I thought I would talk a little about the importance of owning some water test kits . I am not going to go into great detail regarding all the different toxins because that is beyond the scope of this article.

To maintain a healthy aquarium you need to know what the quality of your water is. If you neglect to test the water occasionally, you are not going to know whether or not dangerous toxins are present in your tank water. If dangerous toxins are present and you don't know about them, it could seriously compromise your fishes health. Poor water quality is probably the number one factor that causes ill health and death in fish.

There are various tests that should be carried out on a regular basis. These are the ones that I am going to talk about. I will however mention two water tests that you may see. They are GH, and KH. GH (General hardness) is a measure of calcium and magnesium ions that is dissolved in water. You measure General hardness with the GH test kit. KH, also known as carbonate hardness refers to the concentration of bicarbonate and carbonate that is dissolved in water. You measure carbonate hardness with the KH test kit.

Okay, now we will talk about the four test kits that you should always have at the ready. They ammonia, nitrite, nitrates and pH. Now we will talk briefly at how each one

Ammonia is introduced into the water from fish waste, through the fishes gills and contained in its urine. Ammonia is also produced when uneaten food and organic matter breaks down. High levels of ammonia are lethal and can lead to fatalities. Even trace elements can stress fish out. Exposing fish to ammonia can damage a fishes immune system which increases the chances of disease. It can also damage their protective slime quoting and cause serious problems with their gills. Problems can occur in an established aquarium if you don't take care. If you introduce too many fish, feed too much food, you could find that ammonia is present. If proper care is taken, you should not have a problem with ammonia Ammonia levels should always be zero.

Nitrite is a byproduct of ammonia and is slightly less toxic. However, it is still toxic and can be very harmful to fish. Just like ammonia, if you introduce too many fish or over feed, you could start getting nitrite readings. Once again, level should not exceed zero

Nitrate is the byproduct of ammonia and nitrite and is nowhere near as toxic as ammonia or nitrite. Very high levels of nitrate can stress fish and make them more susceptible to disease. It should also be kept very low if you are breeding. Nitrate can only be removed/lowered by doing water changes rather than being removed by nitrifying bacteria. Nitrate levels should be kept at 40 ppm or below. If you keep your fish in a suitable environment, it is extremely easy to keep the nitrate levels below 20 ppm by doing regular water changes. If you keep your Oscar in a tank that is too small, you may find that nitrate levels rise very quickly.

Some people prefer to take their water to the local aquatic centre for testing. Many shops will do it for free, or maybe charge you a very small fee. Whereas there is nothing wrong with doing it this way, I prefer to do the testing myself. This means that you can test the water at any time. If you have a problem during the holiday period when the shops are not open, you could put your fishes health at risk whilst waiting for the aquatic centre to open up again. Testing water really is extremely easy, you don't have to be a scientist to do it. It's just a case of adding a few drops of a special chemical to a small amount of tank water and then waiting a few minutes for the results.

I receive e-mails from people every day seeking advice on Oscars. It seems that many people are confused by water testing and how to do it. I thought I would do a sticky on the forum to try and explain in four easy stages that testing the water is extremely easy, you certainly don't need to be a chemist to be able to carry it out.

There are many test kits on the market, I'm not going to list all of them. I use a company called Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. They make some excellent products for the aquatic world. I purchased the complete water testing kit. This included ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. What I'm going to do is tell you how you test the water. I'm going to use ammonia as an example, I won't go through all the tests, once you know how to do ammonia, you will know how to do the rest of them.

An ammonia testing kit will comprise the solution that you add to the tank water (this could be two, or three bottles depending on the company use), a glass or plastic vile that you mix everything in, a colour card and instructions.

So here we go

1. Take your vile and swill it out in existing tank water, including the lid.

2. Put the correct amount of tank water in the vile. There is normally a line that indicates how much water to put in the vile.

With Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, the ammonia testing consists of two bottles. They are both indicated as #1 & #2, do not get it back to front.

3. Take bottle one and give it a quick shake and then add eight drops to your vile. Put the lid on and give it a quick shake. Do not plug the end of the vile with your thumb. Remember that we excrete ammonia through our skin, this could mess the test up completely.

4. Now take bottle two, quick shake and add another eight drops and then shake the vile. Now all you do is wait for five minutes and then compare the colour of the water to a colour card that you get with the kit. Zero ammonia will normally be bright yellow. The more ammonia that is present, the greener it gets.

I better just mention the nitrate testing. Sometimes you are required to shake the second bottle for at least 30 seconds and then shake the file for one minute after you have put all the solution in. Always read the instructions carefully. If you don't do the test properly, you may well get a false reading.

It's a straightforward as that. There is no need to be frightened when it comes to testing tank water.