# whats normal PH....PH HIGH....ammonia, nitrate, nitrite



## resa (Dec 23, 2012)

i have the api master test kit and i need to know whats normal for bettas PH, PH High, Ammonia, Nitrate, and Nitrite levels are in a cycled tank and in a uncycled tank please inform me thank you..... my tank is not yet cycled i've had it less than a week and it may have been a week by now but i doubt it.. thanks in advance


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## bettaluver14 (Dec 15, 2012)

well did you test you tank water yet/ did you start the cycling process?
here's normal betta parameters:
Testing Water Parameters

You can see for yourself just how good or bad your betta fish's water quality is by testing the water using one of many available aquarium test kits. The API Freshwater Master Test Kit comes highly recommended. 

A cycled aquarium will ideally have the following parameters:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: Under 20 ppm
pH: 7.0 (Betta fish can tolerate a range of 6 - 7.5)
you can find all starter fishkeeping info here: (that's where i got these parameters).... http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=49160


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## bettaluver14 (Dec 15, 2012)

ammonia and nitrites should ALWAYS remain at 0ppm. by the way...:-D
anything higher than 0ppm especially ammonia, can be harmful to your fishy


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## resa (Dec 23, 2012)

what im having problems with is the PH, PH High and the ammonia and im using water conditioner by top fin and its not working so then what do i do


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## Kim (Apr 30, 2008)

Ammonia can only be addressed by either keeping the tank uncycled and performing frequent water changes (some will need to be 100% changes) or cycling the tank so that bacteria can metabolize and remove the ammonia. Here is a great article on the nitrogen cycle in aquariums: http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/...inners-guide-freshwater-aquarium-cycle-38617/

pH is a bit more complicated. I recommend reading this article for a start: http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/freshwater-articles/water-hardness-ph-freshwater-aquarium-73276/

The bottom line with pH, however, is that it is quite easy to raise the pH of tap water (this requires adding minerals/ions), but it is much more difficult to lower the pH since a high pH is usually paired with a high carbonate hardness. Thus, the only way to remove these solutes is to either manually remove them via a reverse osmosis/distillation unit, or to use pure water (reverse osmosis/distilled water) to dilute the solute concentration of your tap water (think of it as adding fresh water to salt water - one cup of the resulting water is less salty than one cup of the original salt water because its salt concentration is less).

Hope this helps!


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## carbonxxkidd (Oct 30, 2012)

The pH in all my tanks is over 8 and my fish are fine.
From what I've read they can adapt to a higher pH and water hardness.

Now for ammonia, you need to do some water changes to get that down! If your API kit is reading 0.50, do a 50% water change and that should bring it down to 0.25 and so on. Good luck!


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## MadameDesu (Feb 5, 2012)

carbonxxkidd said:


> The pH in all my tanks is over 8 and my fish are fine.
> From what I've read they can adapt to a higher pH and water hardness.
> 
> Now for ammonia, you need to do some water changes to get that down! If your API kit is reading 0.50, do a 50% water change and that should bring it down to 0.25 and so on. Good luck!


My fish lived in water with a pH of 8 and was just fine. 

A word about the ammonia: test your source water! If the source where you get fresh water for the tank already has ammonia, then you have other issues to address. 
I was horrified to find out that the source water in my dorm room had toxic amounts of nitrite in it as well as trace amounts of ammonia an nitrate. I had to switch sources.


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## resa (Dec 23, 2012)

Kim said:


> Ammonia can only be addressed by either keeping the tank uncycled and performing frequent water changes (some will need to be 100% changes) or cycling the tank so that bacteria can metabolize and remove the ammonia. Here is a great article on the nitrogen cycle in aquariums: http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/...inners-guide-freshwater-aquarium-cycle-38617/
> 
> pH is a bit more complicated. I recommend reading this article for a start: http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/freshwater-articles/water-hardness-ph-freshwater-aquarium-73276/
> 
> ...



its a little hard for me to comprehend what you are telling me and its hard for me to comprehend the info in the links youve give me. im sorry but unfortunatly i have brain damage which has messed up my cognitive skills. so if you or anyone else wants to help me please put your wording in simple format for me to understand it. thank you for your help and patience.


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## MadameDesu (Feb 5, 2012)

Well, I can give you a crash course in ammonia which I'll admit confused me for a while. 

So the ammonia problem involves 3 main things: the clean water, fish, and aquarium habitat. 
Just like humans, fish eat and poop. This produces ammonia, which we can call A. Think of what would happen to a human if they let their food and poop pile up. It would not be pretty!
It's the same with fish. A is poisonous to them and even small amounts of it in the water can hurt them over time. 

So what is the most simple solution? To take the A out, right? 
Well, it turns out it's not possible to extract *just* the A. What you need to do instead is change all the water. All the A comes out with the water. 
This is why it is incredibly important to change the water regularly if your tank is not cycled. It's cleaning out the poison so your fish can be happy and healthy.


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## sainthogan (Sep 27, 2012)

So what does she do in the event that there is high ammonia in her tap water and the conditioner is not lowering it to a safe level?


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## MadameDesu (Feb 5, 2012)

sainthogan said:


> So what does she do in the event that there is high ammonia in her tap water and the conditioner is not lowering it to a safe level?


I wish I knew what to do about this myself 
All I can think is that she can use a different water source, or if that's not possible, add a few drops of Prime water conditioner every few days because it's supposed to bind up ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. 

For my 3gal, I had to get water from the water fountain since that tested clean. I can't even begin to explain how annoying that was.


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## resa (Dec 23, 2012)

i have purchased some prime .....i used 1ml for my ten gallon tank i used it about 2 hours ago and just did a test and the ammonia thus far is at 1.0 still...tomorrow i will do a water change....how much should i change again? i forgot...i also just read the book "how to care for a betta fish like an expert' by david chipperfield. my mother in law paid for it on her ipad on amazon kindle.... i dont think after having read his book that it would hurt to give my fish a 5 minute soak in some Epsom salt...i also didnt know there were over 50 types of bettas


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## callistra (Jun 29, 2010)

Do not mess with ph.. all those ph up/down stuff are only temporary, with the end results being lots of swings. These swings can be lethal to fish, but they can adapt to almost any ph your tap water might have. As long as it's under 9, I wouldn't mess with it. If it's really really high (like mine.. bleh) you can cut it 50/50 with RO water (buy gallon jugs at grocery store). But if you do this it's EXTREMELY important you always use the same RO water and you measure/cut it EXACTLY the same every time to prevent ph fluctuations. I would be testing with every water change to be sure nothing went wrong.

To deal with tap ammonia, I've seen it mostly suggested to use prime - dose every 48 hours if you're not using a filter and of course then you are also doing your weekly 100% water change so the level never builds too high.

Are you saying your tap water has ammonia - that if you poured yourself a glass of water from your sink right now and tested it, there would be ammonia? Or your 10 gallon tank has ammonia? If it's in your tap you use prime and it should be removed by your filter (use carbon). If it's in your tank you need to increase your water changes. How long has this tank been set up? What fish are in it?


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## resa (Dec 23, 2012)

callistra said:


> Do not mess with ph.. all those ph up/down stuff are only temporary, with the end results being lots of swings. These swings can be lethal to fish, but they can adapt to almost any ph your tap water might have. As long as it's under 9, I wouldn't mess with it. If it's really really high (like mine.. bleh) you can cut it 50/50 with RO water (buy gallon jugs at grocery store). But if you do this it's EXTREMELY important you always use the same RO water and you measure/cut it EXACTLY the same every time to prevent ph fluctuations. I would be testing with every water change to be sure nothing went wrong.
> 
> To deal with tap ammonia, I've seen it mostly suggested to use prime - dose every 48 hours if you're not using a filter and of course then you are also doing your weekly 100% water change so the level never builds too high.
> 
> Are you saying your tap water has ammonia - that if you poured yourself a glass of water from your sink right now and tested it, there would be ammonia? Or your 10 gallon tank has ammonia? If it's in your tap you use prime and it should be removed by your filter (use carbon). If it's in your tank you need to increase your water changes. How long has this tank been set up? What fish are in it?


tanks been set up about 2 weeks now. it came as a kit from walmart ....aqua tech 5-15 model filter and i use tap water yes, and i started using prime a few days ago.....and i only have a vt male betta in it now....i had neon tetras but 2 days after i got the i found 2 dead so i brought the rest back to the store....i'll use prime today too but do i need to do another water change even tho the ammonia in my tap water is high? i cant go get bottled water at this time....and do i need to use my top fin betta water conditioner (that obviously didnt help the first time using it) along with the prime when i do a water change?


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