# hows my water quality???



## dschoter05 (Oct 14, 2008)

i am in the process of getting my water in check. was wonderin what you guys thought of it and what steps i might take to make it even better for my fish.

Ph- 6.0 or lower
Am- .25 ppm
Nitrite- 0ppm
Nitrate- 40 ppm

i know the Ph is low im workin on getting it up. i am doin 15 - 30% water changes daily with aqua safe water condintioner. i also have some wardleys 3-1 water condintioner that is susposed to buff the Ph out to 7, but am not sure if i should use it with the aqua safe.


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## Moondemon (Dec 9, 2006)

You have some high nitrates and some ammonia.

Ammonia should be at 0 and nitrates shouldn't be as high as 40... 10 would be good. 
If the PH is between 6 and 8, it should be fine for piranhas... you better have a stable PH than one that fluctuates..


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## NegativeSpin (Aug 1, 2007)

Those are my water params just before I do a water change, with the exception of the ammonia. You may need to add more biological filtration to bring the ammonia to undetectable and if your tap water is at least neutral, weekly water changes of 40% should do the trick for the pH and nitrates.


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## Piranha Dan (Nov 11, 2007)

There should never be ammonia in a healthy established aquarium. If you're getting a Nitrate reading that means that benificial bacteria are present, but it's not doing a good enough job at converting the ammonia into Nitrite and then into Nitrate because either your PH is low, which causes the bacteria to die off, or you don't have enough bio-filtration.
Check your tap water. If the PH is low out of the tap you have to buffer it.
If the tap water isn't the cause, then you need to do more water changes. You're PH will slowly drop between water changes because the waste your fish produce is acidic
What size tank/filtration?


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

if your pH is below 6 i would be concerned. bacteria begins to die off at a level of about 5.5which may explain your ammonia reading


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## dschoter05 (Oct 14, 2008)

Piranha Dan said:


> if your pH is below 6 i would be concerned. bacteria begins to die off at a level of about 5.5which may explain your ammonia reading


 should i use the wardleys 3-1 conditioner it says it removes ammonia buffers ph to 7 and neutrlizes chlorine and chloramines


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## Malawi- (Oct 21, 2008)

40 nitrates is okay, but always keep the ammona at 0.


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## Moondemon (Dec 9, 2006)

Malawi- said:


> 40 nitrates is okay, but always keep the ammona at 0.


hmmm...not sure about that. 
IMO, 40 nitrates is way to high... I try to keep mine at 10-15 and do major water changes when they reach 40 !


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## Piranha Dan (Nov 11, 2007)

dschoter05 said:


> i have a 55 gal. with 5 5"-6" i have a penguin 330 and a tetra tec PF 300
> 
> tap water params
> 
> ...


Your tap water sounds good. Those filters are both HOB's right? How many/what type of fish do you have in there? It's possible you may not have enought bio-filtration. If the bio-load isn't excessive, try doing more water changes to keep the PH from dropping so much.


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