My Testkit

My testkit is Jungle Quick Dip 5-N-1 testkit.
I know I need to get a better one but for now this is what I have.
So the readings on it are:


Nitrate None
Nitrate none (why 2 nitrate readings?)
Hardness 75
Alkalinity 80
pH 7.2

Does this look adequate to you? I only have one fish (Albert my Betta) in a 10 gallon tank so I am guessing the nitrates would build rather slowly. Not sure about the alkalinity though. Is 80 ok? Anything else you see here that is out of whack, besides me )

sillysue wrote:

(why 2 nitrate readings?)


Does this look adequate to you?

i believe its nitrite for the other one but i could be wrong. Also you need an ammonia test kit since that is one of main killers of fish.

nitrate for the other one of what? Ok so I need to get an ammonia test kit also. I will do that tomorrow. But do my levels look correct for what I have from the test kit?

As quoted from what you typed you asked "why is the test strip showing two nitrates readings"

OK im saying that the test strip has nitrite and nitrate more then likely instead of niterate and niterate. See the difference? nit(rite) and nit(rate)
These are two different readings. nitrite being deadly and nitrates being not so deadly.

I don't know much on bettas so i cant tell you that the rest is good or bad. All i know is Ammonia and nitrites should be at zero and the nitrates should be under 40.

Oh I get it now. I was reading both of them the same. Thank you for clarifying that for me.
Alkalinity seems to be way off to me. Gonna have to find out what to do about that.

I use those dip strips too, because i'm too messy to use the reagent kits for all those tests. The strips measure nitrate and nitrite; both are compounds of nitrogen and oxygen, but nitrite is reactive and toxic to fish. Most tap water is alkaline, but it seems to go toward neutral as the aquarium ages. Maybe the good cooties make a difference.

Thank you JohnArthur. So I will just wait it out for awhile. It's not even been a month yet since I set it up. Did an ammonia test yesterday and it has a little bit of ammonia so I am going to do a 1/3 water change today.

When it comes to fish keeping, patience is usually better than chemistry. Ammonia, of course, is dangerous and you may need to do more partial water changes to get rid of it.