just a quick question. How long after a partial water change and clean can I do the water test(s) to give me an accurate result??. (eg, nirite, nirate, ammonia, etc)

thanks.

I think it's suggested to wait for an hour after wc before testing.
At least that's what I do.

thanks for that..

an hour will be plenty, but the best to do is test before a water change, that way you will knnow if you are doing water change enough or feeding too much

Strangely enough, this is something I was looking into a while back and whilst browsing another Forum, I think it may have been the Tetra website forum, somebody suggested that when carrying out water changes, you trust that you have removed/reduced toxin/elements and you wait quite a few hours before retesting just to make sure that everything has settled down and you don't get any false readings.

ohh okay.. thanks. was just curious

Most of us who have been keeping fish for a while can make a pretty good guess at what our nitrates will be at the end of a given period and how much water we need to change. So whereas I always test the nitrate before a water change, I don't test it after, there is no need to do it because I know I have reduced it enough.

Noddy wrote:

that is for confirmatory test.... but if you are doing it regularly, you should
test your water after sometime when you are in doubt whether it is already toxic
or need water change.....

I would wait to next day. I pretty much know how high it will be before and after without a test now. one thing that was surprising is after looosing my oscar and adding the arow its better now than ever. arow makes far less mess and consumes al the food without all the bits left floating about. )

marcus wrote:


i with marcus on this one, i test again the following day just to be sure my numbers are where they should be.

I wait a full day too just to be sure if I haven't tested before the change. Like Delboy said, I kinda know what it's gonna be so I don't test as much as I used to.