So, assume I know absolutely zero about chemicals and tank water. It's not quite true, but let's assume it for the purpose of this exercise. I have a tank with water in it, right? What kind of kit do I buy from an aquarium shop to test? What parameters do I test? Is there a complete test kit or do I have to buy a bunch of seperate tests?

I know very little about tank water testing, hardness/softness, pH, ammonia, nitrates/trites etc etc.. Please can you help me? Or at least point me to a good URL to read about it so I can start testing my tank?

Thanks

PS you must get this all the time - sorry!

There are a few types of kit. liquid are by far the best and give near true results most of the time. paper type are not so good as the results can be a little wrong.

you can buy a kit for each test and the tests you need to check are
Ammonia.
Nitrites.
Nitrates.
PH.
Its cheaper and easy to get a full kit as you do need to test for each at different times. ammonia,nitrites can damage your fish breathing beyond repair, and its most important to check for these when 1st setting up to know when it is safe to put your fish into the new tank. you will also need to check for these after servicing your filter and if your fish look sick. any presence of these are harmful.
Nitrates will always be present in your tank and will build up over a wk or quicker if your tanks overstocked. fish can cope with some nitrates in the water but not excessive amounts. so you will need to check wkly for these and do a water change when they reach 40PPM.
the ph will depend on where you live in the world and fish can cope with a wide range of different PH. some fish are fussy then others so you will need to know the ph before you choose your fish. because you are on a oscar site I will take it you are looking at oscars?? but other fish dont cope so well with a wide range of ph as oscars.

There are a few things you need to do before you put fish into a new tank. is your tank up and running? how long? is it cycled.? a lot of people make the mistake of not cycling the tank before adding fish, this will lead to problems almost right away.your tank water must also have chlorine removed for the tap water. this is sometimes missed too.

there is a little more info on test kits under "write a review" (post master test kit). but aquarium pharmaceuticals are recomended.

Thanks so much for your help marcus! Sorry for the annoying newbie question and thanks for taking the time.

I have a tiger oscar who is still quite young. I will be going this Friday to look at getting a bigger tank. At the moment he is in a small tank - but after reading this site I know I need to get him out of there ASAP.

When I set up my tank (I'm looking at a 250 litre capacity with external canister filter) what do I do for cycling? How do I make sure I have enough good bacteria growing in my filter? Is that what cycling does?

No trouble at all. Try this link and I am sure some of the others will chip in.)
www.oscarfishlover.com/content/view/26/148/

marcus got you covered.....

i can only add try to go at the home page, click
the left most icon "Home". you can scroll a lot of
very informative topics over there....

people here do not get piss-off easily.... our main
objective is to help people enjoy fish keeping...
the only way to attain that is to share, impart, and
practice healthy and the right way of fish keeping..

and in that aspect...some guest get annoyed on us for
insisting the proper way of fish keeping.......

Thanks for your help guys. I am part of a reptile forum and people on there get very angry when new hobbyists ask the same basic questions over and over. Glad it's not like that here! I'll be asking a lot of 'stupid' questions I can assure you!

EDIT: I read that link - very helpful thank you. So I essentially set my tank up, and for the fishy method, put in 10 or 20 neon tetras or something? Keep checking the water levels of ammonia and nitrite, changing water as necessary. When these levels are at 0 and nitrate is present, my filter medium in the canister is harboring beneficial bacteria and my tank is cycled and ready for my oscar - is that about right?

How do I go about cleaning the filter from debris etc if my beneficial bacteria are living in it - won't that kill them and make a need for me to cycle the tank again?

when cleaning your fitler jsut rinse your bio media in a bucket of existing tank water. the rest can be cleaned in the sink with running water. what you have to be careful of is the chlorine in tap water. this is what will kill off your beneficial bacteria. hence the reason to only rinse your bio in tank water.

If you are going to us a 250l I would us a few gold fish, cheap, produce good wast and are hardy so will live through most things. they can be left in to become food when you up grade to oscars. don't worry about any questions, someone on this site will help. we are here to help anyone that wants to care for there fish in the right manor.

PhilK wrote:


the only stupid question is the one that is not asked(my math profs favorite saying)



that pretty well sums it up. but remember to be patient it can take quite a while to ccle a tank.

PhilK wrote:
[quote]Thanks for your help guys. I am part of a reptile forum and people on there get very angry when new hobbyists ask the same basic questions over and over. Glad it's not like that here!


And see thats why I like it here. There are going to be new people all the time coming here or passing by. Nobody flames each other. Nobody finger points and condemns. Its all do you need help. This is how we can help you. ITs a good site. Alot smoother and easier and friendlier than some other sites of the same nature.

glad we can be regarded this way........ thank you