jar05g

Hey all. So my dad is setting up a 10 gallon freshwater tank. He works at a public school (Principal), and is using the water from the sink. I've been trying to help him get everything going and tested the water today from the sink, it's very hard, has super low pH, and low alkalinity. He's using the 5 in 1 test strips, and neither pH nor the Alkalinity show a reading. I am tempted to just tell him to empty the tank out (there aren't any fish), buy water from the store and start all over. That way he can cycle the tank using the ammonia drops. Besides starting all the way over, is there anything he can do to get the water readings correct again? There is no ammonia or nitrites, and nitrates are 15-20. Thanks everyone!

jdhef

He should really use a liquid test kit like the API Master Test Kit for Freshwater. The strips are know for being inaccurate. I'm not an expert on Ph, but I thought that generally hard water would give you a higher Ph, whereas soft water would give you a lower Ph.

Tell him as a principal, he should know better than anyone how important proper testing is!

capekate

Hi Josh
I agree with John, the lower the PH you usually find softer water. I also agree that the API fresh water tester is a much more reliable test kit than those test strips which are notorious for false readings.
Once you get a reliable test kit you can then find out what your Ph level is. What kind of fish are you planning on keeping?

sirdarksol

Yeah, the API liquid test kits are more accurate (and though they cost more than the strips, they are more cost efficient, as you can do many more tests with the kit). At the very least, get a liquid pH test kit to test the pH.

Water with low alkalinity and low pH is likely soft water that has a lot of plant debris in it, similar to the Amazon River. If nothing else, he could easily keep soft water fish (most tetras like soft water) in it.
Buying water from the store is an expensive way to go. With a 10g tank, he's got to buy at least two gallons of water a week to keep the tank going.

One important thing is that weekly upkeep will need to be done, as the water has little or no buffer in it, meaning that pH has the possibility of plummeting as nitrogen builds in the water.

jar05g

Alright...I'll let him know. I have the API master test kit up at school that I use for me tank...they are very nice to use. I can ask him if he wants me to get it...at least a pH test to see what it really is...but I swear the water is very hard. This would be much easier with RO water haha.

clinton1621

You said it didnt show any reading for hardness?? R.O. doesnt have any hardness so maybe his water supply is from an R.O. Unit

KyWildFish

Im going to say use that API kit. I had the 5 in 1 strips and they were not just inaccurate, but flat out wrong. They were giving me a reading of very low pH and I have several things in my tank to give it a natural hardness (high pH). I have the luck of being a scientist and having other testing supplies so I tried some litmus paper (acid/base indicator) and got a blatant basic reading. I then bought the API and my pH is on the high side, not the low. So from all that, get the kit, trash the strips.

jar05g

I got him the test kit today...and talked him into trashing the tank...and starting from scratch with fresh water. He's going to cycle it using ammonia. We bought 10 gallons of water from the store. Everything should be good now. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks for all the help!!

Butterfly

The only problem with using water from the store is that it doesn't have any minerals in it that the fish will need.
Test the tap water and lets go from there. There are fish that will be fine in most ph levels.
Carol

clinton1621

I know distilled water doesnt have any mineral content, but water labeled as "spring water" is usually exactly the same as most tap water when I've tested it

sirdarksol

Precisely, Clinton, because most "Spring water" (the cheap stuff, anyway) comes from the same aquifers that your tap water comes from. It's run through the store's filters, so in some cases, it is of a better quality, taste-wise, but mineral-wise, it's going to be the same as the school's water.

As I said before, and as Butterfly said, I think it would be best to determine what the true pH of the tap water is, and see if there is any buffer, before throwing away money every week to do the water changes.

clinton1621

Sorry I misread your original post and thought you meant it wasnt hard lol , I agree with everyone else, hard water should have a high ph not low, so the tests you used were most likely innacurate and theres nothing wrong with the tap water