In order to keep your water at a healthy balance for your fish a few preliminary test have to be ran to check if all of the chemicals in the water are at a liveable level.
Ph: which is the acidity or alkalinity of the water is a major factor that needs to be checked because if water is to high in acidity it could stop the reproduction of fish or even cause death. The Ph scale works on a 1-14 scale with 1 being most acidic and 14 being the most alkaline and 7 is the level of distilled water.
When our group checked the ph of our water in gave a number of 6.2 which is a little acidic but completely liveable.
Ammonia: Ammonia is the chemical that the fish excrete as waste and to much ammonia in the water can create unliveable conditions for the fish. In an aquarium the ammonia level is safest kept at 0 ppm but no higher than .25ppm. If .25ppm is reached the tank needs to be emptied of about half of its water content and refilled....Be sure to add dechlorinator when adding new water! When we checked our ammonia levels today they were perfect a 0ppm.
Nitrite: is a chemical that is broken down, by bacteria added into the tank, into nitrogen in which the plants can use in their natural nitrogen cycle. When the nitrite levels get too high and the bacteria cant break it down it becomes hazardous to the fish. These levels, like ammonia, need to stay between 0-.25ppm. When tested ours came out to be a perfect 0ppm.
Chlorine: This chemical is used in our tap water to clean and purify but it proves hazardous to fish and will pretty much kill any aquatic life that is subject to it for too long. All chlorine levels need to be situated at zero for a healthy aquarium habitat. So anytim tap water is added DECHLORINATE!!!!!!!
I hope this info porves to be helpfule in your own tank adventures!
-Rick Rocks
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