the nitrates down to 20% or lower. Hereafter, when changing your water, you will have to calculate how often and how much water you will need to change to keep the nitrates down. In an fully stocked or slightly overstocked tank, a good cycle will crank through all the ammonia and nitrite, but the result is tremendous nitrates as the final product. To keep this down, you will need to do water changes more often and/or change a larger percentage of the water each time. I have a 56 gallon tank that has only 4 fish - but they are BIG. I am probably overstocked, but I keep it under control by changing 20 gallons of water every 3-4 days.

Or:

Add live plants - live plants process the nitrates - they use them as food to grow.

Do your test strips include nitrites? (just curious ) If you have nitrates, my bet is that your cycle is going nicely. I have found that purchasing the individual kits of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH at PetCo or PetSmart, is best for me, for I use them up at different times and I only have to replacwe the one I have used up. Each tank needs a set of tests, depending on what is happening in the tank, but not all tanks need the full set every time......

(Edit:I use the drop kits from Aquarium Pharm. for each type of test. They come individually and you only use the one you want. I think I spend about $4 for each kit - 60-160 tests per kit depending on the test.)

A pH of 7.8 is GREAT. Leave it right there. With a kH or gH (?) of 300, you will have difficulty changing it anyway. It will bounce back - it is far better simply to leave it alone and let it be consistant. Goldies do fine in quite a wide range of pH - consistancy is far far far more important. A "hardness" of 300 is fine - is simply means that it will hold your pH solidly with no additives. That is GREAT, too.

You are doing fine - getting test kits, getting to know your own water, tanks, fish and such is a wonderful thing.

Thanks alot. I have a 20 gal. tank with 2 gfs in it and did a 25% water change after testing and will do another tomorrow and then test it again. Glad to hear the ph and hardness is good. My test kit does have nitrites and those were at 0 so Iam assuming my ammonia is ok. Thanks very much for your help:)

I've recently had a big problem with nitrAtes myself and one of my GF Rosie got pretty ill. But thanks to all of the amazing people here, she's in great shape. If you want to follow through a 2 week journey on nitrAtes (I started at 160+ like yourself) go to disease/diagnosis and look for a thread entitled Help! Fish Keeps Sinking to the Bottom! or you can click on my name I think and see threads I've responded to and find it that way! Also look for Rosie's Symptoms in the same forum and you will see how the illness was handled!

You've come to a great place and there is more information and amazing ppl here than you can imagine!

We are anxious to hear about your goldfish!! Tell us more!

lisal, thanks alot your posts and there replies were very helpful , I'm glad your Rosie got better. I did another test today and nitrates had come down to 80 and I did another 30% water change but haven't tested it again yet, but probably will tomorrow after another change.
Right now in my 20 gal I have 2, what I think are Orandas, named Walter and Farley, have no idea about their genders though, lol. Walter is my biggest at 4 inches and use to be orange and white, but then went totally white except for like 2 orange scales on his back and 1 fin with some orange patches. Farley of mostle orange with a white bib that come from uder his chin to about half way up behind his gills and he is around 2- 2 1/2 inches. He and Walter have been tank buddies for 6 years. Walter is the piggy of the pair and when I feed them like to swim up to the top and flip around quick and splash me, Farley is a bit more laid back and likes to take it easy.

Walter & Farley! I love that! Six years is a long time..I've only had mine for almost 2 years! Unfortunately I only had about half of my aquarium education when I started keeping fish..I'm glad my thread could help! It's easier to send you there for all the information than write everything here. Main thing...don't be afraid to do HUGE water changes. I did nearly 50% daily. Rosie and Cheech are characters...Cheech is my piglet! He thinks he owns all the food!

I'm really thankful for all the help here! Keep reading and posting! I'll keep checking in case you have questions!

I did another water change today and got the nitrates down to 40. I'm planning on another change tomorrow and hopefully that will bring it down to 20, the normal level for my water before it goes in the tank. Next time I get out to the LFS I wanna look into getting some plants to help with controling my nitrate level. Thanks again for your help

Just a line to tell you about my test strips. I had been testing with these since setting up the pond and they were reading No Nitrites. I became suspicious when the one fish was flashing around and took a sample to the local shop. The reading turned out to be Nitrites 2.0!! So now I don't trust test strips. :angry:

Whoa! Well Iam looking in to getting seperate tests for every thing(amonnia, nitrites, nitrates, PH) but I will definately try to find a non-stripe tester for nitrites. Thanks for the advice. What brand did you have? Might not matter buy I have the Jungle brand test stripes. What kind of tester do you use now?

My last Nitrate & pH test kit was faulty, so I now heartily recommend atleast one back up method, if you suspect any tests you do could be wrong...The liquid test seem much better IMHO. Good luck!

One thing of thought guys, tests do have an expiration date, normally on the bottom of the box. So when you buy please look and make sure that there not expired

Alright yesterday I went to a nearby LFS and purchased a Freshwater Master Test Kit by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. It is a liquid test kit and lets me test for evry thing. I did a test last night for Ammonia, 0 in both tanks, Nitrite, 0 in both tanks, and Nitrate, 20 in my 20 gal and 10 in my 10 gal. I also purchased 2 potted plants for my 20 gal to help control the nitrates. would have gotten more but that was all they had. Thanks for the tip Koko