When I first bought an aquarium I bought some of test strips at Wal-Mart (all they sell are the Jungle brand 5-in-1 strips and ammonia strips). My levels pretty much stayed the same from day one (which I found impossible to be accurate). The ammonia level stayed at zero and the pH level was maxed out. For three weeks I pretty much had these parameters:
Ammonia-0 then .25 after two weeks
NO3- 0
NO2- 0
pH- 8.4
When I asked the kind, knowlegable people that frequent this fine website it was suggested that I buy an API freshwater masterkit; I ordered one and the nice UPS guy dropped it off at the office today.
I went home and became a firm believer that test strips suck and that liquid drops are the way to go.
This is what my new test kit shows:
Ammonia- 1.0
(I did a 50% change; I have been doing changes of 15-50% every other day 'cause I did NOT realize the strips were so misleading)
NO3- 5.0
NO2- 0
pH- 7.6
After the 50% H20 change my level was brought down to .5; I will do another change tomorrow night.
Ammonia-0 then .25 after two weeks
NO3- 0
NO2- 0
pH- 8.4
When I asked the kind, knowlegable people that frequent this fine website it was suggested that I buy an API freshwater masterkit; I ordered one and the nice UPS guy dropped it off at the office today.
I went home and became a firm believer that test strips suck and that liquid drops are the way to go.
This is what my new test kit shows:
Ammonia- 1.0
(I did a 50% change; I have been doing changes of 15-50% every other day 'cause I did NOT realize the strips were so misleading)NO3- 5.0
NO2- 0
pH- 7.6
After the 50% H20 change my level was brought down to .5; I will do another change tomorrow night.
