I have never tested my water before. Ill admit that. I know I need to, so I went down to my LFS confused to hell, wondering what to do. I picked up an ammonia testing kit. Did it, took a sample, 8 drops from one test bottle, 8 from the other, shake for 5 seconds, leave for 5 mins and return. As the instructions said. I have 0 Ammonia.

Can someone tell me the benefits of this? An what else i need to test? Also will 0 ammonia impact on anything in the tank?

ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0
nitrate = 20 or lower
pH=7
temp =80

perfect water condition

Oooh, so is 0 ammonia a good start?

the four main things you should test for are ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and ph.

the ammonia and nitrite test will tell you if you are having problems with you biological filter. the nitrate test is used to dermine when it is time to do a water change. in an established filter you will have a reading of zero ammonia and zero nitrites. there will alway be a nitrate reading and when said reading hits 40 its time to do a water change.
when your fish start acting stranger than usual the first thing you should check is your water to eliminate that as your problem. that is why it is usually the first question asked when there is a health problem.

but ammonia=0 for a new tank mean your tank is not yet cycle too...
not good also for an oscar or any fish in particular. you need to have
beneficial bacteria to convert the ammonia and nitrite in fish waste
into nitrate,,, that can be maintain by water change.

PAUL wrote:


actually anything between 72-80 farenheit is acceptable for oscars

you are on the right track. I wonder how the rest will fair, the nitrates?. If you do things right keeping control of ammonia,nitrites are easy, (these become a problem when things go wrong with your filter or 1st setting up) its the nitrates that creep up as most people are over stocked.