water parameters - your opinion

[bigmac1878]

sunday is usually water change day in my house. i check the parameters before to see what volume i need to change.
today the results where
ph - 7.4
nh3 - 0 ppm
no2 - 0 ppm
no3 - 20 ppm
gh - 9 (161 ppm)
kh - 4 (71 ppm)
temp 89 f
the 1st four results are what they normally are, the gh/kh i've only just started testing so i don't know if they are normal results, and the temp is higher than i'd like but i can't get it any lower. i've left the lights of with detrimental effects to the plants but they aren't really my prime concern. i mainly have them in there to make the tank pretty.

i'm going to do a 30% pwc to bring the no3 down a little.

i have a 18g tank with 1x male betta, 2x male guppies, 5x white clouds and 2x borneo suckers.

apart from the temp, is there anything i should take into consideration with regards to these results?

thanks.

 

[joannde]

is 89 your room temp ? have you tried blowing a fan over the water, that might get the temp down also.
From what I can see you're doing well. You can up it to a 50% water change if you want.

 

[bigmac1878]

unfortunatley 89f is the room temp. i haven't had the heater switched on for a few weeks now.
i finished the pwc about an hour ago and the temp lowered to 84f. that was using water that had been bottled and left indoors. water straight from the tap lowers the temp to about 75f which i think is too big a drop in temp in the space of about 15 mins. i did do around 50%. i'll re-test in about an hour and put the results on, just for a before/after comparison.

 

[Jchillin]

I agree, the only issue I see is the temp.

 

[src]

I've heard that with a planted tank, you don't want to use the nitrates as a water change indicator (unless it gets out of hand). The plants are using the nitrates, keeping them low, while all the other disolved solids continue to accumulate. In an unplanted tank, nitrate is a good bellweather for total dissoved solids, but with the plants taking up nitrate, then you lose the ability to use it as an indicator.

Just get on a schedule of regular 30-50% PWC every week - whatever keeps your water clear and fish happy.

 

[bigmac1878]

[quote="src"Just get on a schedule of regular 30-50% PWC every week [/quote]

i do a 30%-50% water change on a weekly basis

 

[Zagz]

I do 50% every week on all my tanks. Be careful when doing water changes, a 5 degree water temp change after a water change can stress the fish. You can put ice in a bag and float it which will lower the temps more slowly. I had read someone on here kept one bag in the freezer, floated the other bag and kept rotating the bags to keep the temps down. Can't remember who it was though.

 

[JustOneMore20]

I'm surprised you haven't had any fish deaths. That temp is super high. I'd try the ice thing and see if you can't get that down. And also use a fan. It works, but really slowly. I don't have a problem with room temp these days, but with water temp. During the day the coldest my water gets out of the tap is about 80F. My fish are around 75-76F, so I have to be careful not to stress them.

Try the fan and ice and see if you can't get the temp down a little. 80F would be much better than 89F, especially for the white clouds who are a cooler water fish.