Hey all! We finally bought our own test kit, and got refractometer. It comes with pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, alkalinity, carbon dioxide, salinity, and dissolved oxygen. If I remember correctly since we are doing fish only, we only need to use the pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate test- am I remembering right? How often should we be testing this things?
Also, the test kit doesn’t come with any guide on where our tests should be. Can someone please tell me where we should be looking to keep our levels or where I can find the answer??
Our pH is between 7.0 and 7.5- it looks closer to a 7.5
Nirite was less then 0.5 (the test result started at 0.5 so I would say it was a 0)
Ammonia was a littler darker then a 0 but not dark enough to be a 0.5.
Nitrate is a 4.
Update: We took a trip up to The Fish Place (about 2 hours from us) but it was so worth it. The guy that helped us was wonderful. I left there so much more confident in our tank. We bought a sump. Everyone we talked to recommended it over our hanging filter, as did the person who helped us at the store. We also got a in sump protein skimmer and all of the pumps/equipment parts. What is really something is the hang on filter we bought at our local fish store for 199.99 was only 42.99 at The Fish Place. I almost s*** my pants when I saw that (they really gave us bad advice at our local store). We are going back this week to buy more salt, a gravel vac, a rodi and some live rock (their prices are great compared to our local store). It is kind of bothersome starting from scratch with our equipment but we really want to do it right. And maybe one day… we will have fish in our tank!!
Thank you all for your advice and guidence with our tank! We really appreciate having people here to turn to when we have no idea what is going on.
Ignore the pH test kit. They’re horrible. I am sure someone will jump on and say they disagree with me, but they really aren’t worth the space on they take up on your shelf. If you ever want to measure pH you’ll want to get a pH probe and meter, but that being said for a fish only system for starters you don’t absolutely need one. The fish will greatly benefit with pH in the proper range of 8.2 to 8.3, but won’t likely perish if it is isn’t in that range.
The same sort advice carries over into using and understanding the Alkalinity test kit. Your fish will likely exhibit more natural behavior, have more vibrant colors, be able to fight off more infections, be more likely to bread… I could go on and on, but then again they will likely be 100% fine if you never pick up an Alkalinity test it.
Have you explored more of your other Local Fish Stores? Not all of them are evil and many of them have prices a lot closer to what you’ll find at Lancaster with out the gas or sales tax. Some of them have employees a million fold more knowledgeable then others. There are other downsides to shopping there as well I could go onto for hours, but not much time. Just consider reexamining some of the other stores locally you may have missed and spreading your spending around a little bit.
My advice would be NO live stock at all until you have 0ppm Nitrite and Ammonia for more then a week and Nitrates below 3ppm. Shoot for a salinity of 1.025 with the refractometer and make sure to pick up calibration fluid for the refractometer. I picked up a brand new refractometer a month ago and while they are typically factory calibrated this was was not at all.
Could type a lot more, but gotta run. Best of luck.
While I agree with Jon that a PH Probe and monitor are the better more accurate route to go, they are just not feasable for someone getting in to the hobby. Especially after you’ve just purchased a large amount of equipment. They can be a little on the expensive side, with replacement probes alone running around $35-40.
Keep your PH test but don’t trust it to be 100% accurate - accept that it is probably off by .2 ppm.
Since oyu ave your own test kits I would reccomend testing every 2 days at first. This will give you an idea of how quickly your PH drops. Once you get a feel for how quickly slowly PH is droping you can create a maintenance schedule to be able to buffer it back to 8.3.
Do you have a sand bed or crushed coral. If sand then there’s no real need for the gravel vac (IMO) - I prefer to by sand sifting snails to take care of the sand for me - they’re more fun to watch then a plastic vacuum.
[quote=“amrc, post:1, topic:3997”]
Our pH is between 7.0 and 7.5- it looks closer to a 7.5[/quote]
Not sure if you missed this Craig. Pretty sure the test kit is worthless.
Buffering off of something so inaccurate could be dangerous. Overdosing is more dangerous the under dosing 99% of the time with the things we test for. I think they would be better off not testing and not worrying about it if the $100 for a pH monitor puts it out of reach. If they test their Alkalinity and keep it up to 7-8dKH and keep the room it is in decently ventilated(open windows occasionally) the pH shouldn’t be too low. Right now Ammonia and Nitrites are a much bigger concern.
Gravel vacing could be required if you have a low flow tank. I’m not sure what they have for circulation at this point. I also believe sand sifting snails to be no where near as hardy as fish and I don’t think they should be added for a long time now. I realize this differs from many online retailers and local fish stores who make a 90% mark up selling little hermit crabs and snails, but my opinion remains the same. I can’t tell you how many hobbyist I’ve met who have been in the hobby for many years and whose corals and fish are doing wonderfully, but have trouble keeping snails alive. Yet we often recommend they go into new aquarist tanks very early. I know others will differ this opinion, but just putting it out there.
I didn’t miss it - but what we don’t know is if it’s the test kit or the PH that’s extremely screwed up. But considering it’s a brand new test kit I’d be inclined to think the PH is just WAY off. At this point I’d reccomend testing again to see if the results are the same as well as getting a water sample in the the LFS for a seperate test.
Save yourself alot of time and energy, alot of the necessary things you would want are had on line and at alot less cost throwing in the shipping. Brs supply and airwaterice.com are two sites that you will find much better equipment and much less $$$.
There are plenty of reasons to shop local. There is probably a very large percentage of the people in the club that saw their first coral in their local fish store. Probably 90% of us bought our tanks locally. It’s not often you can find salt cheaper online. If you need salt or carbon in an emergency online won’t help. If I can find a fish locally or order it online I’ll usually pick them up locally so I can see the specimen first. Same thing with coral usually. Unless your shopping WYSIWYG on a site that doesn’t photoshop to the point where the coral looks nothing like it will in your tank, I would rather see the specimen in the shop. I could go on and on.
If you shop only online, don’t count on local being around for long. I realize this hobby is not cheap, but if your paying 4X what you would pay in Lancaster then you are getting ripped and you haven’t found the local source that has decent prices. There is plenty of shops around that have preinterview pricing on their products still, but if you shop around(check the local Stores list at the top of the page) you can find better options and better people to work with.
Yeah, our pH test does seem a bit weird. It the results go 5, 6, 6.5, 7, 7.5, 8, 9, 10, it doesn’t have 8.3 as an option. Our result today was inbetween 8-9, closer to 8. My fiancee works for Lamotte Chemical so we got this kit http://www.lamotte.com/aquarium_fish_farming/product_line/salt_water_combination_kits.html discounted. I think I am just going to get him to take the tests to work and do it there… I am pretty sure they have the meter there.
The ‘local’ fish store I mentioned isn’t even that local… it is about 1 hour 15 minutes away. There is another ‘local’ store about an hour or so away that we checked out… it was okay but it still didn’t have everything we we’re looking for (which is why we went to That Fish Place, they had all of the supplies on our list), but we will probably go back when we start purchasing fish. That fish Place is about 2 hours away. So either way we are travelling, so if we can buy something for half the price (or 1/4 of the price) at That Fish Place we will make the extra 45 minute drive Plus, they have the sting ray and starfish petting tank which is great for my son. We live in Chestertown, MD. There is nothing really local to us. I would prefer to go to Delaware then to the Western Shore of MD. I did find another store earlier, Delaware Premium Aquatics I think the name was, so we will have to check that one out too.
The rest of our test results last night we’re all 0 (nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia). So that is great.
We have crushed coral which is why we got the gravel vac:) We do not have anything special going on with our flow. We haven’t bought a circulation pump or a flow pump, or anything like that. We will look into the more when we get into corals, but as of right now we are doing fish only and already have enough to figure out:)
I have never tested alkalinity… is that something we should be testing too?
Thanks again for all of the advice! We bought our rodi and live rock yesterday. Getting closer!
Ok, by “anything special going on with our flow” do you mean you have nothing but the return pump moving the water? Fish need to swim to be healthy. In a low flow tank fish poop and left over food sinks to the bottom. In a low flow tank with crushed coral it sinks to the bottom and gets stuck. You’ll have much healthier fish and much less algae with sand or no substrate at all and high flow.
There are a lot of local stores closer to you then Lancaster and one other. Check out that other one you found.
Yes, right now all we have is the return pump. We we’re actually looking at the circulation pumps online earlier today but are researching them a bit more before we purchase one (this is only the second time I have looked at them so I don’t know much about them yet). We are using the gravel vac to clean the crushed coral in the meantime. We currently only have the 2 damsels left from cycling in our tank right now and do not plan on getting more fish (and getting rid of the damsels) until we have all of the equipment we need.
I do plan on checking out the other store, I just found out about it today (it is still a little over an hour away from us too). A lot of people on the board recommended we check out That Fish Place, instead of the store we were going to, so we did, and loved it (and the variety of products they carry, and the kid friendly atmosphere)
Take a look into Hydor pumps as well as EcoTech Marine. Budget wise the Hydors will do an ok job and keep things alive. EcoTech’s Vortex can have a battery added to them and keep the tank from crashing during a 3-4 hour power outage.(could keep it from crashing during a 24 hour power outage actually) EcoTech’s will make a healthier tank as well with their varrying speed, but come at a significantly higher price. Either can be purchased from TPP or the store in DE, but don’t believe either keep the EcoTech’s in stock so you’ll have to order them from either store.
On the EcoTech’s you can find used sometimes at a price, but could take months to find good ones. Many used have been dropped and are noiser or are really old models that wouldn’t be worth near as much money. (for instance one with out the ES(EcoSmart)module will need a $100 upgrade to function the same, so if a used MP40w is $110 cheaper then a new MP40wES then after spending the money to upgrade it you saved $10, plus the time it took you to find it, and you don’t have a warranty)
Looks of info and demo videos on both companies websites. Good luck, ask questions, enjoy.
Hey not sure your price range but Fish Bowl in dover has a few hydros they have had for a while and have them discounted. What size tank do you have? I have 2 6025 im thinking of upgrading to ecotechs so mine may be no the market.
Plus, they have the sting ray and starfish petting tank which is great for my son. We live in Chestertown, MD. There is nothing really local to us. I would prefer to go to Delaware then to the Western Shore of MD. I did find another store earlier, Delaware Premium Aquatics I think the name was, so we will have to check that one out too.
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