Water Testing

[westernstar]

Was told by a friend that our Energy Lab (water testing place) ask specifically what you want tested.
Could anyone without the abbreviations tell me what to ask for, I'm still new at this. Any and all tests that I need as I would only like to have this done once, she said it would cost 35.00
Thanks,
Julie

[jules]

I believe I have read in some of your other postings that your well water is unsafe for human consumption.
Here in Ontario, Canada :Coliform and Escherichia colia make it unsafe. I think Carol had mentionned she wouldn't keep her Discus in water unsafe for human consumption. Maybe Check out some past posts.

[westernstar]

Thanks for answering,
It's been so long since I had the report done the last time and I don't know why it said not for human consumption. So that's why I better do it again, and answer my questions once and for all. I remember they said if I drank it I would be on the john forever because of the magnesium. So off to the lab tommorow if I can find out what specifically to test for raising discus. I have an ro for my drinking water.

[keith_cny]

Good luck Julie!

Hope the test helps get you some answers.

[westernstar]

Can anyone tell me what to specifically ask, for what tests that I need. Like ph, hardness......and the rest that I need to know for discus. Like I've heard that there are two hardness test, I don't know? Maybe I'm asking the question wrong. I see all kinds of abbreviations on other post, but I don't know what the stand for.

[Haywire]

Ask for a test that you can compare results to your local drinking water standards. and ask them for a copy of those standards.

Up here in Ontario it's several different tests depending on what you have,

VOC (volatile organic compounds)
Inorganics (metals)
and then other test that are requried depending on if you have any know contaminants

You can then compare your results to what your local municipality has, at least my region post thiers electronically.

[westernstar]

Thanks so much

[Carol_Roberts]

GH, KH, pH, tds, ammonia, nitrIte, nitrAte . . . bacteria counts and they should give you a list of things like amounts of magnesium, Iron, flouride, etc.

[westernstar]

Thanks Carol

[westernstar]

Hi, I finally got my test results back for my well water. I need help reading them. And if you could tell me if its ok for my Discus & rams.

MAJOR IONS: RESULT UNITS RL
Alkalinity, Total as CaCO3 366 mg/L 5
Bicarbonate as HCO3 446 mg/L 5
Carbonate as CO3 ND mg/L 5
Fluoride 0.3 mg/L 0.1
Nitrogen, Ammonia a N 1.5 mg/L 0.1
Nitroen, Nitrate+Nitrite as N 0.09 mg/L 0.05
Calcium 96 mg/L 1
Magnesium 39 mg/L 1

METALS, DISSOLVED RESULT UNITS RL
Iron 0.07 mg/L 0.03

NON-METALS RESULT UNITS RL
Hardness as CaCO3 400 mg/L 10
PH 7.36 s.u. 0.01
Solids, Total Dissolved TDS@180 C 1410 mg/L 10

Bacteria, E-Coli Coliform Absent P/A
Bacteria, Total Coliform Absent P/A Safe

Report Definitions:
RL-Analyte reporting limit
ND-Not detected at the reporting limit

It does have a method column if you need this information.
I would appreciate anyone helping me with this. I thought this test would not be that costly, it was 100 bucks, whew.
I hope my discus can live in it, as it would save me alot of hand wringing and worrys. At the moment I've been buying tap water in town & mixing my RO water with it.

Thanks, Julie

[Carol_Roberts]

Your water is pretty hard, but I think it's OK for discus. Wait and see what the water guys say . . . .

[westernstar]

Thanks Carol,
I hope so, I'll be waiting to hear from those guys. I would like to use 50/50 well with RO to make it softer. I just don't want it to kill them, they are like my babies, lol.
Julie

[ronrca]

;)
Your water is hard but your discus will be fine. Actually, sounds pretty close to my water parameters. Be sure to age your water to stablize the ph. If you do want to breed, you will definity need to mix RO! ;)

[westernstar]

Thank you so much, Yippie !!!!!, I'm so glad I don't have to buy water anymore.

[jules]

I would just like to confirm that I am calculating the KH correctly at 22.4 from the above readings.

thanks

[westernstar]

Jules,
Is there something wrong with the KH, I don't understand your post. Are you confirming that is OK?
Let me know because I haven't used the well water yet, but I will need to do a wc tommorow.
Julie

[jules]

No I don't think there is anything wrong with your well water - I just wanted to confirm I was calculating the reading correctly.
;D

[westernstar]

Thanks Jules
When I used my test kit for the water is shows that the KH is really low. Is this still safe? Or should I do something to try and raise this?

[jules]

Ron and Carol are experts Julie.

Just out of curiousity what KH are you getting?

[westernstar]

KH is 1

[westernstar]

Jules,
The well water is 17, when I tested the water in my tank it read 1

[jules]

Well water is fine.
But KH of 1 in your tank is rather low. Just RO water in there?

[westernstar]

This is just one tank that I have for my rams, I've been trying to breed them, I use 25% tap & 75% RO. I was afraid that I had it to low on the KH and was worried that the PH would crash.

The tank with the discus is different, I'm not trying to breed them yet.

Thanks for the help.
Julie

[Carol_Roberts]

Maybe try 50/50% tap RO mix to bring KH up to be on ssafe side.

[murthy]

Hi all!I have problems similar to westernstar...
GH 140 ppm,KH 120 ppm,and tap water measuring a pH of 8.5.After about 24-48 hrs in the tank,with fish in it,the pH changes to about 7.8.I'm worried to make water changes cos,even after vigorous areation,and aging(24 hrs) the pH will not come below 8.2(my guess is that the presence of co2 from the fish is lowering the pH?)So if I make a 50%water change,will I stress the fish with a rapid change of pH?I do have access to RO water of my own,but I'm a bit lazy! ;D(and dont have plans of breeding discus right now!)So far Ive raised all my discus to full size using 50%RO,and a stable pH of 7(with a little phosphoric acid).But as the number of discus increase I may not be in a position to keep preparing water in this fashion,hence the new experiment!Any comments?
Carol,the display tank is on cycling,with two aquaclear 500 filters.Wish me luck! :)

[Carol_Roberts]

Your 8.2 water will be fine for large water changes. 50% will only bring the tank to 8.0.

Good luck cycling the new aqua clears ;D

[westernstar]

Hi, My well water readings are posted above. How would I adjust these for breeding without using RO.
The only way I've come up with before was 4 gal of well water to 29 gal of RO, my holding tank is 33 gal.
To me, it doesn't seem like they will getting much minerals from my well water (with just 4 gal), or could it be that my well water has so much minerals that it would compensate with just 4 gal.
I have read alot about muriatic acid, would this bring down the PH, KH, & GH