When you first set up a freshwater tank, you need to continually test the water for ammonia, nitrates, nitrates and PH level. When you fill your tank for the first time you need to allow your tank to go through a cycling process called the nitrogen cycle. During this process your tank will breakdown all the harmful bacteria in the tank. Testing your tank regularly during this process is imperative to the overall health of your fish.

When you start looking into all the equipment you will need to have in order to maintain your tank you should consider a test kit which is a main component of tank equipment. When purchasing test kits you should have a kit for ammonia, PH, nitrites, nitrates, and water hardness. After you test for each element, you should then record it in a journal; this way you can see how your tank is doing over time and which elements you need to work on to better keep your tank.

Ammonia is the most harmful chemical to fish. If your ammonia levels are too high at any given time, your fish will most likely die. When you are testing for ammonia, you don’t want any readings to be over 0 parts per million (ppm). You need to realize that in the beginning you will have some ammonia levels present until your tank has been stabilized. Once your tank has been stabilized, the ammonia will be broken down quickly leaving the good bacteria in your tank. If you have a hard time keeping the ammonia levels down, then there are different products that you can buy to help with the breakdown of ammonia.

PH tests the acidity of your water. It is one of the most important chemicals in the water. You need to have a PH level of 7 in order to have a well maintained tank. If your tank has a PH level between 6.6 and 7.8 your fish will be thriving, and you will have very healthy fish. If you have trouble with your PH levels being too high or too low you can buy products from your local pet store that will help you in maintaining the right level of PH.

You will have nitrites in your tank when the ammonia starts to break down and level off. This toxin is less harmful, but is still extremely fatal to tropical fish. You want your nitrite level to be 0 ppm. There is only one way to remove nitrites from your tank and this is with weekly water changes. You should change 25-35 percent of your water until the nitrite levels are down to a safe level.

Nitrates are a result of the breakdown of nitrites. Nitrates are not really harmful to fish, but if they are extremely high then your fish can become stressed. The nitrates in your tank will make the water cloudy. The best level of nitrates is between 20-40 ppm. The only way to decrease the level of nitrates is with regular water changes that include changing about 30 percent of the water.