After the Nitrate scare yesterday I decided to test all of my tanks for all parameters. I have 5 tanks and tested 4. I just ran out of motivation and did not test the 20g hex, Angel tank. Below are all my parms.

After I tested I did 50% wc's on the 55 and 60 which cut the Nitrate in half as one would expect and are now down to 40ppm or less which is what I demanded of my tanks. Y'all know I am the preacher of good water chemistry and am still upset I let Nitrates get so high.

I did a 20% on the 10g community and plan on retesting all of it tomorrow, starting with the 20g Angel tank. I'm putting all this in a spreadsheet and am going to keep at least a weekly record. The strips were so useless that I am going to throw them away.

Is this hour and a half about what you would expect for 6 parameters for four tanks? It also looks like I need to up the TH and KH on the 55g Cichlid tank.

55g Cichlids Date
6/6/2011
Temp 78
pH 8
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 80.0
Ammonia 0
TH 107 ppm
KH 107.0 ppm


60g Rainbow Date
6/6/2011
Temp 78
pH 7.8
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 80.0 ppm
Ammonia 0
TH 43.0 ppm
KH 43.0 ppm


20g Angels Date
6/6/2011
Temp 80
pH
Nitrite
Nitrate
Ammonia
TH
KH

10g Community Date
6/6/2011
Temp 78
pH 7.6
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 80 ppm
Ammonia 0
TH 107.4 ppm
KH 53.7 ppm

10g Fry(Mollies) Date
6/6/2011
Temp 80
pH 7.8
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20 ppm
Ammonia 0
TH 53 ppm
KH 107 ppm

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60g tall, all artificial plants, Rainbow tank; 55g for African Cichlids. 20g long for fry; 20g hex, 2 black Angels at my desk; 10g planted, with 50 Molly fry; 10 gal, 2x 13w cfl lightning, planted; 2g hex for "Buddy the Betta"; Wanting a 200g +, MTS getting bad.

It's not a bad plan, but I never consider nitrates as something to scare me. Concern, yes. If they are getting that high and you just weren't aware, then I would up the normal weekly percentage of water changing you do. It took me a little while to get there, but I just started doing 50!% weekly and only occasionaly test now. No matter what I did/do for the week, overfeed or whatever, I know that my nitrates would only be as high as the next water change. One of the reasons why it was so easy to start dosing my tanks with ferts under the estimative index method where you have to change that 50%.

I like that you decided and acted. Usually not best to wait around and a water change will very rarely be the wrong thing to do for whatever the problem may be.

Your Nitrate levels are too high, they border on dangerous. Reduce them through water changes. Make a 20% change every few days until you get a reading below 20. I consider Nitrate levels to be the silent killer of aquarium fish and its impact on fish is usually under estimated.

After the 50% yesterday, Nitrates are below 40ppm on each tank. I'll do another 50% today and that should get them back down below 20ppm which about where I want them to be.

After many tests and never seeing ammonia or NitrItes, I may stop the daily 6 tests and just test for NitrAtes daily and all parms weekly. Having many small tanks seems a hassle to test.

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60g tall, all artificial plants, Rainbow tank; 55g for African Cichlids. 20g long for fry; 20g hex, 2 black Angels at my desk; 10g planted, with 50 Molly fry; 10 gal, 2x 13w cfl lightning, planted; 2g hex for "Buddy the Betta"; Wanting a 200g +, MTS getting bad.

I test about once a week or more, and I test pH, NH4, NO2, NO3, KH, GH, Cu, Fe, and PO4 for each of my 3 tanks. The whole process takes an hour, and the subsequent ~50% PWC's take another hour. Sometimes if I'm really bored I'll test the water again a few hours after the PWC's. I also keep a log, and have noticed discernible elevations in my KH and GH values during summer when the city switches from snow runoff to wells as water sources.

Yeah, I'm that kind of nerd.

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Officially fishless until after the move....tune in later for details!

I must really be bad, I haven't tested a tank in a year. I feel that once the tank is cycled and you are doing weekly water changes I don't need to test. But I also keep close eye on all my tanks and if I see even a little problem I'll test that tank.

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SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY YEARS, NOT MONTHS!!!
220 Tank build
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/sta...late-3253.html

There is another name for that level....gtm