whats normal PH....PH HIGH....ammonia, nitrate, nitrite
i have the api master test kit and i need to know whats normal for bettas PH, PH High, Ammonia, Nitrate, and Nitrite levels are in a cycled tank and in a uncycled tank please inform me thank you..... my tank is not yet cycled i've had it less than a week and it may have been a week by now but i doubt it.. thanks in advance
well did you test you tank water yet/ did you start the cycling process?
here's normal betta parameters:
Testing Water Parameters
You can see for yourself just how good or bad your betta fish's water quality is by testing the water using one of many available aquarium test kits. The API Freshwater Master Test Kit comes highly recommended.
A cycled aquarium will ideally have the following parameters:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: Under 20 ppm
pH: 7.0 (Betta fish can tolerate a range of 6 - 7.5)
you can find all starter fishkeeping info here: (that's where i got these parameters).... http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=49160
Ammonia can only be addressed by either keeping the tank uncycled and performing frequent water changes (some will need to be 100% changes) or cycling the tank so that bacteria can metabolize and remove the ammonia. Here is a great article on the nitrogen cycle in aquariums: http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/f...m-cycle-38617/
The bottom line with pH, however, is that it is quite easy to raise the pH of tap water (this requires adding minerals/ions), but it is much more difficult to lower the pH since a high pH is usually paired with a high carbonate hardness. Thus, the only way to remove these solutes is to either manually remove them via a reverse osmosis/distillation unit, or to use pure water (reverse osmosis/distilled water) to dilute the solute concentration of your tap water (think of it as adding fresh water to salt water - one cup of the resulting water is less salty than one cup of the original salt water because its salt concentration is less).
The pH in all my tanks is over 8 and my fish are fine.
From what I've read they can adapt to a higher pH and water hardness.
Now for ammonia, you need to do some water changes to get that down! If your API kit is reading 0.50, do a 50% water change and that should bring it down to 0.25 and so on. Good luck!
The pH in all my tanks is over 8 and my fish are fine.
From what I've read they can adapt to a higher pH and water hardness.
Now for ammonia, you need to do some water changes to get that down! If your API kit is reading 0.50, do a 50% water change and that should bring it down to 0.25 and so on. Good luck!
My fish lived in water with a pH of 8 and was just fine.
A word about the ammonia: test your source water! If the source where you get fresh water for the tank already has ammonia, then you have other issues to address.
I was horrified to find out that the source water in my dorm room had toxic amounts of nitrite in it as well as trace amounts of ammonia an nitrate. I had to switch sources.
Ammonia can only be addressed by either keeping the tank uncycled and performing frequent water changes (some will need to be 100% changes) or cycling the tank so that bacteria can metabolize and remove the ammonia. Here is a great article on the nitrogen cycle in aquariums: http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/f...m-cycle-38617/
The bottom line with pH, however, is that it is quite easy to raise the pH of tap water (this requires adding minerals/ions), but it is much more difficult to lower the pH since a high pH is usually paired with a high carbonate hardness. Thus, the only way to remove these solutes is to either manually remove them via a reverse osmosis/distillation unit, or to use pure water (reverse osmosis/distilled water) to dilute the solute concentration of your tap water (think of it as adding fresh water to salt water - one cup of the resulting water is less salty than one cup of the original salt water because its salt concentration is less).
Hope this helps!
its a little hard for me to comprehend what you are telling me and its hard for me to comprehend the info in the links youve give me. im sorry but unfortunatly i have brain damage which has messed up my cognitive skills. so if you or anyone else wants to help me please put your wording in simple format for me to understand it. thank you for your help and patience. :)
Well, I can give you a crash course in ammonia which I'll admit confused me for a while.
So the ammonia problem involves 3 main things: the clean water, fish, and aquarium habitat.
Just like humans, fish eat and poop. This produces ammonia, which we can call A. Think of what would happen to a human if they let their food and poop pile up. It would not be pretty!
It's the same with fish. A is poisonous to them and even small amounts of it in the water can hurt them over time.
So what is the most simple solution? To take the A out, right?
Well, it turns out it's not possible to extract just the A. What you need to do instead is change all the water. All the A comes out with the water.
This is why it is incredibly important to change the water regularly if your tank is not cycled. It's cleaning out the poison so your fish can be happy and healthy.
Check out the eBook Betta Fish Care Made Easy
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whats normal PH....PH HIGH....ammonia, nitrate, nitrite
