Rate my water

[meadeam]

This tank is happy and healthy as far as I know.  I don't have any reason to believe anything is terribly wrong, but the hardness, buffer, and pH numbers kind of surprised me.  pH especially; the API kit shows something much closer to neutral (>=6.8) in the tank, and the same out of the tap.  Do you see anything concerning here? 

It is hard to see in the photos, but the tank is showing ~10ppm NO3.  The water is around a week old It has been 1 week since the most recent water change.  Also hard to see is there is 0 chlorine in the tank, and .8ppm out of the tap.  Ammonia is 0 out of the tap and in the tank.

Current Inhabitants of this tank are cories, tetra, rasbora, mysteries, and red cherry shrimp.  I'd say it is fairly heavily planted, but most of the plants are not very big yet.  The numbers in the tank and out of the tap are virtually the same, aside from the lack of chlorine in the tank and the expected presence of NO3.

Are there any fish I should avoid with this water, or changes I would have to make to keep a particular fish (angels, dwarf cichlids for example) healthy?

Edited November 25, 2021 by meadeam

[Brandon p]

Angelfish will be fine, I have German blue rams and. Aspistogrammas at Similar water conditions

I have several tanks of angelfish and the 

    Ph         No2    Am   N03   GH       kh      Cl

1. 6.2,6.6   0      0,.25  0,.25 300+   20,40   0

2 6.8         0      0,25   .1,.5   300+   O          0

3 7,7.8      0       N/A     0.25  300+   20-80  0

4 6,6.8.     0.      .5.       0-.50 300+  40.       0

tanks 3&4 are breeding regularly

aspisto

   6.8,7.2   1       0          .25      300+    40,60  0

Rams

   7,7.6        0                 0,25     300+   40-80  0

I would like the rams ph to be lower

I have keep all of them before.and for most the do best 6.6-7.2 but as you can see the are good in a range of water conditions.  

[meadeam]

Anybody know why there is a pH difference between the API test kit and Coop test strips?  The strips are consistently reading ~6.4 at my tap, while the API kit reads at least 7.0 at my tap.  I've used the API kit exclusively until recently, but have been switching to the strips.  I don't need them to agree 100%, but I'd like to be aware of when and why they differ

 

 

Edited November 25, 2021 by meadeam

[Patrick_G]

I have had similar discrepancies in readings. You could try and calibrate both using a known ph solution that you can buy on Amazon. 

[Brandon p]

I use both when I do mine with both just because off this reason. Normally when I redo the same tank api shows a difference and coop is the same. I think sometimes the api up get different size drops or accidentally get half a drop or an extra drop. It only happens with me with the ph. 

[Brandon p]

This is a tank a started a page. I was in a hurry for the first and only used the coop strips. On the second line I used both Api is fist and coop( api/coop). It not the best example since it’s so short. 
I have a second page from a second tank but I only started used both about 1/2 way down. It is also very messy hand writing.

[Patrick_G]

On 11/25/2021 at 2:16 PM, Brandon p said:

I use both when I do mine with both just because off this reason. Normally when I redo the same tank api shows a difference and coop is the same. I think sometimes the api up get different size drops or accidentally get half a drop or an extra drop. It only happens with me with the ph. 

Good points! There are more variables that can go wrong with the API kit. 

[Brandon p]

On 11/25/2021 at 5:01 PM, Patrick_G said:

I have had similar discrepancies in readings. You could try and calibrate both using a known ph solution that you can buy on Amazon. 

I have taken it to my LFS and the api is closer to what they used( it’s a huge kit like a suit case) I got the coop to Measure the GH, kh, and cl. But if there is a big difference in ph I’ll redo the api and if that’s the same I’ll redo the coop. The inconsistency is why I keep notes on the tanks which is very time consuming. 

Edited November 25, 2021 by Brandon p