Dirty test tubes...tons of questions

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shawmutt

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Dec 21, 2002
Messages
2,648
Location
Greencastle, PA
Well, it's that time of the week again. My weekly testing routine! My test results, especially nitrate, have been really weird. Last week my nitrates were way up there, now they're barely readable. My pH (which is hard to read anyway) has been wierd too but my fish and plants are fine. (Weird meaning totally different results from one week to the next for no known reason.)

Should I test the water before or after a 20% water change?

Additionally, I flunked chemistry in high school. Is mixing up all those chemicals going to make something explode...or worse, ruin my clothes if I spill them or use a different test tube for a different test each week? Or even more importantly, is residue from a different test going to affect the readings of the next?

I know I can easily boil the test tubes, but what about the caps? Does anyone sell the test tubes without the kits?

And finally, does anyone use the electonic meter for pH? Good results? Bad? Ugly? Seeing how I need a low pH in my tank (6.4-6.6), and I use CO2 injection, do you think it's a good idea to get an inexpensive meter? Or are the inexpensive meters no good?

Phew...ok, I think that's enough questions :D Thanks in advance for reading all this and for your help!
 
I have 3 tubes of which I use for each test ammonia, nitrite, nitrate. They are rinsed thoroughly after each use and air dried.

When I do a 20%w/c I test the pH of the tank and also the pH of the water I use to do the change. After about 1 hour after I have change the water I check the pH in the tank to make sure it is normal.

I use a pH meter because I get better, more accurate results. Plus it's easier than the test tube test. I am lucky to be able to use one of these and when the time comes that I have to return this "borrowed" one I will fork out the money.

I guess you could buy test tubes seperately somewhere....check out a google search. They might be something you can get at a hardware shop :oops: I don't know.

My best answer to your residue question is that the tube should be rinsed well before the next test. One never knows how much the residue will effect your next test result.

Louise
 
I think as long as you wash out the test tube in water after you use it, you should be fine. I have the aquarium pharm. master test kit that has 5 different tests and 4 test tubes. It makes it easy to test the water as I can test for four different things at once and don't have to keep cleaning out just ONE test tube. I think I picked it up from Bigalsonline.com for around $14 or so.

Secondly, I think it is best to test the water right before a water change. That way you will now what the pH level was before you did the change. My tap water is neutral (7.0) but when I test my water in my tank, nitrification has brought down the pH level to around 6.7. I don't do anything to the tap water, other than dechlorinate, since I don't think a pH difference of .3 will harm the fish. However, if the difference was 1-1.5 or so, then I might start thinking about treating my tap water to adjut the pH in order to correct the problem.
 
In addition to the above, which I agree with, your LFS should be able to order the extra test tubes. I get mine from a pharmaceutical supply house in town. I like the rubber caps better as they don't leak. If you're using Aquarium Pharm kits, you can use a syringe to measure the 5 ml if you get tubes that aren't marked.
(1 ml = 1 cc)
 
I KNOW my test tubes are lying to me. My pH test kit from AP is telling me i have pH over 8, (which is what our water is) but when I use a clean test strip, it says my water is under 7.0, (which it should be, it's bottled water). No matter what I do, my test tubes are still polluted by my tap water. Haven't tried boiling the tubes in distilled water but that's about my only option.

Ryan
 
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