biOrb Aquarium | What do your water readings tell you?

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Video Description...
Yep, it might be very boring but, having some very basic understanding of water quality is a key part of ensuring that you maintain healthy fish and a crystal clear aquarium!

This video covers the basics of water quality with a focus on total ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

The results of water testing can often be very worrying, especially for those new to owning an aquarium and during the early stages of starting a new aquarium.

"Ammonia" is often presented on the internet as being a particularly bad toxin for fish, with many reporting that ammonia should always maintained at zero parts per million (ppm).

But, are your test results, showing a higher level of ammonia, as bad as they may first appear?

The video covers the two types of ammonia commonly measured with test kits (normally shown as "total ammonia") which provide a combined measurement of an aquarium's total ammonia (consisting NH3 + NH4).

So, what is NH3 and NH4?
NH3 (ammonia) is a gas and often called Free Ammonia. This type of ammonia is the dangerous part of the total ammonia in your aquarium.
On the other hand, NH4 (ammonium), is basically a non-toxic salt and is the ionised form of NH3 (ammonia).

Under normal aquarium conditions, NH3 (ammonia) and NH4 (ammonium) will both be present in aquarium water. The two exist at an equilibrium with each other with the different levels of each mainly governed by pH and temperature. So, if one goes up, the other goes down.

As water pH is increased in your aquarium, NH4 becomes liberated into NH3. If pH lowers, NH4 is raised and NH3 is lowered. If pH increases NH4 decreases and NH3 increases.

Most water tests kits simply combine the measure of NH3 and NH4 together to give you a single measurement that is called "Total Ammonia". However, it is sometimes better to understand what component of your total ammonia test relates specifically to the toxic NH3 part.

The 'Free Ammonia Calculator' demonstrated in this video is used to show how NH3 can be calculated from a measure of total ammonia. The calculator provided by Hamza's Reef is a very simple to use tool, which can be found here:
https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/C...

Have a play around around with the calculator to see how variations in temperature and pH change the proportion of NH3.

Once cycled, the following are typical API water test readings suitable for a freshwater community (mixed species) tropical fish aquarium are:
pH: 6.8 – 7.5
General Hardness (GH): 7-10 dGH (check your own water suppliers website for your water quality and look for 'Hardness German'. This will show typical hardness of your water.
Calcium Hardness (KH): 8-20 dKH
Ammonia (combined NH3, NH4): 0 ppm
Nitrite (NO2): 0 ppm
Nitrate (NO3): 20-40 ppm (undertake water change when nitrates rise above 40ppm)
Phosphate (PO43): less than 20 ppm
TDS: 100 to 300 ppm.

NOTE: In the UK and Europe, the quality of household water supply is heavily regulated (through legislation).
The following are the legal limits permitted in UK/EU water supply:
Nitrate - up to 50ppm
pH - minimum allowed 6.5, maximum allowed 9.5
Therefore, if your own test results of your tap water show results outside of these regulated levels your test readings are probably incorrect!

As always, a big fishy thanks for watching!
Mark
Step-by-Step biOrb Aquariums
#stepbystepbiorb

For advice, please feel free to contact me directly through the Comments on this Channel.