Maintaining Water Quality with Your Aquarium

Water quality is essential in every aquarium to maintaining the plant and see life with in your mini ecosystem. You need to constantly be checking the water quality for any signs of trouble and so that you can balance out any issues before your aquarium becomes an unhealthy place for your plants and sea life to live in. Here are some of the best practices for testing the water in your aquarium:

1. Purchase a water testing kit: when you purchase your aquarium or receive an aquarium as a gift make sure that you purchase a water test kit before you get started. You’ll need to appropriately test your water before adding any plant or see life as well as throughout the life of your aquarium to make sure that everything inside can stay healthy. Water quality testing kits usually test the pH, hardness, nitrates and ammonia content.

2. Take out the test tube for your test kit and clean it: use filter toward the chlorinated water to clean out your testing kit and make sure that you dry it. Never use soap to clean out a testing kit as soap and cleaning products can really harm your tank and everything living inside of it.

3. Collect the water, add testing solution: fill your testing kit to its filled marker with water from your aquarium. Most testing kits have a fill line or will provide you with instructions for the amount of water that you need to use for a proper test. Testing kits will come with solutions that you can add to test the water which you will need to add drop by drop according to package instructions. After you’ve added the solution cap the testing kit and shake the water and the solution together to mix them. Let them stand for as long as directed on the package.

4. Use the reference card to determine the health of your tank: testing kits come with reference cards where you can compare the color of the water from your tank mixed with the solution to the various ranges that the solution can produce. When you get a rough estimate for the balance of your tank you can discard the water and remember the levels at which your tank might be out of balance based off of the testing colors.

5. Adjust the chemistry of your tank: from here you can buy various chemicals that will balance the water in your tank. Adding these chemicals to your water will help to normalize the tanks water quality so that you can improve the living conditions for all of the life in your tank.

6. Retest your tank is necessary: if you would like to recheck the quality of your water after adding some of the chemicals make sure that you wait at least an hour to make sure that they have appropriately cycled their way through your pump and filtration system (Chromologic). Make sure to test the water quality in your tank every few days especially if you have sensitive plant life or sea creatures living in your aquarium.

It’s also important to mention that Perry’s Aquatic Center offers water quality testing and advice to anyone who may require it. Simply visit our Lincoln location to have us professionally test your aquarium water quality. We can provide you with solutions to help you normalize the water quality in your tank and ensure the future health of all of the life of your aquarium.

Photo: Chris Smith via Compfight

Perrys Aquatic Centre, The Bungalow 6 Market Rasen Rd. Dunholme, Lincolnshire LN2 3QR, Phone: 01673860727

Maintaining Water Quality with Your Aquarium