Chemical Levels??

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Chodo

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I recently bought a 5 in 1 chemical tester kit for my axlotls and was wondering what a healthy level of Gh, Kh, Nitrate and Nitrite would be? Any help is much appreciated :p
 
Chodo,

If by 5 in 1 you mean that you have the test/dip strips, I strongly recommend that immediately change to the liquid test kits (i.e. the ones contained in bottles). Reason being test/dip strips are the least accurate for testing water quality and they don't always test for ammonia.

Aside from that, the recommended levels are as follows:

Ammonia- 0ppm
Nitirte- 0ppm
Nitrate- 0-40ppm
GH- 125/3-196.9ppm
As for KH, well I wouldn't be too concerned about that.

Jay.
 
Here is an article that explains a bit about PH:
http://www.drhelm.com/aquarium/chemistry.html

The most important thing is keeping the PH stable though, so if it is a bit towards the higher or lower scale just leave it alone rather than use chemicals to adjust it. Axolotls can cope fine in PH levels of 6.5-8.

Summary of article:

Ways to lower PH
· Filtering water over peat
· Add bogwood to the tank
· Inject carbon dioxide CO2
· Use a commercial acid buffer
· Water changes with softened water or RO (Reverse Osmosis) water
​
Ways to raise PH
· Aerate the water, driving off the carbon dioxide (CO2)
· Filter over coral or limestone
· Add rocks containing limestone to the tank or use a coral sand substrate
· Use a commercial alkaline buffer

​
 
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