Water

Mbagnall · Jun 13, 2020

Hi. I’m quite new to this. I got my tank about 7 months ago. I know that it’s very important to keep the water levels stable and with certain parameters but I was wondering what sort of levels I should be looking for.
thanks.

Reeffraff · Jun 13, 2020

A generally accepted range for the most common parameters are as follows:

Nitrates: 5-20 ppm
Phosphates: .04-.3 ppm
Calcium: 375-450 ppm
Alkalinity: 7-11dkh
Magnesium: 1250-1350 ppm
Salinity: 1.025-1.027 sg
Iodine: 0.04-0.06 ppm
pH: 8.1-8.3

You can certainly be successful with parameters outside of these ranges and in many cases long term stability of parameters can be more important than the actual numbers. But as a general rule if you're within these ranges you should be fine.

Mbagnall · Jun 13, 2020

Reeffraff said:
A generally accepted range for the most common parameters are as follows:

Nitrates: 5-20 ppm
Phosphates: .04-.3 ppm
Calcium: 375-450 ppm
Alkalinity: 7-11dkh
Magnesium: 1250-1350 ppm
Salinity: 1.025-1.027 sg
Iodine: 0.04-0.06 ppm
pH: 8.1-8.3

You can certainly be successful with parameters outside of these ranges and in many cases long term stability of parameters can be more important than the actual numbers. But as a general rule if you're within these ranges you should be fine.

Thanks for that. It seems that the nitrate is below 5 ppm. How do you recommend bringing the levels up?

Reeffraff · Jun 13, 2020

What kinds of animals are you currently keeping? As long as you are registering some color on your test kit I wouldn't worry too much. My tank actually runs around 1 ppm nitrate and everything is great. The easiest way to raise nitrate is slowly increase feedings (either in frequency, quantity or both). There are also options such as sodium nitrate, but simply feeding more has more benefits IME.