When you have a fish aquarium, you are taking care of the water more than you are taking care of the fish.
Experienced fishkeepers will refer to themselves as water keepers rather than fish keepers.
If you have clean water, then you will have healthy happy fish. The most important thing to having clean water is to test it often.
Tetra Easy Strips 6-in-1 and Tetra Easy Strips ammonia strips are accurate, quick, and easy to use. It is better to use Tetra easy strips rather than a liquid water test because the ease of use will make it more likely that you check your water regularly and not put it off. Tetra easy strips also come with a chart that is easy to read.
Since testing your aquarium water is the most important thing you can do, let’s dive in and learn how to use Tetra easy strips.
Tetra EasyStrips 6-in-1 Aquarium Test Strips
It is important to test your aquarium water regularly, at least once per month, or every time you do a water change, but it doesn’t hurt to test it even more.
Tetra 6-in-1 easy strips make it very easy and convenient and they were designed by scientists in labs.
They are called 6-in-1 because they test 6 water parameters on one strip!
They test:
- General Water Hardness (GH)
- Nitrites
- Nitrates
- Alkalinity (KH)
- pH Levels
- Chlorine
Let’s make sure you’re familiar with these because this is the most important part of having an aquarium.
General Water Hardness (GH)
GH measures the amount of calcium and magnesium in your water. If you have a lot then your water is hard, if you have a little then your water is soft.
In general, for freshwater fish, you want your GH to be between 70-140 PPM, but different fish have different needs, so you will have to learn the water parameters of the fish that you have.
Fish that are lethargic, have a poor appetite, grow slowly, or have faded colors are signs of low GH.
Nitrites
Nitrites are the really bad toxic stuff in your aquarium. They are bad bacteria, especially when you first start an aquarium because they are in such high amounts.
Nitrites are formed from ammonia by nitrifying bacteria.
Nitrates
Nitrates come after nitrites. Nitrates are another form of bacteria but they are not bad for your fish unless there are too many.
Alkalinity (KH)
Alkalinity is the water’s ability to resist acidic changes in pH or you could say the water’s ability to neutralize the acid.
pH Levels
Measuring pH tells you if your water is acidic or basic(alkaline). It is measured on a scale of 0-14 with 0-7 considered acidic and 7-14 considered alkaline.
Chlorine
Chlorine is lethal to most fish at levels of 0.1-0.3 ppm so it is best to keep it below 0.1 ppm. You do this by using an aquarium water conditioner with any water you put in an aquarium.
Tetra Ammonia Easy strips
In addition to your Tetra 6-in-1 easy strips, you should also buy some Tetra Ammonia EasyStrips, especially when you first set up an aquarium.
This can be confusing because the 6-in-1 strips don’t specifically test for ammonia so it is good to buy both. Plus they aren’t too expensive.
When you first set up an aquarium, you are trying to build ‘beneficial bacteria’ before you put fish in your tank.
Before the beneficial bacteria are strong enough, your ammonia levels are going to be very high. This is good, you want this, but after a couple of weeks or more, you want your ammonia levels to go down.
When your ammonia levels go down, it is a sign that beneficial bacteria are present and you can add your fish.
The easiest way to test the ammonia levels is with Tetra Ammonia EasyStrips.
How To Use Tetra EasyStrips:
- Dip the ammonia strip into your aquarium for 10 seconds. You can move it around a tiny bit during the 10 seconds then pull it out and lay it on a flat surface.
- Let the test strip sit for about 10 seconds.
- Hold the chart next to the strip.
- The color of the strip will tell you the ammonia level compared to the chart.
- The chart is attached to the bottle that the ammonia strips come in.
How Do You Read Tetra Ammonia Easy Strips?
How To Use Tetra 6-in-1 EasyStrips?
- Dip the strip in your aquarium water for 1 second
- Lay it on a flat surface
- Wait 60 seconds
- Hold the chart next to the strip.
- The color of the strip will tell you the ammonia level compared to the chart.
- The chart is attached to the bottle that the ammonia strips come in.
How Do You Read Tetra 6-in-1 EasyStrips?
It is very easy to read Tetra EasyStrips 6-in-1.
Watch the video above and it will show you everything you need to know.
It’s as simple as that!
When you hold the strip next to the chart, it shows you by color what the level is of each of the 6 different parameters that are measured.
Conclusion
You don’t have to spend a lot of money on fancy test kits, just buy some test strips.
However, if you have vision problems with colors there are different types of water testers for your aquarium.
You can even buy a probe that gives you digital readings.
