how often should I test the water in my freshwater aquarium?

Question

I bought a test kit this morning and tested the water in my aquarium.Everything is ok.When should I test the water again?I have a 100 liter tank with 12 neons,two dwarf Gouramis,3 guppies,two Mollies and a Platy with two or thee babies that have survived.The tank is heavily planted.

Answer 1

Your tank sounds lovely!
How often you test is up to you, and it also depends what you're testing for.
I rarely test for ammonia and nitrites because I know that my tanks are established. I only test for those if I suspect something is amiss or if I've just introduced a few new fish.
I test pH fairly frequently; twice a day, once or twice a week, because I have CO2 injecting into the tank and do not want to risk a pH crash from too much carbon in the water. But unless you have a pH altering substance in the water, there's no need to test for pH more than once a month, maybe twice.
KH and GH, same thing; those should stay fairly constant, no need to test for them very often.
Nitrates you could test on a monthly basis, or twice a month if you wanted to, because your tank is heavily planted.

All in all, I don't test for most aspects of my tanks unless I suspect that something may be wrong, but it is never a bad idea to closely monitor your aquarium parameters.

Answer 2

It's good to test the water once a week... or everytime you do a partial water change. So you've got about a 25 gallon tank. I wouldn't put anymore fish in because your nitrates may already be a little high. 25 gallons aint much at all. The most important things you wanna test for are ammonia and nitrate/nitrite levels. If those are high you'll need to do a partial water change, which involves removing 1/3 of the water and replacing it with new (chlorine remover treated) water. Also make sure you are staying on top of your filtration system and keeping your rocks clean. Make sure to promptly remove plants as soon as they seem to be dying. That spikes your nitrates.

Answer 3

Since you are new to fish keeping once a week until you get used to where your tank is "going" to be and understand the signs of when something is wrong.

Use a notebook and write down your results so you have a record to look back on. If you do not trust yourself oryour kit, I always tell newbee's to test the water, then have your local pet store test it. Just to see if you are reading the test properly. Also, if you add fish or plants wait a day and test your water.

Once you have an established tank, once every two weeks is fine.

Sounds like a nice tank.

Answer 4

Zoe, danielle and magicman are three people whose opinions and answers are among the best on this site. I respect their knowledge and I fully agree with all of them....

But, none mentioned doing regular weekly partial (25-30%) water changes. This is what will keep your water healthy and your fish happy. There is no need to test if you are doing the partial water change regimen religiously. However, you might want to test your tap water occasionally. You should also call your water department and ask if they use chloramines in addition to chlorine while treating your water so you will know which de-chlorinating product to purchase and use. Some of them do not remove or neutralize the chloramine which is bad for your fish and deadly to your beneficial bacteria.

The only time I test if when I am about to add new fish to a tank. I test both the water in the tank and the water in the bag for pH. The difference tells me how long I need to spend acclimating the new fish in the bag with tank water before taking him/her/them out of the bag and placing in the tank (never use the bag water in your tank)

pH shock is one of the biggest killers of new fish and a difference of only .5 is enough to cause them to go into pH shock and possibly die. I recently spent almost 3 hours acclimating 6 new apistogramma caucatoides "orange flash" that came in water that was 6.8 while my water is 7.4.

Answer 5

you're doing an excellent job of attempting to get your tank cycled and it somewhat is close, yet, nitrites could be an definitely 0 ppm. there is not any variety allowance with nitrites. in many situations if nitrites are low, ammonia could be too, in spite of if it somewhat is advisable to objective the ammonia too purely to ensure. you're growing to be to be an ammonia spike from something going incorrect and because ammonia is the 1st element interior the nitrogen cycle, does not unavoidably prepare on your nitrite attempt. additionally, the water is somewhat delicate for goldfish, and much greater delicate for rosys. they certainly want a greater unbiased ph. Goldfish prefer around a 7.0 and rosys prefer around a 7.4. you would be able to desire to up the ph a sprint by using including some limestone rock or overwhelmed shells, yet make specific you video show the ph so it does not get too not undemanding. additionally, your goldfish already, by using itself, for the size it somewhat is, desires 15 gallons of water now and could prefer 20-30 in a 300 and sixty 5 days or 2, so, with the three different fish, the tank is overcrowded. The rosys will improve to 3 inches each and each and that they, on my own, are all which you will put in the ten gallon tank. you may think of roughly getting a 2nd tank on your goldfish or taking the goldfish back simply by fact, between length and water standards, all of them won't be able to stay interior the tank you have.

Answer 6

I have had tanks for years from 130 gallon salt water to softwater tanks with nothing but rare plants in them.You seem to have picked good fish that emit very low levels of amonia..the one thing you left out is what kind of filter system do you have..{Diatom or Fluval} ..anyways your tanks is pretty small just keep it away from direct sunlight and the only time you should need to test your water is when you replace the water that has evaporated..and if you have a charcoal filter system remember to rinse the cartrige once a week but don't rinse all of them at the same time..alternate one every week so as to not shock the water system and you fish won't end up getting Ick...if you need more info just post another question my friend

Answer 7

some people say twice a week but i think if u test it twice a week for 2 weeks and the water is fine every time you could get away with only testing the water once every 2 weeks unless a fish dies

Answer 8

To be honest, once a tank is past the cycle and running well I only test when I have a reason to thing something is wrong. A well balanced well mantained aquarium will stay stable quite well.

When you make major changes in the fish, like adding new fish. It's a good idea to test for a few days to make sure everything is still ok. The main thing there to watch is the ammonia.


MM

Answer 9

I test weekly just incase anything does go wrong!

Answer 10

best to check twice in a week!